Leaders of 19 Opposition parties, after holding a meeting on Friday, 20 August, issued a joint statement in which they raised 11 demands from the government, including augmentation the COVID-19 vaccination drive, repeal of the three contentious farm laws and a Supreme Court-monitored judicial probe into the alleged use of the Pegasus spyware.
The statement also called for the release of all political prisoners, including those held under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case and the anti-CAA protests.
The Opposition parties, whose leaders attended the meeting on Friday, will jointly organise protest actions all over the country between 20 and 30 September, the statement said.
'Rise Above Compulsions': Sonia Gandhi's Opposition Unity Pitch for 2024 Elections
At the meeting on Friday, Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi made a strong pitch for Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, calling it "the ultimate goal" for which "we have to begin to plan systematically with the single-minded objective of giving to our country a government that believes in the values of the Freedom Movement and in the principles and provisions of our Constitution."
"This is a challenge, but together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together. We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them," Gandhi had said in her opening remarks at the meeting.
The joint statement, issued later, began with a condemnation of the conduct of the Centre and the BJP during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, alleging that they refused to discuss or answer on issues such as the Pegasus spyware row and the farm laws, among others.
It also slammed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech, saying it was "full of rhetoric, empty slogans and disinformation".
"The Prime Minister, in his Independence Day address, did not focus on a single-issue concerning people's miseries... In fact, it was a repackaging of earlier speeches given in 2019 and 2020. This speech is an ominous warning that lives of our people will continue to be ruined further."Opposition leaders' joint statement
Among the 11 demands raised by Opposition leaders was also a call for full statehood in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as conducting free and fair elections at the earliest.
The Opposition leaders also demanded the withdrawal of the hikes in Central excise duties on petrol and diesel, amid concerns over rising fuel prices.
Among those part of the meeting on Friday were Trinamool Congress' Mamata Banerjee, NCP's Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, DMK's MK Stalin, JMM's Hemant Soren, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury and Loktantrik Janata Dal's Sharad Yadav.
The other parties, whose representatives participated in the meeting, included CPI, RJD, AIUDF, JD(S), RLD, RSP, Kerala Congress (M), PDP, IUML and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi.
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