A view of the Parliament building in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament which begins on July 22, the Union government has called for an all-party meeting ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, to be held at 11 a.m. on July 21. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) will skip the meeting, saying that July 21 is observed as Martyrs Day in Bengal in honour of 13 colleagues who were “unlawfully killed in a police firing on the same day in 1993”. 

This will be the first such meeting to be attended by newly-appointed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. 

The all-party meeting comes ahead of the presentation of the first Union Budget to be presented to the 18th Lok Sabha. The Opposition is expected to present its wishlist at the meeting, as will the Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party, the BJP’s key allies in the ruling NDA.

The TMC conveyed its inability to attend the meeting in a letter to from its Rajya Sabha Parliamentary leader Derek O’Brien to Mr. Rijiju. “For 30 years now, July 21 has been observed as Martyrs Day in Bengal in honour of our 13 colleagues who were unlawfully killed in a police firing on the same day in 1993,” Mr. O’Brien said, adding that all TMC MPs would be in West Bengal on the day and would not be able to attend the meeting.