Respect democracy, discuss Pegasus in Parliament: Opposition
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New Delhi: Accepting the demand of a discussion on the Pegasus snooping and farmers' issue is in linen with parliamentary democratic culture instead of complaining against the oppositions for the deadlock in Parliament, reminded a statement issued by a joint opposition to the government.
The statement signed by 18 leaders from 14 parties called out the government's narration that it called a misleading campaign on the part of the government to malign the combined opposition and blaming it for the continued disruption of Parliament proceedings.
"The responsibility for the deadlock lies squarely at the doorsteps of the government, which remains arrogant and obdurate and refuses to accept the opposition's demand for an informed debate in both the houses," according to the statement. "The opposition once again urges the government to respect parliamentary democracy and accept the discussions. The opposition parties stand firm and united on their demand for a discussion on the Pegasus issue in both the Houses, replied to by the Home Minister, as this has national security dimensions," it said.
The opposition has also unequivocally conveyed that discussion on farmers' issues and on agitations due to the contentious agriculture laws should follow the debate on the Pegasus row.
The statement was issued jointly by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, DMK's T R Balu and Tiruchi Siva, Congress' Anand Sharma, Samajwadi Party's Ramgopal Yadav, Derek O' Brien and Kalyan Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, and Sanjay Raut and Vinayak Raut of the Shiv Sena.
The other signatories included Manoj Jha of the RJD, CPI(M)'s Elamaram Kareem, CPI's Binoy Viswam, AAP's Sushil Gupta, IUML's Mohd. Basheer, NC's Hasnain Masoodi, RSP's NK Premachandran and MV Shreyams Kumar of the LJD.
The statement comes after a stalemate in Monsson Session of Parliament with both the Houses in a logjam over the opposition's uproar over their demand for a discussion on the Pegasus snooping issue and farmers' protests.