'Solely to run away': Cong leader Jairam Ramesh slams Centre for announcing Monsoon session 47 days in advance

NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday slammed the Centre for announcing the monsoon session of Parliament 47 days earlier. The party criticised the Centre, accusing it of deliberately trying to avoid the rising pressure from INDIA bloc to hold a special session on national security and foreign policy issues.Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju announced that the monsoon session will run from 21 July to 12 August, as recommended by the cabinet committee on Parliamentary affairs chaired by defence minister Rajnath Singh. He confirmed the recommendation would be sent to the president for formal approval.However, the opposition party, Congress, alleged that the unusually early announcement was due to run from the urgent parliamentary scrutiny.“Never have the dates been declared 47 days before a session is due,” said Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh in a post on X.

“This has been done solely to run away from the demand being made repeatedly by Indian National Congress and INDIA parties for an immediate special session.”Ramesh said the special session was being sought to discuss a series of critical issues, including the brutal Pahalgam attack and the government’s failure to bring the perpetrators to justice, concerns over the politicisation of Operation Sindoor, and revelations made by the chief of defence staff in Singapore.

He also flagged growing defence and diplomatic concerns such as China’s deepening ties with Pakistan’s Air Force, recurring mediation claims by Donald Trump, and what he called the “hyphenation” of India and Pakistan in international discourse.Ramesh warned that the Centre may have delayed debate, but scrutiny is inevitable. “The Monsoon session will, however, still be dominated by these issues of supreme national importance. The PM has run away from a special session but will have to answer very tough questions six weeks from now,” he wrote.The session will be the first Parliament session after India's Operation Sindoor, which was launched on May 7 in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives.