In a significant development, the Congress party announced on Sunday that it would not support the Centre’s ordinance regarding the control of services in the national capital, Delhi. Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal stated that the party’s position on the ordinance was clear and they would not endorse it. The announcement was made ahead of a meeting of opposition parties scheduled to take place in Bengaluru on Monday. The Congress party has been vocal about its opposition to what it perceives as the Modi government’s encroachment on the constitutional rights and responsibilities of democratically elected state governments.
The party has vowed to resist such attempts both inside and outside Parliament. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Arvind Kejriwal, welcomed the Congress’s decision and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha expressed his gratitude for the unequivocal opposition to the Delhi ordinance. Although the Congress did not explicitly mention the Delhi ordinance issue in its statement, its stance was seen as a response to AAP’s demand for clarity before attending the Bengaluru meeting and future gatherings of opposition parties. Omar Abdullah, whose National Congress is part of the opposition unity, affirmed that the Congress president had conveyed their position on the ordinance during a meeting in Patna.
The Congress party’s parliamentary strategy group, comprising top leadership, discussed various issues to be raised during the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament starting on July 20. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, was promulgated by the Centre on May 19 to establish an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi. The AAP government has criticized the ordinance, calling it a betrayal of the Supreme Court’s verdict on the control of services.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, confirmed that the party had always opposed the Modi government’s assaults on the constitutional rights of elected state governments and local bodies. He emphasized that the Congress would continue to oppose such encroachments and that there was no question of not opposing the ordinance. Ramesh highlighted the various ways in which constitutional bodies and agencies were being undermined or misused. The Congress parliamentary strategy group meeting, chaired by Sonia Gandhi and attended by AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, among others, also discussed the AAP’s participation in the Bengaluru meeting.
Ramesh stated that as far as he knew, the Aam Aadmi Party was one of the 24 parties attending the event. The unity among opposition parties to challenge the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is expected to expand further with more parties joining the second unity meeting convened by the Congress in Bengaluru. The first meeting, held in Patna, saw the participation of 15 parties, and at that time, opposition parties pledged to unite against the BJP in the 2024 elections. However, differences emerged when the AAP indicated that it would find it difficult to attend future gatherings unless the Congress publicly supported it on the ordinance issue.