New Delhi: As a mark of protest against what they called the “murder of democracy” in Maharashtra, all Opposition parties are expected to boycott the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament to be held on Tuesday to mark 70 years of adoption of Indian Constitution.
The function is scheduled to be addressed by both President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla are also to be present.
The decision to boycott the programme was taken after day-long discussions among Opposition parties following calls made by senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Apart from the Congress, the parties which would boycott the Parliament proceedings include Trinamul Congress, Left, NCP, Shiv Sena, DMK and the RJD.
The parties are also likely to meet for a strategy session on Tuesday morning.
In fact none other than Congress President Sonia Gandhi made a call to Trinamul Congress leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay to bring his party on board for the boycott.
On Tuesday, first all the Opposition parties would gather under the statue of B.R. Ambedkar to protest against the “murder of democracy” in Maharashtra and then boycott the Joint House proceedings which are supposed to be held in the Central Hall of Parliament, a senior Congress leader told this newspaper.
Mrs Gandhi led a similar protest by her party near the Gandhi Statue on Monday.
The protest was also attended by other senior Congress leaders like Mr Patel, Anand Sharma, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury and Shashi Tharoor. They raised slogans and held placards criticising the BJP and demanding “justice”.
Congress sources said Mrs Gandhi took the lead on the party’s strategy in the Parliament on Monday at the party’s parliamentary strategy group meeting.
Apart from Mr Azad and Mr Chowdhury, K Suresh, K C Venugopal were among the other leaders present at the meeting held at Gandhi’s 10 Janpath residence.
“We will seriously raise issue of Maharashtra. We will stall proceedings in both Houses. Government is killing democracy from Arunachal Pradesh to Goa, Karnataka and now Maharashtra. We have already discussed with like-minded parties,” Mr Suresh had said after the meeting.
