"When is PM Modi going to meet leaders of political parties?": Jairam Ramesh
New Delhi [India], June 11 (ANI): A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the all-party delegation members on India's global outreach on Operation Sindoor, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday launched sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, repeatedly asking him to conduct an all-party meeting and hold a two-day discussion in the upcoming Monsoon Session in the Parliament.
Speaking to ANI, Ramesh questioned PM Modi about the potentiality of conducting an all-party meeting, setting up a review committee on Operation Sindoor, a two-day discussion during the Monsoon Session and about the efforts made to nab the terrorists of the Pahalgam attack.
The Congress MP stated, 'It was natural that the Prime Minister meet all the 50 MPs who were members of these seven delegations that went to 32 countries. That was not a surprise as far as we were concerned. But we have only four simple questions. We would like the Prime Minister to answer these questions. Question number one - When will the Prime Minister chair an all-party meeting and meet the leaders? Leaders and not MPs, and take them into confidence on the internal and external security challenges that have emerged after the Pahalgam terror attack.'
'Secondly, our question is that after the Kargil war, we had a Kargil review committee... will there be a similar exercise, especially after the CDS revelations in Singapore? Will there be a review? Will there be an analysis? ... So will there be a report? Will it be tabled in Parliament? The third question is, during the Monsoon session, will the Prime Minister allow a two full-day discussion on internal and external security challenges, on China, on Pakistan, on the new emerging technologies which we have to contend with, with the challenges posed by President Trump's repeated claims...' Ramesh added.
He further said, 'Our fourth question is that the Pahalgam terrorists who carried out this brutal attack are still free; they have not been brought to justice. They were responsible for the Poonch attack on December 23. They were responsible for Gagangir on October 24. They were involved in Gulmarg on October 24. These are all reports that have not been denied. So, when will these Pahalgam terrorists be brought to justice?'
Speaking about PM Modi's meeting with the delegation members, he said, 'Prime Minister meeting the MPs is fine. That's his prerogative. But when is he going to meet the leaders of political parties? When is he going to announce a two-day discussion in the upcoming Parliament session?...'
Earlier today, in a social media post on X, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked a series of questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over several issues.
His remarks came after Prime Minister Modi himself met with the members of the seven Parliamentary delegations that had been sent to multiple key partner countries.
The Congress asked PM Modi about the possibility of chairing an all-party meeting about the issues concerning India's security strategy. (ANI)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
25 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Fifty years on, we should recall how Indian democracy was tested by the Emergency
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,' warned philosopher George Santayana in his 1905 work, The Life of Reason. Public memory is woefully short; that is why it is rekindled through anniversaries and other periodic events. One historic occasion that we must never forget is the Emergency, imposed by the regime led by Indira Gandhi in 1975. June 25 this year marks 50 years of the event that shook the foundations of our democracy. India is the world's largest democracy. It can also claim to be a successful democracy, except for those 22 months when its democratic credentials were subjected to scrutiny. Two generations have passed since that dark phase. India has learnt enough lessons. Yet, to ensure that Santayana's warnings don't come true, we must keep reminding new generations about that sordid past. Indians waged battles for decades to secure freedom from the British in 1947. B R Ambedkar, while drafting the Constitution, warned the Constituent Assembly that more than foreigners, we were responsible for the loss of independence. 'It perturbs me deeply to acknowledge that India has lost its independence multiple times… due to betrayal and treachery by its own people,' he said on November 25, 1949, poignantly asking, 'Will history repeat itself?? He was categorical that if political parties fail to raise above partisan interests, 'Indian independence will once again be in jeopardy'. His message to his countrymen was that they must resolve to fight 'to the last drop of our blood' to protect our independence. It did not take even two decades for the country to come face to face with that dangerous reality. It may be worthwhile to recall those tragic events. The Indian National Congress was split in 1969 and one faction under Morarji Desai became Congress (O-Organisation) while the other under the leadership of Indira Gandhi called itself Congress (R-Requisitionists). When elections were held to the Lok Sabha in 1971, the PM Gandhi-led Congress (R) secured a resounding victory with 352 out of 518 seats. A few months into that government came the victory in the Bangladesh War that catapulted PM Gandhi into a cult figure. The next few years saw PM Gandhi transforming from a democrat into an authoritarian and arrogant leader. With no Opposition in Parliament, PM Gandhi went about governing in a ruthless and dictatorial manner. Corruption and sycophancy became the hallmark of her governance. Then came two successive challenges to the regime, first in the form of popular agitations in Gujarat and Bihar in 1974 against corrupt Congress regimes, and an Allahabad High Court judgement in June 1975 setting aside PM Gandhi's election in 1971 on the grounds of electoral malpractices. She was disqualified not only from ruling but also from contesting elections for the next six years. With no relief from the Supreme Court and with Opposition parties, united under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, leading a massive