New Delhi: The INDIA bloc of parties will press for a discussion on the NEET issue in Parliament Friday instead of straight away participating in the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, which is scheduled for the remaining days of the session, three opposition MPs told ThePrint Thursday.
The decision was taken Thursday at a meeting of the INDIA bloc at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in the presence of Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla during the day along with a group of leaders from other parties of the alliance.
Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal told reporters it was a courtesy call but Gandhi made it a point to express his displeasure with Speaker Om Birla over the latter’s reference to the Emergency in the Lok Sabha Wednesday.
Venugopal said Gandhi, as leader of the Opposition, informed the Speaker about the issue and said the reference could have been avoided. “That is clearly a political reference; it could have been avoided,” added Venugopal, who also wrote to Birla flagging the Congress’ objection on the issue.
After the House was adjourned for the day, at around 5 PM, the INDIA bloc leaders gathered at Kharge’s residence to chalk out the floor strategy for the remaining days of the session, which is scheduled to end on 3 July.
Opposition MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) who participated in the meeting told ThePrint that the parties decided to aggressively raise the issue of NEET on the floor of the House Friday and press for a discussion.
In the Lok Sabha, the Opposition is likely to move an adjournment motion, while in the Rajya Sabha, the parties may seek a discussion under Rule 267, which allows for the suspension of the day’s agenda to debate an urgent matter with the approval of the chair.
“We are ready to participate in the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, too, but first there has to be a discussion on NEET. The discussion of the Motion of Thanks can begin Monday,” said CPI(M) MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.
MPs of the AAP and the TMC told ThePrint that the Opposition’s move should not be construed as a boycott of the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address. However, there has to be a discussion on NEET first, they said, adding that they would use all the tools at their disposal to make themselves heard if the government didn’t relent.
During the day, in her joint address to Parliament, President Droupadi Murmu reiterated the government’s commitment to a “fair investigation” as well as “stringent punishment for the guilty” in the NEET case.
Murmu also called upon opposition parties to “rise over partisan politics”. There is a need for a nationwide concrete solution to address paper leaks, she said, adding that Parliament has already formed a strict law against irregularities in examinations.
Also read: Struck down as unconstitutional, only to return — how NEET survived judicial scrutiny