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regular-article-logo Friday, 31 January 2025

Hush up? Opposition eyes Parliament protest over Mahakumbh stampede tragedy

In Parliament, the government might try to sidestep the issue on the pretext of the stampede being a state-level matter

Our Bureau Published 31.01.25, 06:02 AM
Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju signalled that the government wanted to avoid discussion of the Kumbh tragedy.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju signalled that the government wanted to avoid discussion of the Kumbh tragedy. File Photo.

The stampede tragedy at the Kumbh is set to rock the budget session of Parliament, which begins on Friday, with the Opposition raising the subject vociferously at an all-party meeting called by the government on Thursday.

At the meeting, Opposition leaders demanded a discussion in the House on the stampede and urged the government to bring in a resolution expressing “collective condolence”.

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They alleged the Uttar Pradesh government’s focus on VIPs had led to the tragedy. Samajwadi Party member Ram Gopal Yadav said the truth about the stampede should come out.

In Parliament, the government might try to sidestep the issue on the pretext of the stampede being a state-level matter.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the all-party meeting, appeared to be indicating this. Sources said Singh listened quietly to the Opposition leaders and responded briefly, saying: “The state government and the officials on the ground are working hard.”

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju too signalled that the government wanted to avoid discussion of the Kumbh tragedy.

“Party leaders raised various concerns and requested discussions on certain issues. The business advisory committee will determine which matters will be addressed,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Rijiju underlined that the focus of the short first part of the budget session would be the “customary discussions on the President’s address to Parliament and the Union budget”.

In a post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who participated in the meeting, said: “In the pre-session all-party meeting this morning, Opposition party leaders urged the Govt to bring a resolution tomorrow that expresses a collective condolence on the most unfortunate stampede deaths at the Maha Kumbh.”

The budget session will start with President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of both Houses. The budget will be presented on Saturday. The first part of the session ends on February 13. The second part is scheduled from March 10 to April 4.

Despite the differences within the “defunct” INDIA bloc, the all-party meeting saw the Opposition united in calling for the preservation of the sanctity of Parliament.

They said the Opposition must be allowed to raise issues and drew solace from a request from some of the BJP’s own allies — the JDU, LJP and the Telugu Desam — for more time to intervene on the floor of Parliament.

The other big issue all the Opposition parties flagged was that of the draft UGC regulations on the appointment of teachers and vice-chancellors to state-run universities. They demanded a discussion alleging the draft regulations violated the federal structure by proposing to give the governors a greater say in the appointments.

Highlighting several other issues, too, the Opposition leaders expressed concern at the way Parliament was being run on the Narendra Modi dispensation’s watch. They cited the conduct of the joint parliamentary committee on the waqf amendment bill.

“In the traditional pre-session All-Party meeting this morning, all Opposition leaders have expressed their strongest protest on how the JPC on the Waqf Amendment Bill was made to function,” Ramesh posted on X.

“It has made a complete mockery of all parliamentary traditions and practices. Such committees used to be a force to be reckoned with — now they have been reduced to be a farce to be reckoned with.”

Sources said that DMK leader T.R. Baalu, upset at the government’s lack of effort to consult the Opposition, suggested at the meeting that the practice of all-party meetings be done away with.

The Trinamool Congress, represented by Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien, said that states with governments politically opposed to the BJP were being deprived of funds. They sought a discussion on federalism.

Sudip also asked for a statement from the Prime Minister or the foreign minister on the situation in Bangladesh.

John Brittas of the CPM said the parliamentary convention that an MP should not be a member of more than one standing committee was being blatantly violated. He told the meeting that more than 20 BJP parliamentarians were members of two committees each.

The JDU, a BJP ally, demanded a discussion on AI given the way China was rocking the world with DeepSeek. The LJP demanded a discussion on reservation benefits being denied to OBC and Dalit candidates on the excuse of “not found suitable”, and on the incentives for industries to invest in backward Bihar.

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