The Congress is likely to call a meeting of non-BJP parties to work on a common strategy against the government during the Parliament session next month.
The Congress is likely to call a meeting of non-BJP parties to work on a common strategy against the government during the Parliament session next month. The party on Wednesday indicated that the government will hear music on three issues — the terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase, atrocities against dalits in the light of a suicide by a scholar in Hyderabad and the imposition of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh.
While the JD(U), AAP and the CPI have already attacked the government for imposing President’s Rule in the sensitive border state, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad is expected to call such a meeting. In fact, he has already said that the Congress will seek to rally all non-BJP parties on this issue in the coming Budget Session.
Interestingly, no political party, including NDA constituents, has backed the BJP on President’s Rule. The Shiromani Akali Dal and the TDP are in the NDA and sharing power at the Centre but they too have not backed the decision so far.
The Trinamul Congress, Samajwadi Party, BJD, AIADMK and the TRS cannot afford to remain neutral on this issue in Parliament because of impending elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Azad, a former parliamentary affairs minister, has good equations with political parties. “If this issue can bring the AAP closer to the Congress, how can the Trinamul Congress and the Left take a different line on it, especially when the BJP is their common enemy ” a leader pointed out.
While the SAD will find it difficult to defend the government on the Arunachal issue, the BJP cannot rely on its other ally, the Shiv Sena.
On the dalit atrocities issue, the BJP has already been isolated. The Congress has been pressing for the resignations of two Union ministers — Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya — for misleading and mishandling the suicide by a Hyderabad Central University student.
The government will prefer a discussion on these three issues while the Opposition will press for a discussion either under an adjournment motion or a censure motion.
