Inside view of the new Parliament building.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The customary all-party meeting ahead of the Parliament Budget Session will be held on Sunday, July 21 during which the Opposition led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to spell out its wish-list.
While Trinamool Congress' parliamentary party leaders will not attend the meeting owing to their preoccupation with "Martyrs' Day" in Kolkata, it will be the first all-party meeting Rahul Gandhi will be attending as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is also likely to join him in the meeting.
The meeting is likely to set the tone for the session starting on July 22 during which the Opposition will be insisting on standalone discussions on NEET and other exam-related issues, string of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, violence in Manipur, price rise and unemployment among other issues.
After the Budget presentation and discussion, sources said the Opposition would want debates on issues and not just government business like considering the passage of Bills.
The first session of the new Lok Sabha had seen an aggressive Opposition protesting during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The Opposition wanted a discussion on the NEET issue but it was not allowed. It also tried to raise the Manipur issue with force, which prompted Modi to make some reference to the violence in the north-eastern state in Rajya Sabha where the Opposition had staged a walkout.
In a letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien said no MP from the TMC will be able to attend the meeting as all Trinamool lawmakers, including himself, will be in West Bengal to observe the "Martyrs Day".
He said that for 30 years, July 21 has been observed as "Martyrs Day" in Bengal to honour 13 colleagues who were "unlawfully killed" in a police firing in 1993 when the CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power. Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee was Youth Congress president when the incident happened and she continues to mark the day by holding a rally every year even after forming the Trinamool Congress on January 1, 1998.