INDIA bloc collects signs for letter to PM seeking special Parliament session; AAP st
INDIA bloc collects signs for letter to PM seeking special Parliament session; AAP stays away
M.U.H
03/06/202537
At a time when questions are being raised about the future of the INDIA bloc, the Opposition alliance’s constituents got together on Tuesday to demand a special session of Parliament to discuss the modalities of the conflict with Pakistan, and said “the government is responsible to the Parliament, while Parliament is responsible to the people”. This comes a day after senior government officials told The Indian Express that there were no plans at the moment to convene a special session.
On Tuesday, leaders of five INDIA alliance parties met in Delhi and signed a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the special session. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) skipped the talks, saying it would send a separate letter to Modi, while CPI general secretary D Raja said he was “not aware” of the meeting. AAP insiders said the party stayed away as it does not want to share the stage with the Congress, which is the main opposition force in Punjab, where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power.
Those who attended the discussions are Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh, the party’s Lok Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda, TMC parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien, RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, and SP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav.
After the closed-door meeting, O’Brien told the media that top leaders from the Congress, SP, TMC, DMK, Sena (UBT), RJD, National Conference, CPI(M), IUML, CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party, JMM, VCK, and CPI(ML) L had signed the letter to be sent to the PM. The Leaders of the Opposition (LoPs) in the two Houses, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge; TMC second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee; SP president Akhilesh Yadav; and Congress MPs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K C Venugopal have already signed the letter. “The rest of the MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will also be signing the letter in the next couple of days,” said O’Brien.
“The government is responsible to Parliament, and Parliament is responsible to the people. That is why this session is needed. This is not a decision of the parliamentary party (group) of these parties. This is by the heads of these parties … The decision has been made at the top level of the parties,” said the TMC MP.
A senior Congress leader said Rahul Gandhi wanted this letter to be drafted in coordination with the other Opposition parties. “The initial plan was to have only Congress MPs sign the letter, but the Lok Sabha LoP wanted it to be the INDIA bloc’s letter. He reached out to Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, T R Balu (DMK leader), and Aaditya Thackeray. Our top leaders K C Venugopal and Gaurav Gogoi followed it up by reaching out to some parties… Our (Lok Sabha) chief whip K Suresh, and whips Manickam Tagore and Mohammad Jawed also reached out to some parties,” said the party functionary.
Hooda said the Opposition had unanimously extended support to the armed forces and the government since the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. “We have said that through the special session, we can together thank the armed forces … And the government should forward its stand on the sequence of events since the Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor, and the announcement of ceasefire by the US. And on what has happened since, efforts that are being made to isolate Pakistan on the world stage and how successful we have been in that,” said the Rohtak MP.
Ram Gopal Yadav said that while the government had reached out to other countries about the terror emanating from Pakistan, it was “keeping Parliament and the people of India in the dark”.
“Which countries supported us? Not one country openly supported India. This is worrying. We have failed on the diplomatic front. The armed forces did very well … But on the diplomatic front … The PM has travelled to so many countries in the last few years. And the PM’s so-called friend, Donald Trump, announced the compromise … It seemed like we were forced (into agreeing to the ceasefire),” he said.
While Raut said a special session would help people get to know the “truth”, Manoj Jha said he was not concerned about how many fighter jets were lost during the military operations last month. “I am concerned about why,” he added. On Saturday, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said India initially suffered losses in the air during the conflict before switching tactics to establish a decisive advantage over Pakistan.
Why AAP skipped meeting
Asked why the AAP stayed away from the meeting and did not sign the letter, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh told The Indian Express, “We stayed away from the meeting today because the INDIA bloc was limited to the Lok Sabha elections. I, myself, am writing to the Prime Minister to convene a special session of Parliament.”
Singh, who was the AAP’s chief coordinator with the rest of the INDIA bloc members, said, “As far as the alliance is concerned, suffice it to say that both parties (AAP and Congress) are head to head in both seats in Gujarat (by-elections); there was also no alliance in the Haryana and Delhi Assembly elections between both parties.”
Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (SP) has also not signed the letter yet, but Raut said this was because the party’s Lok Sabha leader Supriya Sule is leading an all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor and is abroad at the moment. “When I go to Mumbai, I will talk to Pawar sahab,” he added.
On May 12, Pawar said a Parliament session might not be the right forum to discuss national security issues and that it should be done at an all-party meeting.
