Declare agenda for Parliament's session, we won't sit for ‘Modi Chalisa’: INDIA allies to Centre

From constitutional amendments to strike off India and retain Bharat as the country’s official name to those necessary for rolling out simultaneous polls, the Centre’s legislative agenda for the upcoming special session of Parliament continues to be a matter of frenzied speculation.

With the Centre gleefully enjoying the all-out kite-flying session over its legislative intent, an understandably handicapped but irate Opposition has declared that while it is all for “constructive debate on issues of national importance” in Parliament, it has no desire to be reduced to a mute audience tuning in to rendition of “Modi Chalisa” for the five days that the special session has been convened for starting September 18.

Sonia, Kharge hold meetings

On Tuesday (September 5), Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi convened a meeting of her party’s parliamentary strategy group to discuss issues that needed to be raised during the forthcoming Parliament session. Late Tuesday evening, Congress president and Leader of Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge, also presided over a meeting with floor leaders of all INDIA constituent parties to firm up a coordinated strategy by the Opposition grouping to prevent the government from ramrodding legislative business in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

At both meetings, the Opposition leaders had little option but to discuss the diverse speculations over what exactly the government hoped to achieve with the special session and the obvious disadvantage they were put at owing to the secrecy that the session’s agenda was still shrouded under.

The Opposition’s frustration over the Centre’s refusal to divulge any details regarding the special session was evident in Kharge’s post on X. Noting that Parliament’s special session was being convened “for the first time without spelling out the agenda” and that too without any Opposition party being “consulted or informed”, Kharge said adding, “this is not the way to run a democracy”. The Congress president added, “Everyday, Modi Govt (sic) plants a story in the media of a prospective ‘agenda’, thereby creating a smokescreen of diversion from real issues burdening the people. BJP wants to keep key issues like Price Rise, Unemployment, Manipur, China’s transgressions, CAG Reports, Scams and Weakening of Institutions etc. aside and cheat our people.”

Sonia to write to PM

Sources said the bulk of the time at both meetings was spent discussing the raging rumours about the possibility of the Centre bringing in key bills for amending the Constitution to strike off India as the country’s name in Article 1 and retain only Bharat or a bill to roll out synchronised Lok Sabha and assembly polls. At the CPP meeting, the Congress’s legal eagles P Chidambaram and Abhishek Manu Singhvi spoke at length on both subjects, explaining to their colleagues the constitutional and legal aspects of such amendments and their potential political repercussions.

It was decided at the CPP meet that Sonia would write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking clarity on the legislative business that the Centre hoped to transact in the upcoming session and demanding that the government should agree to have discussions on critical issues of national importance.

Among issues that the Congress has decided to seek a discussion on are challenges arising out of rising unemployment and inflation, need to declare the recent devastation caused by heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh as a national calamity and offer central financial assistance for relief works, Chinese transgressions on Indian territory in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, continuing ethnic violence in Manipur as well as the OCCRP revelations made against businessman Gautam Adani’s group.

Sources said all INDIA parties were also broadly on board with the Congress on seeking a discussion on most of these topics along with reiterating the demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into allegations of the Adani Group’s financial misconduct and related issues.

Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh told reporters that the only thing mentioned regarding the session’s agenda in the parliamentary bulletin for all five days was “government business”. Ramesh said it is “not possible that for five straight days, there will only be government business... why have the Opposition present only to see and hear the Prime Minister be applauded... we are not going to sit there only to hear chants of Modi Chalisa”.

‘India versus Bharat’ debate

The Congress and other allies in the INDIA coalition had identified five to seven issues, Ramesh said, on which they would press for a discussion “under any rule” during the special session.

Following the meeting of INDIA coalition leaders at Kharge’s residence, it was decided that Sonia’s letter be sent not just on behalf of the Congress party but as a joint missive from all parties of the alliance that have a representation in either House of Parliament. After the meeting of INDIA leaders concluded at Kharge’s residence late Tuesday night, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said, “the INDIA parties are unanimous on the need to have a positive session in national interest so that solutions can be found for the problems facing the country today... all of us want to know why this special session has been convened but the government has offered no clarity as yet”.

The INDIA partners have also decided to up the ante against Modi on his government’s alleged plan to use only Bharat as the official name of the country, hereon. The ‘India versus Bharat’ row was triggered earlier on Tuesday after it emerged that invitations for the forthcoming G20 summit had been extended of behalf of the “President of Bharat” and not the conventional “President of India”. The invitations instantly triggered rumours that the Centre may bring in necessary amendments to the Constitution in the special Parliament session to drop India as the country’s official name as part of Modi’s grand design of “removing all signs of (India’s) slavery” when the country enters Amrit Kaal (the 75th year of her independence from the British).

The Opposition’s hasty backlash on the ‘India versus Bharat’ debate has been channelized by the BJP to revive its bogey of Hindu nationalism and to variously accuse its political rivals of insulting “Bharat Mata” and “hating Bharat”. The INDIA constituents, on the other hand, have claimed that the acronym for their 28-party alliance, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, has rattled Modi ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls as a result of which the BJP has “stooped to its lowest” and “decided to change the country’s name”.

Though Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur dismissed rumours about a possible constitutional amendment to change the country’s official name to Bharat stating that the Constitution uses the name Bharat, just as it uses India, in Article 1, leaders from across the INDIA spectrum mocked the Centre claiming “if tomorrow we decide to rename our alliance as BHARAT, the government will drop using Bharat as the country’s name”.