INDIA Bloc plans democratic protests during Budget session

Opposition parties of the INDIA Bloc decided to raise the issues of MGNREGA repeal and SIR during the Budget session and to protest democratically. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju criticised opposition protests during the President’s address

New Delhi: Opposition parties on Wednesday decided to raise the issues of MGNREGA repeal and SIR in the Budget session of Parliament, and to protest democratically on them while participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address and the Union Budget.

Leaders of several opposition parties of the INDIA Bloc met here in the chamber of the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, and discussed the opposition’s strategy for the Budget session, sources said.

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The leaders also decided to protest during the debate on the Motion of Thanks as well as during the presentation and debate on the Union Budget.

“The opposition will use all democratic means to demand the restoration of MGNREGA,” AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

After opposition leaders protested during the President’s address to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju criticised the opposition and said it was a matter of shame.

“The manner in which the opposition acted today is a matter of shame for the country. The Congress and its allies will never be forgiven. While tributes were being paid to ‘Vande Mataram’ on its 150th anniversary and to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the opposition created a ruckus, disrupting the House when the nation should have been remembering their sacrifices,” he said.

TMC and AAP leaders were not present at the meeting, which was attended, among others, by former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Ramesh and K C Venugopal, DMK’s T R Baalu, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Arvind Sawant, Samajwadi Party’s Javed Ali Khan, RJD’s Prem Chand Gupta, CPI(M)’s John Brittas, CPI’s P Sandosh and RSP’s N K Premchandran.

The opposition meeting came a day after top Congress leaders decided to raise in Parliament’s Budget session issues concerning MGNREGA and SIR despite the government’s refusal to debate them again.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s parliamentary strategy group held on Tuesday at the residence of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, where the Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Kharge, were also present.