New Delhi, 28 November
An all-party meeting called by the government ahead of the winter session of parliament began on Sunday, with most opposition parties demanding a discussion on the Pegasus espionage controversy, inflation and unemployment.
Sources familiar with the deliberations in the meeting said that the opposition leaders also raised the issue of extended jurisdiction of the Border Security Force in some states, including West Bengal and Punjab.
Trinamool Congress leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien are understood to have raised the issue of bringing legislation on Minimum Support Prices and disinvestment of profitable PSUs.
Prominent opposition leaders present on the eve of the customary session included Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Anand Sharma from Congress, TR Balu and Tiruchi Siva from DMK, Sharad Pawar from NCP, Vinayak Raut from Shiv Sena, Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party. , Satish Mishra from BSP, Prasanna Acharya from BJD and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.
The winter session of Parliament will begin on Monday and end on December 23