After a week of disrupting Parliament in protest against the government’s failure to address the situation in Manipur, more than 20 Opposition MPs from the INDIA parties will spend the weekend in the strife-torn State, visiting both the valley and hill regions on July 29 and 30.
On July 27, Opposition MPs — dressed in black as a sign of protest — again accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running away from a debate on Manipur on the floor of the House. Lashing out at the PM, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked him to quit making political speeches in Rajasthan and speak in Parliament instead. “Today, people have become aware and they will fight and continue to do so...This means you do not want to talk in Parliament, the temple of democracy, and want to give a political speech in Rajasthan while opening new medical colleges,” he said, speaking to reporters outside Parliament.
BAC meeting skipped
Opposition members also skipped the meeting of the Rajya Sabha Business Advisory Committee (BAC), claiming that the exercise was pointless. The Rajya Sabha BAC has 11 members, including the Vice President as its ex-officio chairman. Three MPs from the 26-member INDIA bloc are on the BAC committee: Jairam Ramesh (Congress), Misa Bharti (Rashtriya Janata Dal), and Derek O’Brien (Trinamool Congress). The Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s Keshav Rao also gave the meeting a miss.
The members had also walked out of the last meeting, protesting the government’s suggestion to allot two hours for The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2023. Claiming that the Bill is brazenly against the federal structure of the Indian Constitution, the Opposition members said that it should not be moved at all.
Opposition strategy
Even as the Opposition waits for Lok Sabha Speaker to take up the no-confidence debate, sources say that in the Rajya Sabha, it will maintain its demand for a statement from the PM and continue its protest on Manipur.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted that the INDIA parties have absolute clarity on their stand. “We want the no-confidence motion moved by the parties in the Lok Sabha in the immediate context of Manipur, which has been accepted by the Speaker to be taken up at the earliest,” he said, underlining that the rules and conventions dictate that no legislative business can be transacted till the no-confidence motion is debated.
Detailing the Opposition’s Rajya Sabha strategy, he said, “We want a statement by the PM in the Rajya Sabha on Manipur immediately followed thereafter by a discussion under Rule 267, which means that the issue being raised under this Rule takes precedence over all other issues.” Rule 267 requires suspension of all business for the day to debate the issue at hand.
