Government invites leaders of 5 parties for talks, Opposition cries foul

Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge replied to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi’s invitation to the meeting, saying: “All Opposition parties are united in the protest against the suspension of the 12 MPs. We have been requesting from the evening of November 29th itself that either the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal, should call leaders of all Opposition parties for a discussion to break the stalemate. This reasonable request of ours has not been agreed to…” He added that only inviting leaders from a few parties, instead of from all Opposition parties, was “unfair and unfortunate”.

The 12 MPs — Phulo Devi Netam, Chhaya Verma, Ripun Bora, Rajamani Patel, Syed Nasir Hussain and Akhilesh Prasad Singh of the Congress; Dola Sen and Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress; Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai of Shiv Sena; Elamaram Kareem of CPI(M); and Binoy Viswam of CPI — were suspended on the opening day of the Winter Session.

Trinamool Congress called the government invite a “stunt”.

TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien tweeted that the invite leaves out 10 Opposition parties. “…Failed stunt. ALL OPPN clear: first revoke arbitrary suspension,” he wrote.

Another Opposition leader accused the government of attempting to use the “divide and rule” policy by selectively inviting some parties to the meeting.

CPI leader Binoy Viswam also said the Opposition was united in fighting the suspension of the 12 MPs. “Calling five parties for discussion at the fag end of the session is (a move) to divide Opposition unity. CPI will not subscribe to it. Final decision will be taken tomorrow (Monday) in the joint Opposition meeting,” he said.