I.N.D.I.A leaders at the Mumbai meet.
Credit: X/@AshokChavanINC
I.N.D.I.A parties are gearing up for the Special Parliament Session with early strategy meetings with Congress calling its top leaders for a brainstorming on Tuesday, followed by a meeting of floor leaders of the Opposition bloc.
The Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group headed by Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi will meet first to firm up its strategy, which will be followed by a meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence at 7:30 pm where I.N.D.I.A leaders would finalise common agenda.
Sources said both the meetings will discuss the strategy for the Special Session and the points to be raised during the five-day proceedings, which starts on September 18.
The floor leaders’ meeting comes three days after the Mumbai meeting of I.N.D.I.A parties, which was overshadowed by the call for Special Session and setting up of a high-level committee on simultaneous elections.
The Opposition leaders believe the Modi government’s move to slash Rs 200 for LPG cylinder, calling a special session and setting up one election panel was to distract attention from the latest reports against Adani Group and their Mumbai conclave.
Kharge’s exclusion from the high-level panel and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s dissociation with the committee on simultaneous polls will be discussed in the meetings, sources said.
The leaders will also discuss what stand should be taken on possible initiatives by the government. Congress would revive its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into Adani affairs, which had divided the Opposition before the I.N.D.I.A group was crystalised months ago.
The Trinamool Congress and AAP had differences over the demand for a JPC while the Congress and other Opposition parties favoured it. NCP too did not join the Opposition in filing a complaint against Adani Group with the Enforcement Directorate.
The group is also likely to discuss the stand in case the government moves ahead with the Women's Reservation Bill. Parties like SP and RJD want OBC quota for women in elections, while Congress has tweaked its position by supporting ‘quota within quota’ in its 'Udaipur Chintan Shivir' in May 2022.
The parties are also likely to discuss the government not providing the agenda for the special session. They are likely to oppose the decision to not have Question Hour, Zero Hour and private members’ business during the five-day session.
Congress Lok Sabha Whip Manickam Tagore posted on ‘X’, "Modi sahib never wants to answer questions. In nine years no question he had answered in parliament. He never answered any questions from the media. Now in the Special Session also (there is) no Question Hour. Parliament can’t be cheerleaders only.”
CPI Parliamentary Party leader Binoy Viswam shot off a letter to President Droupadi Murmu expressing "utmost disappointment" regarding the manner in which the Special Session has been convened.
In his letter he said, the session would not have any of the functions that the Parliament as a legislature has always performed like Zero Hour, Question Hour or private member’s day. He said even the agenda has not been circulated.
"In our form of government, the function of the Parliament is to keep the government accountable to people. However, these actions make one wonder whether this session will be an Executive Parliament, replacing the House where debates, discussions and dissents took place," he said.
He alleged that the government stifled the members from discussing issues of utmost importance, including Manipur and hurriedly passed several laws with far reaching consequences with little or no debate.
"In light of these attempts to make the Parliament redundant and ineffective, it appears that with this Special Session, the government intends to give a clear message that a Parliamentary majority has enabled them to completely do away with the Parliamentary System. It’s evident that the system of checks and balances envisaged in our Constitution is under a major threat," he said.
"You are sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and in these extraordinary circumstances, I request your intervention to preserve the Parliamentary system and to allow Parliamentary sessions to be a platform where questions and matters of importance are raised and deliberated upon," he added.