Sonia hosts Oppn party to take on Govt

Sonia hosts Oppn party to take on Govt
SANJIV SINHA

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 19: In an attempt to firm up unity among non-NDA parties, Congress chief and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sonia Gandhi today convened her first-ever meeting with the leaders of opposition parties to work out a joint strategy on taking on the Government in Parliament. This may also pave the way for political realignments in the future.

Her effort was, however, marred by the absence of the Samajwadi Party and the National Congress Party. Both kept away despite formal invitations sent to their chiefs, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar, respectively.

The expected absence of SP and NCP apart, Sonia's maiden effort was met with a reasonable degree of success with leaders of the Left parties (CPM and CPI), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), AIADMK and several smaller parties not only choosing to attend the meeting but also broadly endorsing the issues put forward by the Congress to put the Government in the dock in the ensuing Parliament session.

Although Leader of Opposition since October 1999, Sonia had till now fought shy of taking the lead in convening meetings of opposition parties, preferring to interact with them on an informal and one-to-one basis.

Emerging out of the hour-long meeting held at Sonia's office in Parliament, CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee, while expressing satisfaction at the Congress' initiative, said it had been decided by the participants to have better floor coordination and chart out a joint strategy in Parliament. ``This (meeting) is an important development since we all feel that the Government is following anti-people policies and needs to be exposed on this front,'' he said.

Chatterjee -- who was among those from outside the Congress who played a key role in getting Sonia to convene an all-opposition meeting -- said the parties were in broad agreement that they should highlight the inadequacies in the Government's handling of the post-quake situation in Gujarat, the plight of farmers caused by the crashing prices of all agricultural commodities and the fallout of the recent judgement of the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on those chargesheeted for the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

Later, the Congress' newly-appointed spokesman Jaipal Reddy told reporters that the other issues which the Opposition had decided to raise jointly in the ongoing session were the deteriorating situation in Jammu and Kashmir, disinvestment, the situation in the North-East, the dismantling of the public distribution system, the plight of retrenched industrial workers and the NDA government's foreign policy.

Significantly, Reddy, whose good equations with the Left and other opposition parties go back to the Third Front days, was among those who were specially invited by Sonia to attend today's meeting, along with senior party leaders Madhavrao Scindia, Manmohan Singh and P R Dasmunshi.

At the meeting, Sonia is reported to have shared with the opposition leaders her experiences during her recent three-day visit to the quake-affected areas in Gujarat, asserting that there was discrimination in the relief being provided to various communities. A motion for discussion on the Gujarat issue has been slated for tomorrow in the Lok Sabha.

Congress circles attached considerable importance to today's meeting, pointing out that a ``barrier'' between Sonia and other opposition leaders had been knocked down, paving the way for better mutual understanding in the coming days. While Mulayam and Sharad's absence was a dampener, the fact that the meeting was attended by BSP chief Mayawati, who is being wooed by the Congress both at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, was significant, party observers felt.