West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, on Friday lent her voice to the clamour by opposition leaders for a special session of Parliament to discuss the recent cross-border flare-up between India and Pakistan.
She stressed that people of the country had the foremost right to know about the conflict before anyone else.
Congress heavyweight and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a special session of Parliament, after India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ in response to the April 22 terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir led to a four-day-long cross-border flare-up with Pakistan.
Mamata demanded a special session of Parliament even as her heir apparent and the TMC general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, joined one of the seven all-party delegations, which the Union Government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, sent to different foreign capitals to convey India’s message of zero tolerance against cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan.
“I urge the Union Government to convene a special session of Parliament upon the safe return of the delegation, as I believe the people of this great nation have the foremost right to be informed about the recent conflict and the evolving developments - BEFORE ANYONE ELSE,” she posted on X.
The TMC supremo underlined the need to inform the people of the country about the recent India-Pakistan conflict before anyone else, but refrained from opposing the Modi Government’s move to send all-party delegations around the world to brief the foreign governments, lawmakers, media and intelligentsia about India’s fight against terrorism sponsored by Pakistan.
“I am glad to see all-party delegations visiting various countries as part of India's global outreach against terrorism. As I have consistently maintained, the AITC stands firmly behind any step the Union takes in the national interest and in defence of our sovereignty,” she posted on X.
Earlier, in addition to the Congress, DMK, RJD, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena (UBT) also demanded a special session of Parliament to discuss India’s response to the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, at Baisaran near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir by a gang of Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists on April 22.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of the NCP (SCP), however, said that it might not be possible for the government to reveal sensitive information about India’s military actions against Pakistan in Parliament.
He said that the government should rather convene all-party meetings.
“We conveyed India’s gratitude for Japan’s steadfast support across decades, and reiterated our shared commitment to advancing peace, stability and democratic values in an increasingly fractured world,” said Abhishek, who joined the representatives of other political parties in the all-party delegation that visited Tokyo on Thursday and Friday.
He said that the delegation underlined India’s strong and collective resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms.
Yusuf Pathan, a TMC member in the Lok Sabha, was invited by the Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to join one of the seven all-party delegations that the government would send around the world to expose Pakistan’s support to terrorism and to articulate India’s message of zero tolerance to the menace.
He was invited to join the delegation, which would be led by Sanjay Jha of the Janata Dal (United) and would visit Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
Pathan, who was elected to the Lok Sabha on a TMC ticket from Baharampur in West Bengal, however, decided against joining the delegation.
The TMC too hit out at the Union Government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party for not consulting the party before choosing its representative to join the all-party delegations. Mamata later decided to send Abhishek as the TMC representative after she received a phone call from Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju.