Oppn boycotts RS Business Advisory Committee meeting amid logjam on Manipur

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Opposition alliance INDIA on Thursday boycotted a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Rajya Sabha to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi not making a statement on Manipur violence in Parliament, a senior leader said.

The Rajya Sabha BAC has 11 members including the Vice President as its ex-officio chairman. Three MPs from the 26-member opposition front INDIA are on the BAC committee — Jairam Ramesh(Congress), Misa Bharti (RJD) and Derek O’Brien (TMC). BRS’s Keshav Rao also gave the meeting a miss.

On July 20 also, opposition leaders walked out of a BAC meeting to protest against Modi not making a statement on the Manipur issue in Parliament and the Centre bringing a bill to replace an ordinance on the control of services in Delhi despite it being sub-judice.

Leaders of the Congress and other opposition parties including the Left, TMC, DMK, RJD, NCP and AAP walked out of the meeting as their protest in writing was not accepted by the chairman.

On Wednesday, the Congress moved a no-confidence motion against the government in Lok Sabha on behalf of the INDIA bloc to force Modi to speak on the ethnic violence in Manipur in which over 160 people have been killed.