Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said several issues, including inflation, fuel price hike, farmers' concerns and Covid-19, were raised at the all-party meeting held on Sunday ahead of the winter session of Parliament.
The senior Congress leader said all the parties demanded that a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) be formed.
He further said that the parties had expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the meeting, but that did not happen. “For some reason, he didn't attend the meeting. The government has withdrawn the farm laws, but the PM had said he could not make the farmers understand. It means these laws may be brought back in some other form in future," the senior Congress leader was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“We also demanded that the government give compensation worth ₹4 lakh to each family of those who passed away due to coronavirus. Compensation should also be given to farmers who lost their lives during the farm laws protest,” he added.
Besides Kharge, other prominent opposition leaders who were present at the customary session-eve meeting were Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from the Congress, TR Baalu and Tiruchi Siva from the DMK, Sharad Pawar from the NCP, Vinayak Raut from the Shiv Sena, Ramgopal Yadav from the Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra from the BSP, Prasanna Acharya from the BJD and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.
{{/usCountry}}Besides Kharge, other prominent opposition leaders who were present at the customary session-eve meeting were Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from the Congress, TR Baalu and Tiruchi Siva from the DMK, Sharad Pawar from the NCP, Vinayak Raut from the Shiv Sena, Ramgopal Yadav from the Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra from the BSP, Prasanna Acharya from the BJD and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.
{{/usCountry}}The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), however, walked out of the meeting, claiming it was not allowed to speak.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh said he walked out as he was not allowed to raise issues related to farmers, especially on a law on MSP.