Why Congress chose rural polls issue over JNU arrests, Rohith Vemula suicide

NEW DELHI: Congress said it did not take up the Rohith Vemula suicide and JNU arrests for amendment to the motion of thanks to the President's address because the issues had been discussed exhaustively in Parliament earlier.

Finding unstinting support among parties on the university issue may have been a concern, too, since some parties would be reluctant to be seen as being on the wrong side of the "national vs anti-national" debate in case of the JNU arrests.

In the end, the overwhelming vote tally in favour of the opposition on the amendment protesting the educational bar on contesting panchayat polls showed the issue was chosen carefully after consultations. The amendments were are jointly sponsored by Congress-Left-JD(U)-DMK.

When the Left's amendments on the suicide of Dalit students, sedition law etc came up, they were put to voice vote but the parties did not press for lobby division as per the agreement.

Asked about the choice of subject at the AICC briefing, leader of opposition in RS Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "Since we had already discussed that subject ... for a full day, we had discussion on the goings-on in the central university which led to the suicide of Rohith and also, we had a full discussion on JNU. There was reply to that discussion also."

Also, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had singled out panchayat polls as the party's future campaign issue in her speech on Women's Day, setting the agenda for RS managers.