New Delhi: A day before the start of the Parliament’s Winter session, the government Sunday convened an all-party meeting but the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) staged a walkout, saying the government is not ready to listen.
After the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pralhad Joshi said that the government is ready for discussions with permission of the respective houses’ chair.
“The government is ready for discussions permitted by the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha without disruptions,” he said.
Sources said that opposition parties raised issues of Pegasus snooping row, price rise, unemployment, and extended jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) in some states.
They also demanded a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP).
As many as 42 leaders from 31 parties participated in the meeting convened ahead of Winter session, which will go on till December 23.
Defence Minister and Deputy Leader of BJP in Lok Sabha, Rajnath Singh, Commerce Minister and leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha, Piyush Goyal and Joshi represented the ruling party.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma, the Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’ Brien, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and DMK’s T.R. Baalu and T. Siva also attended the all party meeting.
While Kharge said that they were expecting that the Prime Minister will attend the meeting, Joshi said that there was no tradition of the Prime Minister attending the all party meeting and it was started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh staged a walk out from the all-party meeting saying he was not allowed to speak, and that he wanted to raise the farmers’ demand for a law on MSP.