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Leaders of 19 Opposition parties interacted online on Friday to explore the possibility of fighting the BJP together in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At the meeting initiated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, they also decided to organise nationwide joint protests against the Centre on issues of livelihood and security.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren also attended the meeting along with senior leaders such as Sharad Pawar, Sharad Yadav and D Raja. However, SP, BSP and AAP, the prominent Opposition parties in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and Punjab did not attend the meeting. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav wrote a letter to Gandhi and expressed his inability to join the meeting as he was in the interior of Uttar Pradesh.
The meeting condemned the BJP and the Centre for “disrupting” the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The leaders said in a joint statement that the Centre refused to discuss or respond to allegations of illegal usage of Pegasus military spyware, repeal of the three farm reform laws, gross mismanagement of Covid-19 pandemic, runaway inflation and price rise as also spiralling unemployment.
‘Opposition silenced’
Alleging that security marshalls inside the Parliament were used to silence Opposition MPs, including women members, the parties accused that the Government steam-rolled legislations through the din of the disruption. The leaders reiterated their demand for a Supreme Court monitored probe into Pegasus spyware issue.
They said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address, did not focus on a single-issue concerning people’s miseries. “The speech was full of rhetoric, empty slogans and disinformation. In fact, it was a repackaging of earlier speeches given in 2019 and 2020,” they said in a statement.
On Covid vaccines, they said, currently, a mere 11.3 per cent of the country’s adult population has received both doses and 40 per cent (including this 11.3 per cent) have received a single dose. “At this rate, the target of vaccinating the entire adult population by this year-end would be impossible to meet,” the statement said and added that the main reason for the slow pace of vaccination is vaccine shortages. The leaders asked the Centre to prioritise the vaccination of teachers, staff and students to ensure early re-opening of educational institutions.
The parties also criticised the management of economy. “The destruction of the Indian economy, with deepening recession, is pushing crores of our people into joblessness, escalating the levels of poverty and hunger. The run-away inflation and price rise is adding to people’s woes and destroying livelihoods,” they said.
‘Ultimate goal’
In her opening remarks, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the ultimate goal is 2024 elections. “Of course, the ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution. This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them,” she said.
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