New Delhi, 19 July

INDIA bloc parties on Saturday resolved to raise during the Parliament's Monsoon session the issues of Pahalgam attack terrorists not being brought to justice, US President Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering a 'ceasefire' during India-Pakistan hostilities and the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar that the opposition alleges "threatens people's voting rights".

Ahead of the Monsoon session beginning on 21 July, the leaders of 24 opposition parties of the bloc held an online meeting where they decided to raise eight major issues like foreign policy "failure" and "atrocities" in Gaza, delimitation exercise and "targeting" of SCs/STs, women and minorities in the country.

Addressing the media after the meeting, the Congress' deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Pramod Tiwari, said the opposition parties would expect the prime minister to be present in Parliament and respond to the issues raised on the floor of the House, asserting that "Parliament is more important than travelling abroad".

After the meeting, Congress general secretary organisation KC Venugopal said the opposition would raise the urgent need to restore full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir. It was also decided that an in-person meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders will be held in August, he said.

The opposition grouping has not met for a long time. Notably, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is a founding member of the bloc, decided to opt out of the Saturday online meeting after it announced that it is no longer a part of the bloc.

Incidentally, several senior leaders of the group, including chief ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu -- Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin -- were not present in the meeting.

Leaders who participated included Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, NCP (SP)'s Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray (SS-UBT), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) M A Baby of CPI-M, D Raja (CPI), CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, among others.

The leaders expressed serious concern over the government's "inaction" in bringing to justice the terrorists behind the Pahalgam attack and its "silence" on repeated claims made by US President Donald Trump in bringing about a 'ceasefire' on the hostilities between India and Pakistan, according to Tiwari.

"We discussed the strategy on how we should raise the atrocities and failures of this government that is affecting the people. I am happy to inform that leaders of all 24 parties participated in the meeting," he said.

"Eight major issues have been taken up prominently by us. Besides these, several regional and people's issues will also be taken up by the opposition," Tiwari also said.

"All leaders have expressed concern that all the terrorists behind the attack are free and no action has been taken against them despite so many days having passed since 22 April. Now, a confession has also come that it was an intelligence failure. So this will be raised," the Congress leader said.

Tiwari said the parties would raise Operation Sindoor and the issue of ceasefire, and US President Trump's claims made 24 times that he brought about the ceasefire between India and Pakistan by using the trade threat.

The leaders also expressed concern over the special intensive revisionof electoral rolls in Bihar that "threatens the voting rights of people" in the state, he said.

"There is a threat to the voting rights of people under the 'undeclared Emergency' that is prevalent in the country," he said.

Tiwari also said that the leaders expressed concern over India's foreign policy, asserting that it is the prime minister who is answerable to everyone in the country.

He said some of the leaders raised the issue of delimitation and "atrocities" against SC, ST, women and minorities.

"We have also decided that soon an INDIA bloc meeting will be held in-person," he said while noting that today's online meeting was "very cordial and took up the concerns of the 140 crore people of the country".

Tiwari also said that some other issues, such as the Ahmedabad Plane crash, are also likely to be raised.

Sources close to Banerjee said he raised the issue of SIR in Bihar, alleging that the BJP and the Election Commission are using it in the form of "backdoor NRC". He said the BJP is using "E square" (E2) in its attack - "ED for opposition leaders and EC for voters".

The INDIA bloc parties held deliberations to reach a consensus on issues that they would raise to corner the government during Parliament's Monsoon session beginning 21 July and to convey a message of unity.

Leaders of 24 political parties, including the Congress, TMC, DMK, RJD, SP, NCP-SP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JMM, CPI-M, CPI, CPI-ML, Forward Bloc, IUML and Kerala Congress, participated in the discussions.

The push to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma, who is embroiled in a row following the discovery of burnt wads of currency notes at his residence after a fire incident, would also be raised during the upcoming session.

The opposition leaders also discussed that in case the ruling party brings a motion for the removal of Justice Varma, they will press for early action against Justice Shekhar Yadav against whom a notice for removal is already pending in the Rajya Sabha since December 2024, sources said.

The issue of Rahul Gandhi bracketing the Left with the RSS at an event in Kerala on Friday was also raised during the meeting, sources said.

CPI leader D Raja, without mentioning Gandhi, is learnt to have raised the issue and said such statements against the left send wrong signals to its cadres across the country and should be avoided.