New Delhi:
Over a dozen Opposition parties attended a strategy meeting called by the Rajya Sabha Opposition leader, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge; and later walked out in sync over the government's refusal to discuss the India-China clashes.
Here are 10 key facts that tell the story:
Opposition unity in Parliament was on display again as the Aam Aadmi Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi joined a strategy meet called by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, on how to compel the government to discuss the recent India-China border clashes, in Arunachal Pradesh, in Parliament.
Bengal's Trinamool Congress later participated in a walkout along with the 18 parties that were at the meeting, protesting the chairpersons' refusal to allow a discussion on the Tawang clashes.
Sonia Gandhi led the Congress MPs out of the Lok Sabha — Trinamool lawmakers staged a walkout too — after the Speaker did not accept yet another request for a discussion on the "Indo-China border situation". The Congress even argued that the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had allowed a discussion in Lok Sabha during the India-China war in 1962.
Speaker Om Birla cited procedure — saying that a decision will be taken by the Business Advisory Committee of the parliament — and went ahead with the routine proceedings, at which the Opposition walked out in a rare show of unity.
Earlier, at the start of the winter session, the AAP and Trinamool Congress, usually unwilling to play ball with the Congress, had attended a strategy meeting of "like-minded opposition parties" called by Mr Kharge.
Participants at both meetings included the Left parties CPI and CPM, Bihar's RJD and JDU, Uttar Pradesh's SP and RLD, Maharashtra's NCP and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), and Jammu and Kashmir's National Conference, among others.
The three that have had issued with aligning with a Congress-led Opposition — TRS, AAP and Trinamool — have made their national ambitions known ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha contest. Working together with the Congress in the parliament, therefore, is a tricky call for them.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of the TRS has even renamed the party to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, with only some formalities pending. He has even met other leaders such as his Bihar counterpart, Nitish Kumar of the JDU. From the Congress's side, Rahul Gandhi, on his Bharat Jodo Yatra, had attacked the TRS government too.
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has publicly slammed the Congress for "taking us for granted", while the AAP has clear-cut ambitions to project 2024 as a battle between Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi.
Today, several in-House efforts by Congress, NCP and other parties' MPs yielded no results as the government has refused to engage beyond a brief statement by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The session began on December 7 and is scheduled till the 29th.
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