Parliament: Opposition remains suspicious as Centre looks to break impasse

New Delhi, Dec 20: The government has invited floor leaders of five Opposition parties to resolve the ongoing impasse over the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs. The Opposition is however unlikely to attend as it is suspicious about the intent of the government.

Parliamentary affairs minister, Prahlad Joshi wrote to the Opposition leaders asking them to attend the meet scheduled for 10 am today. However leader of the Opposition, Mallikarjuna Kharge wrote to Joshi stating that the invitation to select parties for a meeting between the leader of the House Piyush Goyal and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister is unfortunate and unfair.

He said that the Opposition has been requesting from the evening of November 29 itself that either the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or Goyal should call all leaders of the Opposition parties for discussion to break the stalemate.

"This reasonable request of ours has not been agreed to, further inviting only leaders of four (sic) Opposition parties instead of inviting all Opposition parties is unfair and unfortunate and unfortunate," he also said.

The Opposition feels that leaders of all parties should be invited. As of now the Centre has only invited the leaders of those parties whose MPs have been suspended. A final call will be taken later today by the Opposition parties following a meeting which will be chaired by Kharge.

12 MPs-six from the Congress, two each from Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress and one each from the CPI(M) and CPI were suspended on November 29 for the entire Winter Session for alleged unruly behaviour on the last day of the Monsoon Session in August. The Winter Session ends on December 23.