The opposition managed to raise issues it wanted to in the winter session of Parliament and the BJP govt evaded replies on all, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi tells TOI’s Subodh Ghildiyal. Excerpts from the interview:
How do you see the winter session?
The opposition managed to raise the questions it wanted – Adani indictment and role of Sebi chief, Manipur, farmers demand for support price, railways, erosion of autonomy of law enforcement institutions. Govt evaded all questions.
INDIA bloc unity seems to be fraying. Many allies did not agree with Congress focus on Adani.
The fact that the govt had no reply on Adani showed it was on the backfoot on this matter and is hiding something. Sometimes, we will have difference of opinion, which is normal. When we were protesting over Adani, many allies took part in our protest outside the House. And when we protested against home minister Amit Shah, everybody participated on all days. There are bound to be differences on select issues and yet, we maintained a healthy relationship.
Congress was gung-ho after Lok Sabha polls, but much seems to have changed after the defeats in Maharashtra and Haryana.
There are many state elections to be fought and there will be victories and defeats. But the numbers inside Parliament will not change, and we saw the govt barely scrape through on the introduction of the bill on ‘simultaneous elections’. If we had some more people there, we could have blocked it. The results of the state elections over five years will not change the distribution of numbers inside LS.
About the LS numbers not changing over five years, the speculation is that Maharashtra allies NCP and Shiv Sena could switch sides.
This question is not worth answering. We are united and serious about questioning the partisan role of the Election Commission, the voters’ list and the way the poll officers are appointed. I think the Maharashtra elections pose very serious questions about the faith of voters in the integrity of the EC.
