CONGRESS leader Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to point out that no agenda was listed for the special Parliament session and to raise nine issues, including violence in Manipur and price rise, for discussion during it. The issues listed by Gandhi include Centre-State relations, rise in cases of communal tension, border transgressions by China and the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate the transactions of the Adani business group in light of several revelations. “I must point out that 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,” Gandhi said in her letter. “We most certainly want to participate in the Special Session because it will give us an opportunity to raise matters of public concern and importance. I earnestly hope that time will be allocated under the appropriate Rules for a discussion and debate on these issues,” she said. According to her party colleague Jairam Ramesh, this is the first time no agenda has been discussed or listed in the business of the House. Seeking time to hold a discussion on the nine issues raised, Gandhi wrote of the “continued agony faced by people of Manipur and breakdown of Constitutional machinery and social harmony in the State”.

 

She also brought up the rise in communal tension in different States such as Haryana. Raising the China issue, she listed the continued occupation of Indian territory by China and “challenges to our sovereignty on our borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh”. Gandhi also raised the “urgent need for a caste census”, a demand which the Congress and some other parties have been raising for quite some time. She listed for discussion the issues of damages inflicted on Centre-State relations and the impact of natural disasters caused by extreme floods in some States and drought in others.