All-Party Meet: PM Modi Says Open To Discussions, Opposition Demands Farooq Abdullah's Presence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured at the all-party meeting that the government is ready to discuss all issues during the Parliament’s winter session. Opposition strongly raised Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah’s detention and demanded that he be allowed to attend the House. At the meeting attended by 27 parties, Prime Minister Modi said most important job of the House is to discuss and debate, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.

The meeting was attended by Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot, Congress' leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and deputy leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma.

TMC leader Derek O Brien, LJP leader Chirag Paswan and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, Telugu Desam Party Jayadev Galla and V Vijaysai Reddy were among those present at the meeting.

PM Modi said, “Government is ready to discuss all issues within the framework of rules and procedures of the Houses.”

Opposition leaders raised the issue of Abdullah’s detention and demanded that he be allowed to attend the session, but got no definite response from the government, sources said.

Farooq Abdullah’s detention was raised at the all-party meet, National Conference MP Hasnain Masoodi said, adding that the government is under constitutional obligation to ensure his participation in the Parliament session.

“How can a parliamentarian be detained illegally He should be allowed to attend Parliament,” Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

The meeting was called by the government and moderated by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Meghwal.

In the session beginning Monday, the government is set to push for the passage of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, a key BJP plank which is aimed at granting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants from neighbouring countries.

The government has listed the bill in its items of business for the session, official sources said.

The government had introduced the bill in its previous tenure as well but could not push it through due to vehement protests by opposition parties, which criticised the bill as discriminatory on religious grounds.

The bill had lapsed following the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.