Ahead of the winter session that starts on Friday, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar convened separate all-party meetings to discuss the agenda.
After a bitter poll campaign for Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi reached out to the Opposition leaders saying “constructive criticism helps in policy making.”
The Congress, however, is keen on pressing for an apology from the Prime Minister for alleging that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was part of a dinner — hosted by Congress’ Mani Shankar Aiyar in honour of Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Khursid Kasuri — that discussed how to oust the BJP government in Gujarat in the presence of the Pakistani diplomats.
Attack on Manmohan
“In the middle of the Gujarat campaign, PM Modi had alleged that the former Prime Minister, former Vice-President and the former Army chief conspired against him. We have asked that if this is correct then let the government state it on the floor of the House,” said Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
On Thursday, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu tweeted that Dr. Manmohan Singh had called on him. And in a separate interview to the Rajya Sabha TV, the Vice-President said, “I also have a view that the Opposition must always have its say irrespective of the numbers but at the end of the day, the government must have its way.”
The Opposition is likely to raise the issue of postponing the winter session because of the Gujarat polls. The Opposition parties met on Thursday to work out the joint strategy and sharply criticised the Election Commission for not upholding its Constitutional mandate.
