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After CWC, Sonia Gandhi reaches out to friendly parties over GST compensation

Last Updated 26 August 2020, 18:01 IST

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday reached out to like-minded parties seeking joint action against the Modi government on issues ranging from delayed GST compensation payouts to states to “weakening” of environmental protection laws.

Sonia also set up a five-member committee with Jairam Ramesh as convenor and senior leaders P Chidambaram, Digvijaya Singh, Dr Amar Singh and young turk Gaurav Gogoi as members, to examine the ordinances issued by the Modi government during the Covid-19 pandemic and prepare a strategy to raise issues effectively in Parliament.

Sonia was seen in action mode two days after the Congress WoNarking Committee discussed the explosive letter by 23 leaders written to her voicing concern over leadership issues and arrest the drift in the organisation after the Lok Sabha debacle.

The Congress president chaired a meeting of seven chief ministers — four from Congress-ruled states besides Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand) — to fight the Modi government for their rights.

“This refusal to compensate states is nothing short of betrayal on the part of the Narendra Modi government, betrayal of state governments and people of India,” Sonia said at a virtual meeting of chief ministers which was beamed live on YouTube.

She flagged issues such as National Education Policy, privatisation of state-run enterprises, draft EIA notification, ordinances related to the agriculture sector as some of the worrisome decisions taken by the Modi government without adequate consultations.

Sonia appeared giving prominence to the friendly parties by asking Mamata to conduct the meeting after making the opening remarks and seeking views from Thackeray and Soren before moving on to the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states.

Soren told the meeting that the Opposition appeared weakened and should put up a united fight against the Modi government.

“We need to work jointly. The opposition voice has become very feeble. We have to stand together,” Soren said, appreciating the efforts of Gandhi to forge opposition unity.

“I agree, we should work together,” Gandhi concurred with Soren assuring him to have such meeting more often.

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(Published 26 August 2020, 18:01 IST)

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