Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairman Sonia Gandhi Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing her displeasure over the special session of Parliament being convened without consultations with other political parties. In her letter dated September 6, 2023, Gandhi said that the Opposition doesn’t have any idea on the agenda of the special session and they were only told that five days have been allocated for the government business.

“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,” she wrote.

The CPP chief also addressed the issues that the Congress party would raise and hoped her party will be given time under appropriate rules to discuss them. The issues she mentioned included formation Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the Adani issue, “occupation of Indian territory by China”, communal tension in Haryana, and Manipur issue.

“I earnestly hope that in a spirit of constructive cooperation, these issues will be taken up in the forthcoming special session,” the Congress leader added.

Also Read: ‘India, that is Bharat’ written in Constitution: EAM Jaishankar plays down name change controversy

Sonia Gandhi’s letter to Prime Minister Modi has come a day after the government used “President of Bharat” instead of the traditional “President of India” in official dinner invitations sent to G20 guests. Prime Minister of Bharat was also used in a note on PM Modi’s Indonesia visit to attend the ASEAN-India summit.

There are rumours that the government wants to effect these name changes through Parliament during the special session. The opposition claimed that the government wants to remove India from the Constitution after they formed an alliance and named it INDIA – Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance.

The government, however, rejected Opposition’s claims as baseless rumours and said that both India and Bharat is being used in G20 slogans and logo. Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the name Bharat is already there in the Indian Constitution.

“India that is Bharat, it is there in the Constitution. Please, I would invite everybody to read it,” news agency ANI quoted the minister as saying in an exclusive interview.