Centre Calls All Party Meet Day Before Special Session Of Parliament

New Delhi: The government has called for an all-party meeting on Monday evening, hours before the start of a five-day special session of Parliament. The meeting may discuss the agenda for next week’s special session, which, sources had said will start in the old building and move to the new on September 19.

“This special session called during India’s most important festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is unfortunate and goes against Hindu sentiments. Surprised at choice of dates!” Shiv Sena UBT’s Priyanka Chaturvedi said, while the Nationalist Congress Party’s Supriya Sule demanded it be rescheduled.

Ex-Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “point out this special session has been convened without any consultation with other political parties”.

“None of us have any idea of its agenda… all we have been communicated is that all five days have been allocated for ‘government business’,” she told the Prime Minister, urging him instead to initiate discussions on topics like the centre-state relationship, the spread of communalism and the long-standing border conflict with China, which was exacerbated this month by Bejing’s new map.

NDTV quoted government sources as saying that the session’s agenda may include discussions on Amrit Kaal and on India as a ‘developed nation’.

Other possible topics could include Chandrayaan-3, India’s successful Moon mission, and the widely praised G20 Summit that was held in Delhi.