The Congress on Monday identified the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) among the principal issues that it will raise in the budget session of Parliament, which begins on Friday.
A meeting of the Congress Strategy Group, held at party president Sonia Gandhi’s residence, also identified the state of the economy, including the growing unemployment and rising inflation, as the other key issues.
On Friday, Congress MPs would protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue against the CAA-NRC-NPR as the party alleged that these measures sought to take away a citizen’s constitutional rights and guarantees. It will also raise the issue of police action against the protesting students across universities.
The party will, however, attend the President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament in the first session of 2020.
Though a senior leader also discussed the government’s plan to construct a new Parliament building, Ms. Gandhi is learn to have told her colleagues to raise issues that resonated with the public.
Among those who attended the meeting were Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, senior leaders Anand Sharma, K. Suresh, Jairam Ramesh and Manish Tewari.
The Congress has also decided to bring back the narrative to bread-and- butter issues such as employment and rising food inflation with which the people, especially the youth, could identify.
Rally in Jaipur
On Tuesday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address the youth in Jaipur at the ‘Yuva Akrosh’ (Youth Anger) rally where the focus would be on jobs and education.
Jobs lost
“The reality of all the big promises to create jobs. More than 3.5 crore jobs lost in the seven key sectors of the economy...That's why the government hesitates to speak on employment,” Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted in Hindi.
In the run-up to the Budget, the party also announced that it would hold special press conferences to seek answers from the government on key economic parameters. “As a responsible Opposition party, the Congress intends to shift the narrative back to the economy... The Union Budget 2020-21 is being presented at a time when we are already deep into a slowdown. Even though the government may be in a denial mode, Indian economy is on the verge of slipping from stagnation into stagflation,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Srinate said at a briefing.
“There has been a drop in direct tax revenue for the first time in 20 years, making the fiscal situation precarious. It is a sign of wage loss and joblessness,” she said.
