INDIA name coined by Mamata to denote diversity

After the deliberation at the Congress’s big opposition meeting in Bengaluru, the leaders of key opposition parties decided to call their alliance ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge announced.

The Congress President also said that an 11-member committee will be set up for coordination and the next meeting of the I.N.D.I.A will take place in Mumbai. The date of the meeting will be announced soon.

Kharge said a common secretariat will also be set up in Delhi for campaign management and specific committees will be formed for separate issues.

Taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, Kharge said that he was now trying to bring together parties that had splintered and this shows that “he is afraid of opposition parties”.

“There are some differences between us but we have put that behind… We are together in the interest of the country,” Kharge said. “We’ll fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly and succeed,” he said.

In a joint statement, INDIA said it resolves to fight systematic conspiracy by BJP to target, persecute and suppress citizens. It also expressed concerns about the current Manipur situation.

“We express our grave concern over the humanitarian tragedy that has destroyed Manipur. The silence of the Prime Minister is shocking and unprecedented. We are determined to combat and confront the continuing assault on the Constitution and on constitutional rights of democratically elected state governments,” it said.

Addressing a joint press conference after a meeting, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that all the opposition parties have jointly decided to prepare an action plan for 2024 where they will talk about their ideology and programmes.

“The fight is against the ideology of the BJP and their thinking, they are attacking the country, unemployment is rampant, and the country’s wealth is being taken away from millions and handed over in the hands of a few,” PTI quoted Gandhi as saying.

According to PTI, the name I.N.D.I.A was suggested by TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and there was a lot of discussion on the full form of the term, INDIA. She wanted the name to be aligned with the values the coalition represents in connection with the country.

In her remarks at the presser, Banerjee thanked all leaders present and referred to Rahul Gandhi as “our favourite.”

She also launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and said, “BJP, can you challenge INDIA? We love our motherland, we are the patriotic people of the country, we are for farmers, Dalits, we are for the country, for the world.”

The only job the regime at the Centre does today is to buy and sell governments, she alleged.

Top opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Kharge, chief ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra along with presidents and leaders of several parties attended the meeting

With inputs from News18

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