Will continue our protest inside and outside Parliament, says Congress MP

Congress MP from Kerala Jebi Mather Tuesday said that the party will continue its protests during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament since the government was not open to discussion.

New Delhi:The Congress on Tuesday said that it would continue protests both inside and outside the parliament until the Government listens to them. "When the opposition is saying something, the government should at least hear and accordingly a joint decision should be taken. It should not be a dictatorship. Let there be an open discussion on all issues. But, here the government is totally intolerant towards the opposition," said Jebi Mather, Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala.

When asked whether Congress will continue its protest in the Parliament, Mather said that continuation of the protest is something that should be decided on a day-to-day basis. "As far as Congress is concerned, we will continue our protest both inside and outside the Parliament. Our agenda is that the government should take note of the issues raised by the opposition," she said.

Mather said that the issues that concern the citizens should be discussed in Parliament. "The most important issue as of today is the price rise, imposition of GST on a variety of products which was never there," said Mather. On the Agnipath issue, the Rajya Sabha MP further accused the government of "acting in haste", saying the matter had not been properly discussed. "What was the urgency of bringing the Agnipath scheme without any proper discussion. The matter was not even discussed in the Standing Committee of Defence," she noted.

Meanwhile, Congress demanded action against LDF Convener in Kerala, EP Jayarajan, for an alleged conspiracy leading to the arrest of Congress Vice President and former legislator K S Sabarinathan. "The arrest of Sabarinathan is a result of a conspiracy hatched by Jayarajan. The flying ban on two youth Congress activists clearly shows that LDF convener committed a major crime and we insist upon the Kerala police to have a thorough inquiry against Jayarajan and action should be taken against him for mishandling the youth Congress activists," said Congress MP in the Lok Sabha, Hibi Eden.

He said that the charges against Sabarinathan were a "conspiracy". The Kerala police on Tuesday arrested Sabarinathan immediately after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed the Assembly that the police investigation revealed a well-entrenched conspiracy to imperil the Chief Minister. To mention, two youth Congress activists in Kerala boarded a commercial flight flying Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram waving black flags in protest of alleged police harassment last month.

Following the incident, Indigo conducted an internal inquiry and put both the youth Congress members on its no-fly list for two weeks.