New Delhi: The Monsoon Session of parliament all set to begin tomorrow, an all-party meet was held at the Parliament Annexe where Opposition parties questioned the government on the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is customary for the Prime Minister to call and hold the all-party meet for the smooth functioning of parliament. But PM Modi was absent today -- the second time he skipped such a meet.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted: "All Party Meeting to discuss forthcoming session of Parliament has just begun and the Prime Minister as usual is absent. Isn't this 'unparliamentary'?"
The last time PM Modi skipped the meet, ahead of the budget session, the government had pointed out that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given a miss to many such meets.
At the meeting today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi urged the parties to ensure smooth functioning of parliament.
The opposition also raised other issues including the delay in clearance of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Singapore, the Agnipath short service scheme for the armed Forces, inflation, unemployment and the alleged misuse of federal structure by the Centre.
The meeting was attended by the BJP's Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, Prahlad Joshi, Arjun Meghwal and Muraleedharan. The Congress was represented by Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Jairam Ramesh.
Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule from the Nationalist Congress Party, Ramnath Thakur from Janata Dal United, Aam Aadmi Party's Sanjay Singh and Harsimrat Kaur from Akali Dal were also present.
The Monsoon Session is likely to continue till August 12. Under the schedule, there will be 18 sittings and a total time of 108 hours.
At another all-party meet held yesterday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said like the previous sessions over the last two years, Covid protocol will be followed in this session, in which elections for the post of the President and the Vice-President are due.
The Presidential polls will be held on July 18, and the Vice-Presidential polls on August 6. Later today, the opposition is likely to hold a meet to decide on their Vice-Presidential candidate to run against the NDA candidate Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Governor of Bengal.
The Presidential race will be between Jharkhand's former Governor Droupadi Murmu and the opposition candidate, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha.