At Opposition meet, Congress isolated on paper leaks before conceding

The meeting of Opposition parties on Monday saw all parties, except the Congress, pushing to raise the issue of paper leaks and the march to Parliament by protesters from Jantar Mantar in both Houses. The parties also decided to continue disrupting proceedings in both Houses on Tuesday over issues such as the alleged theft of donations at the Ram Temple and paper leaks.Sources told The Indian Express that while the Congress wanted to focus only on the alleged theft of Ram Temple donations, other parties insisted that the Opposition also take up the issue of paper leaks and the march by protesters from Jantar Mantar to Parliament. The Congress eventually agreed. The meeting was held in Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge’s chamber. “The Congress wanted to keep its focus only on the Ram Temple donation issue. But all the other parties, including the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), NCP (SP) and the Left parties, were of the view that the issue of paper leaks must be raised in both Houses. The Congress then conceded and agreed to the demand after seeing the rest of the Opposition on the same page,” an MP present at the meeting said. Another Opposition MP present at the meeting said, “Finally, all parties are on the same page. The Congress, which was initially hesitant about raising the issue of the protest by CJP, conceded and a broad agreement was reached.” The meeting was attended by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, TMC Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader Sagarika Ghose, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, SP MP Dharmendra Yadav, CPI(M)’s John Brittas and CPI’s P Sandosh Kumar, among others. Monday’s meeting came a day after high drama at the all-party meeting convened by the government, where Opposition parties walked out over the invitation extended to the “rebel TMC” faction, which has merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More Tags: Jantar Mantar