The parties of the Janata Parivar will simultaneously disrupt both Houses of Parliament on Monday — the penultimate day of the winter session — at noon before congregating at Jantar Mantar to highlight the Modi government’s inability to act on the poll promises made by the BJP, Janata Dal (United) general secretary K.C. Tyagi told The Hindu .
The proposed march from Parliament to Jantar Mantar has been named, Sansad se sarak (from Parliament to the streets).
Interestingly, lending lung power and moral support to the Janata Parivar members — the Samajwadi Party, the JD (U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Indian National Lok Dal, the Janata Dal(S) and the Samajwadi Janata Party — on Monday inside Parliament and at Jantar Mantar will be the Trinamool Congress, possibly the most vocal anti-government party currently.
Even though the protest had been planned at the Janata Parivar’s last meeting on December 4, it comes as a fitting finale to three weeks of Opposition solidarity inside Parliament, especially in the Rajya Sabha, that has seen the government struggling to complete its economic legislative agenda.
The promises that these parties will remind the government about will include the government’s “failure” to bring back black money stashed away abroad in tax havens within 100 days, its reneging on the electoral promises it had made to farmers on the price for their produce as well as its inability to create jobs.
After Monday’s protest, the Janata Parivar parties will organise public meetings at State headquarters going down to the district-level to build public opinion against the government.
If the Janata Parivar played a key role in creating Opposition unity in Parliament, it came on the heels of a meeting of its six constituents on December 4, when it took a step towards forming a single party by authorising SP chief Mulayam Singh to work out the modalities for the merger.
On that occasion, JD (U) leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said, “The current political circumstances demand that the Opposition should strengthen itself so that the voices of the people can be amplified. After the merger, we will approach other parties as well.”
The process of merger will take time as it entails calling conventions of the various parties to ratify the decision separately. The Janata Parivar sources said they hoped the merger would be completed by the budget session.
