Call meeting of party heads on COVID-19: Raja to PM

CPI General Secretary D Raja on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should hold consultations with heads of all political parties on COVID-19, as the government has left out some parties on "technicality" in his interaction with Parliament floor leaders two days later.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Raja acknowledged that country is confronting a huge health disaster of gigantic proportions and said that the government, parties and all those who matter in shaping the political, economic and social course of the country should come together to put their heads and efforts together to contain the disaster.

"You have been interacting with the Chief Ministers of states and other experts. Now you have decided to have an interaction with the floor leaders of the political parties in Parliament in which some of the important parties are left out on the basis of a technicality. In fact, this interaction should have happened during the last days of the last Budget Session of Parliament or immediately after the adjournment of the Session," he said.

"However, our Party is of the view that the initiative taken by you must be followed by holding consultations with the heads of all recognized political parties at national and state level," Raja said.

Modi will be interacting with floor leaders of parties with more than five MPs in Parliament on Wednesday through video conference. This comes after his similar exercise with AYUSH exponents and sportspersons among others.

While Trinamool Congress has decided not to attend the interaction with the Prime Minister, parties like AAP, CPI and RJD have not been invited as they do not have five members in Parliament. AAP has four MPs while RJD and CPI have three MPs each.

Trinamool Congress has said that they have been demanding a discussion in Parliament as well as an all-party meeting over COVID-19 since early March but it was never called. "Now why? Photo-op?" a senior Trinamool Congress leader said.

There are at least 27 parties in Parliament, which has less than five members, while 17 with more than five or more than five MPs have been invited to the meeting.