popular movement against her rule, PM Gandhi was left with two options: Follow democratic dharma and step down, or use the emergency provisions available under Article 352 of the Constitution to impose a dictatorship and continue to rule. She chose the latter. She cited a 'threat to internal security' as the reason. How was a challenge to her regime a national security challenge? The answer can be gleaned from the Congress party's mindset — its president, D K Barooah, had said 'Indira is India'. At midnight on June 25/26, 1975, PM Gandhi had emergency orders proclaimed by then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Her government suspended fundamental rights, arrested all the Opposition leaders and gagged the media. The courts were declared ineligible to hear petitions from citizens demanding the restoration of their rights. The saddest day was when the SC upheld the draconian law denying citizens the right to move a habeas corpus petition in its shameful verdict in ADM Jabalpur vs Shivkant Shukla (1976). Like all dictators, PM Gandhi, too, believed that she was invincible. 'To be human is to be free', Desmond Tutu, key to South Africa's freedom movement, once said. The people of the country reminded PM Gandhi of that profound urge when they went to the polls in 1977. While senior politicians languished in jail, a silent, leaderless movement, led by cadres of the RSS and other organisations, spread across the country to restore democracy. Not only was Congress defeated at the hustings, PM Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi couldn't even win in their seats. The Emergency years saw dictatorship in its worst form. A year later, the J C Shah Commission, appointed by the Janata party government in 1977, submitted its report highlighting the excesses of the Emergency including abuse of power, violation of civil liberties, forced sterilisation, the compulsory retirement of 25,000 government employees over their alleged political affiliations and the arrests of more than 1,10,000 people. Many of those who fought that second freedom struggle against the Emergency five decades ago are in power today. They are committed to protecting the 'freedom, equality and fraternity' that summarised the spirit of our independence. Yet countrymen should always be alert to the warnings given by American jurist Joseph Story: 'Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them.' The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal
Hans India
26 minutes ago
- Hans India
PM arrives in Visakhapatnam for IYD 2025
Visakhapatnam: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan arrived at RK Beach in Visakhapatnam to participate in International Yoga Day celebrations. The PM was accompanied by Visakhapatnam MP Anakapalli MP CM Ramesh, Aviation Minister Mohan Naidu, among others. The massive event in Visakhapatnam that registers lakhs of participation in various places is likely to commence shortly.
Indian Express
30 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Delhi must underline for Washington the grave dangers of Asim Munir's vision of Pakistan
In 2018, in his first term, US President Donald Trump had spelt out, in his typically blunt style, the sense that Rawalpindi and Islamabad had taken advantage of Washington: 'The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools… they give safe haven to terrorists'. This week, he said: 'I love Pakistan'. It would be simplistic to view the unprecedented lunch meeting at the White House between Trump and General Asim Munir — the first time a military leader who is not head of state in Pakistan has been accorded the honour — as a major u-turn. Indeed, India-US ties have been steadily deepening over the last three decades, based on a convergence of economic and strategic interests and shared values, even as the US-Pakistan relationship has grown more volatile. That said, the current moment in international relations is one of flux and Delhi must tread carefully. The Pahalgam attack underscored the grave national security threat that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism continues to present for India. With Operation Sindoor, Delhi has made it clear to both Rawalpindi and the world that it will pierce the shield of 'proxies' and not give in to Pakistan's nuclear blackmail. India has raised the costs of terror in order to ensure that such attacks on its soil are not carried out with impunity. Communicating the new normal it has etched with Pakistan after Pahalgam to its friends abroad is Delhi's challenge. To be sure, Delhi cannot control who Trump chooses to engage, and for what reasons. Pakistan's geography — it shares a 900-km border with Iran — may make it an attractive tactical partner for the US in the current Israel-Iran war. There is speculation that Pakistan's rolling out the red carpet for the privately-owned US cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial (WLF), may have helped ingratiate Munir to the White House — Donald Trump Jr has close ties with WLF. A White House spokesperson has claimed that Munir has proposed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his self-proclaimed role — firmly denied by India — in the post Op Sindoor cessation of hostilities. For India, though, the question is less why the Munir-Trump meeting, and more about how to ensure that the red lines it has laid down are respected, including by the US. Just a fortnight before terrorists killed 26 people in Pahalgam after confirming their religion, Munir had reiterated some of the nastiest tropes of the two-nation theory. He called Kashmir Pakistan's 'jugular vein', and reduced the complex and layered identities of the Subcontinent's people to their religion. It is now for Delhi — diplomatically, through the appropriate channels — to remind Washington that Pakistan's Field Marshal is a fundamentalist with an army at his disposal. Delhi has done well so far in standing its ground and making it clear that it will not compromise on its national interest: Even if belatedly, it issued a clear denial of President Trump's claims about mediating the ceasefire. Now, it must underline for Washington the danger that Munir's vision of Pakistan poses for stability in the region and for global order — and why Delhi has drawn some hard red lines.
