Anguished over 'blatant politicisation' of sacrifices of armed forces: Opposition to govt
Twenty-one opposition parties Wednesday expressed "deep anguish" over what they alleged was "blatant politicisation" of the sacrifices of armed forces and urged the government to take the nation into confidence on all measures to protect India's sovereignty, unity and integrity.
After a meeting of the opposition parties that lasted over three hours in the Parliament House Library, the leaders expressed concern over the prevailing security situation in the country amid growing tensions with Pakistan and regretted that the prime minister as per established practice has not convened an all-party meeting yet.
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Anguished over 'blatant politicisation' of sacrifices of armed forces: Opposition to govt[/caption]
While leaders of 21 parties were present, Samajwadi Party did not attend the meeting. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also skipped it.
The opposition leaders condemned the dastardly Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammed on February 14 and paid homage to the soldiers killed.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the leaders expressed solidarity with the armed forces in crushing terrorism and lauded the action of Indian Air Force against the terrorist camp on February 26 and praised the valour and bravery of the armed forces.
"The meeting of 21 parties expressed deep anguish over the blatant politicisation of the sacrifices made by our armed forces by leaders of the ruling party. National security must transcend narrow political considerations.
"The leaders observed that the prime minister has, regrettably, not convened an all-party meeting as per established practice in our democracy," the joint statement said.
"The leaders urged the government to take the nation into confidence on all measures to protct India's sovereignity, unity and integrity," the statement that was read by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said.
Expressing concern over the security situation, the statement said that post the MEA statement regarding targeting of our military installations and loss of one fighter aircraft, "the leaders condemned the Pakistani misadventure and expressed their deep concern for the safety of our missing pilot".
During the meeting, the MEA statement issued earlier in the day was also circulated for all the leaders of opposition parties to be apprised of the current security situation.
Sources said that both Mamata Banerjee and Satish Chandra Mishra of BSP demanded that the opposition needed to be "bold" and not allow the BJP to do "politics" over the actions and sacrifices of the armed forces.
Sharad Yadav of Loktantrik Janata Dal also said that it was essential that the opposition "does not allow the BJP to hijack the agenda".
Drafting of the statement took over an hour as senior leaders of various parties had their points to be made and included in it. The same was done within small groups of three from among the party leaders after taking inputs from all others.
While the meeting lasted around three hours, the drafting took an hour. Some parties also wanted that BJP should be mentioned in the statement, but with some others objecting, it was mutually agreed upon not to mention the name of the ruling party.
Besides Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress leaders A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel; Sharad Pawar (NCP); Chandrababu Naidu (TDP); Mamata Banerjee (TMC); Sharad Yadav (LJD); T Shiva (DMK); Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M); Satish Chandra Misra (BSP); Manoj Jha(RJD); Sanjay Singh (AAP); Sudhakar Reddy (CPI); Danish Ali (JD-S); Shibu Soren(JMM); Upendra Kushwaha (RLSP); Ashok Kumar Singh (JVM); Jitin Ram Manjhi (HAM); Kodandaram (TJS) among others participated in the meeting.
Omar Abdullah in a tweet said he had "requested the opposition to postpone the meeting in light of the developments, especially after the news of our pilot being in Pakistani custody but they felt otherwise. I chose not to attend as a result".
SP president Akhilesh Yadav also put out a tweet saying, "When the all-party meet happened, they were campaigning. When our pilot went missing, they were launching apps. The country demands that petty politics are set aside and our media acts responsibly so that our brave pilot is safely brought back home."
The Opposition on Tuesday had decided to drop the formulation of the common minimum programme as the agenda for their meeting on Wednesday in view of the prevailing security situation in the country.
Senior leaders in the opposition confirmed that in a discussion with the Congress, the CPI(M) and the CPI said that they will only be part of the meeting if the common minimum programme is off the table.
With the change in agenda, Left parties joined the meeting. It was after the February 13 meeting of opposition leaders, the decision to formulate a common minimum programme was mooted, which would act as a roadmap to fight the Lok Sabha elections against the BJP. PTI
