E-Paper
Opposition plans offensive over paper leaks, donation theft in monsoon session of Parliament
The session may also test the Opposition’s depleted strength after 20 TMC MPs wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), while six Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmakers signalled willingness to join the Eknath Shinde faction.
Opposition parties are set to corner the Narendra Modi-led central government in the monsoon session of Parliament, from July 20 to August 13, over paper leaks, the Ayodhya Ram Temple donation theft and the alleged threat to democracy posed by SIR.
Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha floor leader and the party’s joint secretary Derek O’Brien told HT that the Opposition will focus on four key issues in the upcoming session. “Let me put that in eight words: paper leaks, temple loot, slaughtering democracy, destroying institutions,” O’Brien told HT on Monday.
The session may also test the Opposition’s depleted strength after 20 TMC MPs wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), while six Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmakers signalled willingness to join the Eknath Shinde faction.
Birla has indicated that a decision on these mergers would be taken before the session.
From the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to the leaders of other parties, the entire Opposition had slammed the government over the NEET UG 2026 paper leak, which is the latest in the string of such leaks. Gandhi had demanded that education minister Dharmendra Pradhan should be sacked and even organised protests at Kota.
The Opposition has also been vocal over the donation theft at the Ram Mandir. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal has written to PM Modi seeking a Supreme Court-monitored investigation. “The massive Chanda Chori at the Ayodhya Ram Temple has shaken the nation. Crores of innocent devotees gave their hard-earned savings in the name of Lord Rama,” Venugopal said earlier this week.
The Opposition has argued that the Ram Temple was built using public land, through a public trust set up by the Government of India. “What happens in the Temple’s administration is solely the Centre’s responsibility. Multiple warnings about theft, from different quarters, were repeatedly ignored...,” Venugopal posted on X.
Parties will also raise concerns about threats to democracy after writing to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) over SIR, the alleged partisan role of the election commission of India and other poll-related matters. “Electoral democracy in our country faces the gravest of threats from the Modi-Shah regime,” Venugopal had said.
According to a senior Opposition leader, parties will try to raise the points mentioned in the letter and argue that democracy has to be guarded from the excesses of the executive - especially one which is hell-bent on destroying the Constitutional framework.
