INDIA bloc not to escalate protest & stall entire winter session of Parliament

The Opposition members will not escalate their protests in Parliament to the extent of stalling the entire winter session as the general view among the INDIA bloc leaders is to tone down the protests after a few days and to participate in the House proceedings in order to raise issues of importance, press for House debates and to intervene in the legislative business, sources said after a meeting of the INDIA bloc floor leaders on Monday. Representatives of the TMC were notable absentees at the meeting. Incidentally, the name of National Conference, ally from J&K which is now running the government there, was also missing in the notified list of participants at the meet.

The INDIA bloc meeting convened by Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge's office decided not to make 'the Adani issue' the sole focus of the Opposition protests in Parliament during the session.

Instead, they will raise other issues such as renewed violence in Manipur, inflation and other matters on a rotational basis in the coming days, they said. The SP wants to raise the Sambhal violence. The Opposition also protested against the "non-inclusion" of Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi among the speakers at Tuesday's Central Hall event on the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, by saying that the President, Vice-President and "also the Prime Minister" will address the gathering. Opposition MPs have already communicated this grievance in a letter to the Speaker.


"In the past, the government used our protest to skirt debating key issues and legislative business. We won't allow them to get away now," said an INDIA bloc floor leader.