New Delhi: In the all-party meeting convened by the government on Sunday ahead of the winter session of Parliament, the opposition parties demanded a discussion on the Pegasus controversy, inflation, and unemployment issues. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend the meeting this time.
Opposition members questioned it after not seeing PM Modi during the meeting.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi responded to opposition MPs saying PM Modi was the one who started the tradition of having the Prime Minister attend the all-party meeting as earlier only the Parliamentary Affairs Minister used to hold meetings.
During the meeting, Pralhad Joshi said, "We have said that we are ready to discuss every subject. But we have urged the Opposition to allow the House to function. Modi ji started the tradition of having PM attend such all-party meetings, earlier only Parliamentary Affairs Minister used to meet, this time PM could not come".
Sources who were aware of the discussions in the meeting said opposition leaders also raised the issue of extended jurisdiction of BSF in some states including West Bengal. Trinamool Congress leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O'Brien are also said to have raised the issue of disinvestment of profitable PSUs and bringing in law on Minimum Support Price.
Among the prominent opposition leaders present at the meeting, traditionally on the eve of the beginning of the Parliament session, were Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from Congress, T.R. Baalu and Tiruchi Siva from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Sharad Pawar from NCP, Vinayak Raut from Shiv Sena, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra from BSP, Prasanna Acharya from Biju Janata Dal and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.