Parliamentary leaders from across the expanding BRICS world converged at Samvidhan Sadan, New Delhi, on Monday, October 26, 2026 — and Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi was in the room, representing India at the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum.

What brought the world's legislatures to Samvidhan Sadan

The BRICS Parliamentary Forum is the legislative arm of the broader BRICS architecture — a platform where elected representatives, not just heads of government, sit across the table on shared priorities. This year's edition brought together parliamentary figures from BRICS member and partner countries to deliberate on people-centric development, parliamentary cooperation, and shared global challenges. Joshi described the gathering as a forum built around those three pillars.

Samvidhan Sadan — India's storied seat of constitutional heritage — served as the backdrop, lending the meeting a symbolic weight that a convention hall simply wouldn't.

BRICS at its widest: a bigger table, a louder Global South

The forum convened under a significantly enlarged BRICS umbrella. Since 2024, the grouping has grown beyond its original five — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE as full members, alongside a new partner-country category. That expansion means the parliamentary forum now draws legislative voices from a far wider cross-section of the Global South than it did even two years ago.

India's engagement with BRICS has consistently emphasised multilateral reform and emerging-economy priorities — a thread visible since India hosted the BRICS Summit in 2021. The parliamentary channel runs in parallel with annual leader summits, focusing specifically on legislative exchanges and norm-setting from the ground up.

India's 2026 BRICS chairmanship: the bigger frame

India holds the BRICS chairmanship in 2026, making this parliamentary forum one of several high-visibility events on a packed multilateral calendar. The forum format, running since the mid-2010s, has grown in stature alongside BRICS itself — and with membership now spanning four continents, declarations and frameworks emerging from these sessions carry wider diplomatic resonance than before.

Joshi's presence signals India's intent to engage BRICS at every institutional layer, not just at the summit level. The legislative dimension — often the quieter cousin of headline-grabbing leader meetings — is where longer-term cooperation frameworks are quietly built.

The question now is what parliamentary declaration or joint communiqué, if any, emerges from the 12th edition — and how it shapes India's priorities heading into the main BRICS summit under the #BRICS2026 presidency.