Parties protest non-inclusion in meeting on anti-rape bill

NEW DELHI: Irked over not being invited for a meeting on the anti-rape bill, six regional and small parties today took "strong exception" to this and asked the Prime Minister to ensure that all parties are invited at these crucial meetings in future.

Observing that all political parties in Parliament used to be called for meetings on crucial issues, leaders of these parties shot off a joint letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue.

"Lately, such meetings are being called selectively inviting only selected leaders, leaving out important parties, including national parties and such meetings are construed as all-party meetings. This is very unfair and unfortunate. We take strong exception to this practice," they said in the letter.

They urged the Prime Minister to "see that such meetings are called giving representation to all the parties with representation in Parliament."

The signatories included Gurudas Dasgupta ( CPI), Anant Geete ( Shiv Sena), B Mahtab ( BJD), S Semmalai (AIADMK), Nama Nageshwar Rao ( TDP) and Rattan Singh Ajnala ( Akali Dal).

Dasgupta later said these parties were not invited for the meeting on the anti-rape bill in Parliament yesterday.

"It is selective cherry-picking, unknown in the history of Parliament," he said.