Parliamentary diplomacy took centre stage at Samvidhan Sadan, New Delhi, on Tuesday, 27 October 2026, as legislators from BRICS member and partner nations gathered for the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum 2026 — and BJP MP Anurag Thakur was among those at the table.

Thakur attended a lunch hosted by Vice-President of India and Rajya Sabha Chairman C. P. Radhakrishnan on the sidelines of the forum. The event is being held under the theme 'Fostering Parliaments for People-Centric Development' — a framing that places legislative institutions, not just executive summits, at the heart of the BRICS agenda.

Why a parliamentary forum matters inside BRICS

BRICS, the intergovernmental grouping of major emerging economies, has long been associated with leader-level summits and finance-minister communiqués. The parliamentary forum works a different lever: it brings elected representatives together to compare legislative approaches, debate shared developmental priorities, and build institutional trust below the executive layer. That is a slower, quieter form of diplomacy — but often a more durable one.

India has consistently used such formats to reinforce its multilateral credentials, treating parliamentary engagement as a complement to — not a substitute for — the summitry conducted by the Prime Minister and External Affairs Ministry. The presence of a senior Lok Sabha MP like Thakur, a former Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, signals the weight New Delhi attaches to these exchanges.

What Samvidhan Sadan brings to the symbolism

Samvidhan Sadan — India's historic parliamentary complex — provides a deliberate backdrop. Hosting a multilateral parliamentary forum inside the seat of Indian democracy sends an implicit message: that India's constitutional institutions are open to and capable of anchoring global conversations. It is a soft-power choice as much as a logistical one.

Thakur described the forum as 'an important platform for parliamentarians from BRICS member and partner countries to exchange perspectives, strengthen institutional cooperation and deliberate on shared developmental priorities,' adding that such engagements 'reaffirm the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in fostering mutual understanding' and 'advancing inclusive, sustainable and people-centric development.'

The joint statement and what follows

The immediate question after any BRICS parliamentary meeting is whether the deliberations produce a joint statement — and whether any follow-up mechanism gets institutionalised. India's broader BRICS calendar and its evolving relationship with the grouping's expanded membership will determine how much weight the forum's outcomes carry in the months ahead.

For now, the 12th forum puts parliamentary diplomacy back on the map — and India, as host, is writing the itinerary.