Congress collects MPs’ signatures for impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Varma

New Delhi: Following the government's request last month and subsequent direction from the Congress leadership, the party's floor managers in Parliament have collected signatures of many party MPs of both the Houses for submitting notice for bringing an impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Varma of the high court in the monsoon session of Parliament. The Congress meeting of committee for parliamentary strategy presided over by Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday was informed about this by the party managers involved in the exercise, some participants said.

The development signals an emerging government-Opposition cooperation on the issue. ET had reported on July 8 that an internal communication to the party's floor managers from AICC general secretary KC Venugopal had asked them to shortlist and approach the party MPs to sign the notices for impeachment motion. Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju had approached the Congress president, conveying the government's request for bipartisan support for impeaching Justice Varma by saying the currency seizure case against him amounted to "corruption", an issue about which the Congress leadership appeared to be in no mood to quarrel with. Congress managers also reached out to some INDIA bloc allies, requesting for their signatures as well, according to people in the know. This, even as the party will reiterate its demand that Rajya Sabha chairman take forward pending notice for impeachment motion against Justice Shekhar Yadav over hate speech.

At the meeting, the Congress also decided to demand on the first day of monsoon session discussions in both Houses on the Pahalgam terrorist attack and the subsequent Operation Sindoor. Party members said that since some INDIA bloc allies had proposed convening a meeting of top organisational leaders of the grouping to firm up a coordinated approach in Parliament, the Congress leadership would explore convening such a meeting before the start of the monsoon session by discussing the proposal with the allies. A notable absentee at the meeting was Shashi Tharoor, who is currently in London.


The Opposition will also seek discussions in the first week of the session on the ECI's contentious special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and also on foreign policy issues including the West Asia conflict, China-Pakistan cooperation against India during Operation Sindoor, talks on Indo-US trade deal and Pakistan-US engagements.