Thursday’s all-party meeting saw Union ministers Amit Shah, S Jaishankar, JP Nadda and Nirmala Sitharaman representing the government, while Rahul and Kharge from the Congress, Sandip Bandyopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress and DMK’s T R Baalu were among the leading opposition figures.Other opposition leaders included Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Sanjay Singh of the AAP, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, BJD’s Sasmit Patra and CPI(M)’s John Brittas.Both Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge criticised the government for the absence of Prime Minister Modi in the meeting, saying that it will send out a negative message to the world. Ahead of the meeting, Congress demanded that PM Modi chair the meeting and take the opposition into confidence. “Is the PM afraid to address us?” asked Kharge.Kharge further said that though Rahul Gandhi demanded that the government should hold a special Parliament session to send out a message of unity, it did not elicit any response from the government.Later, addressing the media after the meeting, Kharge said, “The PM did not attend the previous all-party meeting, either. He is skipping it for the second time. It’s his intention that he thinks he is above the Parliament. When the time comes, we will ask, but now it is a time of crisis, and we don’t want to criticise anyone.”“We heard what was said by the government. They said for the interest of the country, anything based on national security was confidential, and they couldn’t say anything about it. However, all the party members who were present said that in this hour of crisis, we are all with them and told them to keep doing the work, and we will support them for the country’s interest.”
Source link
