Congress parliamentary groups of both Houses hold meeting over farm laws, pegasus issue

A joint meeting of Congress parliamentary party groups in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was held today, on July 29. This meeting was held while ongoing protests have been progressing in both the Houses, by Congress and other Opposition parties. The protests have been going on over demands including probing into alleged surveillance via Pegasus software and the repealing of the controversial farm laws.

Congress parliamentary groups in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha hold a joint meeting while protests are on in both Houses 

The Congress parliamentary groups were reconstituted by party chief Sonia Gandhi ahead of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament. The Monsoon Session began on July 19. While these protests have been continuing, the government has been pushing some bills. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also recently put out a tweet on July 26 saying, “In a brazen and egregious manner govt has been bulldozing the bills without discussion. When the house is not in order ― govt is passing the bills, thus depriving the elected members from their constitutional right of the participation and ventilation of the public concern.”

Demands put on government to address Farm Laws issue and alleged Pegasus snooping 

The protests against, The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, are still going on in numerous parts of the country. Rahul Gandhi put out a tweet in Hindi that translated to, “The foundation of our democracy is that the parliamentarians should be the voice of people and discuss the issues of national importance. Modi government is not allowing the opposition to do this work.” He said no more time should be wasted and topics like inflation, farmers and the Pegasus controversy should be addressed.

The opposition parties have been forcing adjournments in both the houses - Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha over their demands. At the meeting, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and party leaders Jairam Ramesh, Digvijaya Singh, KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram, Manish Tewari, Manickam Tagore, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Shashi Tharoor, Ambika Soni and K Suresh were present.

(IMAGE: ANI)