At all-party meeting, Congress demands discussion on Manipur situation in Parliament

Asserting that it takes two hands to clap, the Congress on Wednesday said if the government wants Parliament to function, it should allow the opposition parties to raise issues and demanded a discussion on Manipur during Parliament's Monsoon Session.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury made the remarks after participating in the all-party meeting ahead of the session starting Thursday.

Almost all opposition parties in the meeting demanded a discussion on the situation in Manipur and the alleged "attack" on the federal structure of the Constitution, according to some of the leaders present in the meeting.

Chowdhury told reporters that he participated in the Business Advisory Committee meeting and raised all the issues that need to be discussed.

"At the all-party meeting also, I raised the issues...our demand is that there is the issue of Manipur which must be discussed," Chowdhury said.

"Two months have passed but the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is silent. I would like to request that he has been silent for over two months but he should at least make a statement in Parliament and allow us to hold a debate," he said.

"We want to bring an adjournment motion (for discussion) tomorrow as the situation in Manipur is deteriorating," Chowdhury said.

He said other issues such as floods in various parts of the country, the railway tragedy in Odisha's Balasore, unemployment, price rise and federal structure being "attacked" should also be discussed.

Chowdhury said he also demanded that the India-China border issue and the imbalance of trade should also be debated.

"We said categorically that it takes two hands to clap. If the ruling party wants to run Parliament then it must give space to issues raised by the opposition. We have demanded that we be allowed to raise all issues," he asserted.

Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha said, "We should be allowed to speak over the issue of the federal structure under attack whether it's in Delhi, Punjab or Karnataka." On its part, the government at the meeting said that it was willing to discuss every issue permitted under the rules and approved by the Chair in Parliament's Monsoon Session beginning from July 20.