Akash Jha
The Congress party announced on Sunday that it will not back the Central government’s ordinance on service regulation in Delhi, giving the Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal’s administration a significant boost.
I anticipate that the AAP will be present at tomorrow’s meeting. There is no ambiguity about where we stand in regards to the ordinance (which regulates services in Delhi). Congress national secretary KC Venugopal told PTI, “We are not going to support it” regarding Monday’s Opposition gathering in Bengaluru.
On Saturday, the Congress party declared that it will continue to resist the Modi government’s “assaults” inside and outside of Parliament on the constitutional rights and obligations of democratically elected state governments.
Raghav Chadha, a member of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha, expressed his approval of the Congress decision, saying, “Congress announces its unequivocal opposition to the Delhi Ordinance.”
Without mentioning the Delhi legislation by name, the Congress made this claim in the midst of an ongoing dispute with the AAP, which has requested that the party define its stand in order to allow it to participate in the upcoming meeting of Opposition parties in Bengaluru and similar gatherings in the future.
The Congress leadership met with its parliamentary strategy group to plan for the upcoming Monsoon Session, which will begin on July 20.
In order to establish a body with the power to transfer and post Group-A personnel in Delhi, the Central Government issued the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 on May 19.
The AAP government has called the Supreme Court’s decision on service regulation a “deception.”
Parliamentary strategy group member Jairam Ramesh said the Congress has always fought against the Modi government’s “assaults” on the constitutional rights and responsibilities of democratically elected state governments and local bodies, and that the issue of the ordinance was discussed at the meeting and that the Congress would oppose the bill related to it in Parliament.
The governors and other appointed officials in the Modi government are the source of the attack. There’s no question that Congress won’t reject this in Parliament, and there’s also no question that we won’t continue to fight it,” he said.
Assault comes in all shapes and sizes. There has been a weakening of constitutional bodies, an abuse of constitutional agencies, and a general disregard for constitutional bodies. The national commission on scheduled tribes had made it obvious to the Modi government that the government’s stance on forest conservation legislation was discriminatory towards tribal people, but the government had chosen to ignore the panel.
“We will oppose it in Parliament and outside Parliament,” he continued.
Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress parliamentary party, presided over a meeting of the Congress parliamentary strategy group that included AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Ramesh.
When asked if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would be among the 24 parties represented at the Bengaluru meeting, Ramesh responded, “As per I know, the Aam Aadmi Party is one of the 24, coming to Bengaluru.”
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At the second unity meeting the Congress is convening next week in Bengaluru, additional parties are expected to join the opposition grouping to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The first meeting was held in 2015 and was attended by 15 parties; this time around, the leaders of 24 non-BJP parties have been asked to attend.
Opposition parties agreed during their initial meeting in Patna last month to work together to defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, cracks had appeared, with the AAP saying it would be difficult to participate in future gatherings of this nature unless the Congress publicly supports it on the ordinance issue.
