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LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, party leader KC Venugopal and DMK MP TR Baalu leave after the all-party meeting, at Parliament in New Delhi, on Tuesday. (PTI)
The government had called for the meeting, which was attended by Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal, Trinamool Congress’s Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Supriya Sule and Sasmit Patra from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)
At the all-party meeting in the wake of the unfolding crisis in Bangladesh, leaders from the Opposition parties, including Rahul Gandhi, said they were “completely supportive of India’s foreign policy”. They also appreciated the concern of the Centre on the developing situation, said government sources.
The government had called for the meeting, which was attended by Congress’s Gandhi and KC Venugopal, Trinamool Congress’s Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Supriya Sule and Sasmit Patra from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). On behalf of the government, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the MPs from various political parties. Apart from Jaishankar, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju were part of the meeting.
Sources said all leaders who attended the meeting said they were aware of the precarious situation in the neighbouring nation and not a single one of them wanted to get into details about the whereabouts of Sheikh Hasina who came down to India on Monday evening.
The opposition parties raised five issues before the government considering the situation. They asked if the government was in touch with the present establishment in Bangladesh. Jaishankar is said to have told the leaders that they were in touch with the neighbouring nation and also the military powers there.
About the welfare of the students, the Centre said that they had already issued multiple advisories and students have returned to India. They have taken steps to ensure many more can return safely.
The Indian government also told the leaders that they have informed the Bangladeshi establishment of the videos of attacks on minorities and are hopeful that the situation could be brought under control soon.
When some leaders asked about any foreign hand or conspiracy angle, the Indian government said it was too early to comment on anything substantially. “There could be a number of political players whose role could be prominent in what happened in Bangladesh. But beyond that it is really difficult to know about the situation at this time,” the government is said to have told the leaders.