INDIA bloc parties on Saturday resolved to raise during the Parliament’s Monsoon session the issues of Pahalgam attack terrorists not being brought to justice, US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims of brokering a ‘ceasefire’ during India-Pakistan hostilities and the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar that the opposition alleges “threatens people’s voting rights”.
Ahead of the Monsoon session beginning on July 21, the leaders of 24 opposition parties of the bloc held an online meeting where they decided to raise eight major issues like foreign policy “failure” and “atrocities” in Gaza, delimitation exercise and “targeting” of SCs/STs, women and minorities in the country.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the Congress’ deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, said the opposition parties would expect the prime minister to be present in Parliament and respond to the issues raised on the floor of the House, asserting that “Parliament is more important than travelling abroad”.
After the meeting, Congress general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said the opposition would raise the urgent need to restore full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir. It was also decided that an in-person meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders will be held in August, he said.
The opposition grouping has not met for a long time. Notably, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is a founding member of the bloc, decided to opt out of the Saturday online meeting after it announced that it is no longer a part of the bloc.
Incidentally, several senior leaders of the group, including chief ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin — were not present in the meeting.
Leaders who participated included Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, NCP (SP)’s Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray (SS-UBT), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) M A Baby of CPI-M, D Raja (CPI), CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, among others.
The leaders expressed serious concern over the government’s “inaction” in bringing to justice the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack and its “silence” on repeated claims made by US President Donald Trump in bringing about a ‘ceasefire’ on the hostilities between India and Pakistan, according to Tiwari.
“We discussed the strategy on how we should raise the atrocities and failures of this government that is affecting the people. I am happy to inform that leaders of all 24 parties participated in the meeting,” he said.
“Eight major issues have been taken up prominently by us. Besides these, several regional and people’s issues will also be taken up by the opposition,” Tiwari also said.
On the Pahalgam attack, he said, it is the biggest issue that concerns 140 crore people and is linked to the honour of all.
“All leaders have expressed concern that all the terrorists behind the attack are free and no action has been taken against them despite so many days having passed since April 22. Now, a confession has also come that it was an intelligence failure. So this will be raised,” the Congress leader said.
Tiwari said the parties would raise Operation Sindoor and the issue of ceasefire, and US President Trump’s claims made 24 times that he brought about the ceasefire between India and Pakistan by using the trade threat.
The leaders also expressed concern over the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar that “threatens the voting rights of people” in the state, he said.
Last December, opposition MPs submitted an impeachment notice in the Rajya Sabha against Justice Shekhar Yadav for allegedly delivering a hate speech at a gathering last year. Some opposition parties are demanding that this matter also be taken up.
The issue of Rahul Gandhi bracketing the Left with the RSS at an event in Kerala on Friday was also raised during the meeting, sources said.
CPI leader D Raja, without mentioning Gandhi, is learnt to have raised the issue and said such statements against the left send wrong signals to its cadres across the country and should be avoided.
The Congress has resolved to take up issues like the demand for the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, besides raising farmers’ problems, unemployment and rising prices. PTI
