New Delhi: Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi, on Friday, pressed upon the need of building a united Opposition to take on BJP in the 2024 general elections. The comments were made during the virtual meeting of Opposition parties called by Sonia Gandhi. In this meeting, 19 Opposition parties including TMC, NCP, DMK, Shiv Sena, PDP, NC and many others logged in.
While addressing the meeting, Sonia Gandhi said, "The ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the freedom movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution."
"This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them," she further added.
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Attacking the Centre, the Congress president alleged that the recent Monsoon session of Parliament was a "complete washout". She also said that it is entirely due to the Central government’s "obstinate and arrogant unwillingness" to discuss and debate urgent issues of public importance, including Pegasus snooping scandal, repeal of three anti-farmer laws, price rise of essential commodities and others.
However, she praised the Opposition's efforts to raise these issues during the Parliament session, saying, "In spite of this, the session was marked by the determined unity that all Opposition parties demonstrated for over twenty days in both the houses. We functioned in a coordinated manner with daily discussions among our floor leaders."
She asserted that it was entirely due to the Opposition parties that the Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed to restore the long-standing rights of states to identify and notify OBCs. "The government had erred three years back and as you well know this Bill was required to rectify that mistake and a subsequent ruling of the Supreme Court," she alleged.
She also said that the bigger political battle has to be fought outside the parliament too.
It must be noted that Sonia Gandhi mentioned efforts taken up by each of the key Opposition leaders recently to raise various issues, saying, "I understand that Sharad Pawar ji brought to his attention how the new Ministry of Cooperation, led by Home Minister himself, is a blatant interference in the Constitutional rights and responsibilities of state governments. Mamata ji and Uddhav Thackeray ji emphasized the discrimination against non-BJP ruled states in vaccine supply, as have some other chief ministers.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said, "Some crucial changes were introduced in the procurement system of vaccines following our intervention. Needless to say, as always, somebody else has taken the credit. This does not matter really, as long as the people of the country have been benefitted."
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