AN ALL-PARTY meeting convened by the Government ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament started on Sunday with most Opposition parties demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row, price rise and unemployment. Sources aware of the deliberations at the meet said Opposition leaders also raised the issue of extended jurisdiction of the Border Security Force in some States, including West Bengal. Trinamool Congress leaders Sudip Bandopadhyay and Derek O’Brien are learnt to have raised the issue of bringing laws on Minimum Support Price and disinvestment of profitable PSUs.

 

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), however, walked out of the meeting, claiming it was not allowed to speak. AAP leader Sanjay Singh said he walked out as he was not allowed to raise issues related to farmers, especially on a law on MSP. The prominent Opposition leaders present at the customary session-eve meet included Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from the Congress, T R Baalu and Tiruchi Siva from the DMK, Sharad Pawar from the NCP, Vinayak Raut from the Shiv Sena, Ramgopal Yadav from the Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra from the BSP, Prasanna Acharya from the BJD and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend Sunday’s meeting. After the meeting, Kharge told reporters that there were some other big issues which were raised by the parties such as the rising prices of petrol and diesel and the tensions at LAC with China. On behalf of the Government, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sought cooperation from all the parties for productive and smooth functioning of the House.

 

Singh said the Government is ready for discussions on all the issues permitted by the speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman under the rules. Kharge said the parties would cooperate with the Government on the issues of public interest. A total of 31 parties attended the pre-session meet. Several parties also demanded that the women’s reservation bill be taken up in the Winter Session of Parliament, sources said. The TMC, YSR Congress and the DMK were among the parties that suggested that the bill be brought for discussion in the session starting Monday, they said. The parties conveyed that it is time that women are given their due representation in the policy-making of the country, they said. Winter Session of Parliament to begin today: THE Winter Session of Parliament is set to begin on a stormy note on Monday, with the Government ready to bring in a bill to repeal the three contentious farm laws. The Farm Laws Repeal Bill is slated to be introduced in the Lok Sabha.

 

Thousands of farmers have been protesting for the past one year to repeal the three legislations. The bill states that though “only a small group of farmers are protesting” against these legislations, the need of the hour is to take along everyone for inclusive growth. The ruling BJP and main Opposition party Congress have issued whips to their MPs to be present on the day.