The Congress on Thursday said it would make “every effort to maintain the unity and solidarity of all opposition parties” and strongly oppose the Constitution Amendment Bills on delimitation and removal of ministers and chief ministers, if taken up during the next Parliament session, while cornering the government over the theft of Ram Mandir donations, leakage of NEET papers and ethanol mixing among other issues.
The attempt of the largest opposition party to maintain the cohesion of the flock comes amid increasing political challenges and shrinking space due to the recent wave of splits between regional parties. The opposition’s unity will also face a crucial test as the government plans to introduce a number of bills strongly opposed by the All India Bloc parties.
“We will raise crucial issues in this session – including the massive theft at the Ram temple, failures in NEET and CBSE exams, the E20 scandal devastating cars and bikes across India, and other pressing concerns of the common Indian,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in a post on X after a strategy meeting of the party’s parliamentary unit on Thursday.
“There is widespread anger among the people. We will continue to be the voice of this anger on the floor of Parliament come July 20,” Venugopal added.
“We will also make every effort to maintain the unity and solidarity of all opposition parties,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh announced at a press conference.
Ramesh said the party is preparing a host of controversial Constitution Amendment Bills and other legislation.
“We have learned that the Union Home Minister is making efforts to reinstate the demarcation bill (during the monsoon session of Parliament). The government failed to get a two-thirds majority on April 17 and suffered a major setback on the legislation. It now wants to reintroduce the bill,” he added.
“The proposed Constitution Amendment Bill on removal of ministers was also discussed during today’s meeting, for which a joint parliamentary committee has been constituted and which the opposition parties have boycotted. The Congress party has consistently reiterated that it will strongly oppose the demarcation bill and will continue to do so. We will also make every effort to maintain the unity and solidarity of all opposition parties,” Ramesh said.
Congress also announced that it would “strongly oppose” a host of key bills including the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill on the removal of judges, legislation to create a new higher education regulatory body, and amendments to the Food Security Act and FCRA laws.
“As far as the legislative agenda is concerned, I don’t see any bill before us that we can support,” the Congress leader said, hardening the party’s stance.
The opposition also took a calculated position to choose issues that relate to the public interest or people’s concerns. While he will try to confront the BJP and RSS over the theft of Ram Mandir donations, calling it a “scandal orchestrated by the BJP and RSS in Ayodhya”, the party has picked up the leak of NEET papers and the alleged “E20 scam” and said in a press conference that it implicates several senior BJP leaders and their sons.
“We will certainly demand a discussion of this matter,” Ramesh said. “There are other issues as well, especially regarding foreign policy and the new challenges that have arisen. These include relations with China and the United States, as well as the deteriorating situation in West Asia that has been observed over the past month or two…” Ramesh said.
The monsoon session, scheduled from July 20 to August 13, is set to test the unity of the Opposition after 20 TMC MPs and six Sena legislators (UBT) decided to switch to the NDA. The Opposition, which successfully stalled the Constitution Amendment Bill on delimitation in May, will have to rely heavily on the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its breakaway ally the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to thwart any similar moves from the government.
“The opposition, not the India bloc, will meet on the morning of July 20 to decide on the floor strategy,” Congress leader Nasir Hussain, who also attended the strategy meeting, told HT. His statement indicates that the Congress is keeping the doors wide open for the DMK and AAP to be part of the opposition’s larger plan for the next session.
Ramesh also criticized the BJP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for engineering dissidence in the opposition.
“We have already expressed our concern that this party was formed three years ago in Howrah. The National Citizens Party of India. Nobody knew about it. It is an unrecognized party, and suddenly it became the second largest component of the NDA. The TDP fell from second to third place, and the JDU went from third to fourth place. Suddenly, they got 20 seats, 20 MPs, because it was a parking lot,” he said.
