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Opposition demands discussion on Pegasus, price rise; PM Modi skips all-party meet

The parties also demanded immediate action on a law on MSP

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla interacts with senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge during an event at Parliament | PTI Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla interacts with senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge during an event at Parliament | PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday skipped an all party meeting called by his government ahead of the winter session of Parliament scheduled to begin on Monday. According to reports, the opposition parties demanded a discussion on the Pegasus snooping row, price rise and unemployment in the House.

"We were expecting that the prime minister will attend the meeting and will share something with us,” Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters. The leaders wanted to ask more about the farm laws as there were some apprehensions that the three farm legislations might again come in some other form, he said.

Kharge said the parties which attended the meeting demanded immediate action on a law on minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce and compensation to those farmers who died during the protest against the farm laws.

A total of 31 parties attended the pre-session meeting. From the government's side, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal were present. 

Rajnath Singh sought cooperation from all parties for productive and smooth functioning of the House and said the government is ready for discussions on all the issues permitted by the Speaker and the Rajya Sabha chairman under the rules.

During the meeting, the opposition leaders also raised the issue of extended jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) in some states, including West Bengal.

Besides Kharge, other prominent opposition leaders present at the meeting included Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from the Congress, T.R. Baalu and Tiruchi Siva from the DMK, Sharad Pawar from the NCP, Vinayak Raut from the Shiv Sena, Ramgopal Yadav from the Samajwadi Party, Satish Mishra from the BSP, Prasanna Acharya from the BJD and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.

Aam Admi Party leader Sanjay Singh walked out of the meeting alleging that he was not allowed to speak.

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