The Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group held a meeting today to discuss the issues that it would raise during the Monsoon session of the Parliament including resignation of Manipur chief minister and railway minister.
Ahead of the crucial discussion of the Law Commission on July 3 on the Uniform Civil Code, the Congress Parliamentary Strategy Group headed a meet today to discuss various issues the party would raise during the Monsoon session of the Parliament. Regarding the UCC, the Congress said it stands by its statement demanding a draft for such code.
"We stand by our statement issued on June 15. Nothing new has happened since then," Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said. The meeting was held at former Congress President Sonia Gandhi's residence in New Delhi.
On June 15, the Congress said in a statement that it is strange that the Law Commission is seeking a fresh reference when it acknowledges that its predecessor, the 21st Law Commission, had published a consultation paper on the subject in August 2018.
Ramesh had said that no reasons have been given by the Law Commission on why the subject is being revisited except for vague references to "the relevance and importance of the subject and also, various court orders".
"The real reason is that the 21st Law Commission after carrying out a detailed and comprehensive review of the subject observed that it is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage to have a Uniform Civil Code," the party had said.
The Congress today reiterated this statement.
Regarding the situation in Manipur, the group sought for the resignation of Chief Minister N Biren Singh. The party has been questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the issue ever since violence broke out in Manipur on May 3.
"The first issue which we discussed today was the situation in Manipur. We demand the resignation of the Chief Minister (N Biren Singh) as it is clear that the situation is out of the control of the BJP government there. We also demand a debate on the Manipur issue in the Parliament," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
"PM and Home Minister is not in control of the situation, Home Minister also went to Manipur...no positive effect was seen from it. The PM is silent for the last sixty days and we are repeatedly demanding that the Prime Minister should break his silence..." he further said.
Congress further demanded the resignation of the Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over the Balasore train tragedy that claimed over 250 lives. "This issue will also be raised in the monsoon session," Ramesh said.
Earlier, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar announced that the next meeting of opposition parties will be held in Bengaluru on July 13-14. On this, Jairam Ramesh said that the date will be confirmed later. "Congress President (Mallikarjun Kharge) informed other members of the party about what happened in the Patna opposition meet," he said.
(This is a developing story. More details awaited.)