Breakfast meet, cycle ride to Parliament: Opposition ups ante against Modi govt as Rahul calls for united front

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led a meeting of opposition leaders on Tuesday morning as he called all parties to unite against the Modi government over a range of issues, including the Pegasus snooping row, the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and farmers’ agitation.

After the meeting, several opposition MPs led by Rahul cycled to the Parliament to highlight the issue of rising fuel prices. This comes barely a week after his surprise tractor ride to the Parliament in protest against the same issue.

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“The single motive to invite you is that we should unite. The more this voice unites, the more powerful it will become, the more difficult it will become for the BJP and RSS to suppress this voice,” Rahul said at the meeting. He added, “We should remember the foundation of unity and it is important that now we start to come up with the principles of this foundation.”

After a sumptuous breakfast, leaders of eleven Opposition parties spoke briefly about the importance of unity in Parliament and on the ground in the struggle against the anti-people policies & undemocratic actions of the BJP government. We are witnessing something special here. pic.twitter.com/MNtOcocMmF

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 3, 2021

Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra, the NCP’s Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut, and the DMK’s Kanimozhi were among the leaders attending the breakfast meeting. “We are witnessing something special here,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted.

“As far as fuel prices are concerned, the people of India are struggling and if we cycle from here to Parliament, it will have an impact,” Rahul said.

Meanwhile, attacking the Opposition over repeated protests in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while attending the BJP parliamentary meeting, said: “The Opposition is not letting parliament function. This is an insult to democracy and to the public.” The BJP parliamentary party meeting was held around the same time as the Opposition’s breakfast meeting.