New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) After staging a walkout to protest the presence of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) members at the all-party meeting convened by the government on Sunday, the Opposition leaders called the invitation of the Trinamool Congress’ rebel faction “unconstitutional” and “murder of democracy”.
The Opposition described the NCPI as an “unrecognised political party”.
Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, speaking to the reporters on the walkout, said: “The concern is that an unrecognised party has been called to this meeting….there is no scope for a separate bloc, why have they been invited by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister?”
Addressing reporters outside the meeting venue, Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav said: “The Trinamool Congress leaders raised the issue at the very beginning of the meeting that, according to the list of MPs circulated by the Table Office, the Trinamool Congress has 28 MPs. Despite that, the group of 20 MPs who broke away from the party was invited to attend the meeting. The Speaker has not yet taken any decision on their petition. I believe this entire process being followed by the government is undemocratic and unconstitutional.”
“The Opposition is fighting against the Centre’s attempt to murder democracy,” he remarked.
Dharmendra Yadav later told IANS, “The entire Opposition is united. No matter how much the government tries to engineer defections or create divisions, it has not been able to create any differences among the opposition parties.”
CPI MP P. Sandosh Kumar termed the walkout as a “protest against the undemocratic approach” of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju.
“They allowed the so-called Trinamool Congress dissidents to attend the all-party meeting, which is completely unacceptable to us. The ruling party is engineering defections in political parties, which is not good for a healthy democracy,” he told IANS.
Talking to IANS, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said: “The case regarding the split in the Trinamool Congress is still pending. No decision has been taken yet, so how was a notification issued? How was a separate bloc recognised? How were they invited? An unconstitutional act is taking place in this meeting. How can we stand with such an unconstitutional step?”
JMM MP Mahua Maji, talking to the reporters, said, “The reason for the walkout is that what is happening in the country today is the systematic breaking of political parties by luring away MPs through every possible means.”
AAP MP N. D. Gupta added: “In our case, out of the 10 MPs of the Rajya Sabha, seven have been hijacked, and our petition to decide whether this is valid or not is pending. In spite of this fact, they have been allotted independent separate seats in the Rajya Sabha…this is a mere hijack and murder of democracy.”
–IANS
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