The decision was firmed up at a floor coordination meeting of the representatives of these parties held at the office of the Rajya Sabha opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who faithfully vacated his seat for Rahul Gandhi when the latter reached the venue. Thus, making him symbolically preside over the meeting as part of the Congress attempts to project him as bonding with opposition leaders. Gandhi could continue to attend these daily meetings in Parliament.
Sources present at the opposition leaders’ meeting said the occasion was used more for arranging photo and video footage to set the atmospherics since everybody was aware of the action plan.
“At some point into our meeting, Rahul Gandhi pointed to the TV set in the corner of the room and said ‘we should be right there, in the news’ and he asked some Congress functionaries to get the cameras and shoot the video footage and photos of our meeting, which they promptly did using in-house arrangements, and sent it to media persons. So, we also watched our meetings soon on TV screens,” said a participant.
Later, Congress managers led Gandhi and other opposition leaders for a joint press conference amid the rain, making them huddle under umbrellas before TV cameras.
Gandhi, once again, accused the PM and home minister of unleashing “the weapon of Pegasus against their own people. “The entire opposition is here… Our voice is being curtailed in Parliament. We are only asking if the Pegasus software was bought and if it was used against certain persons in India. I want to ask the people — there is a weapon Narendra Modi has planted in your phones… used against opposition leaders, journalists, activists… Should there not be a discussion in Parliament?” he said.
Others, including TR Balu (DMK), Supriya Sule (NCP), Manoj Jha (RJD) and Sanjay Singh (AAP), also hit out at the Centre and demanded SC-monitored probe.
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