The war of words between Congress and External Affairs S Jaishankar is continuing. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh hit back at Jaishankar for his criticism of Rahul Gandhi for his remarks made in the US recently. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi began taking domestic politics abroad first.

On Ramesh’s tweet, people wrote various comments, where one said Rahul Gandhi is a failed dynast and has been rejected by 1.2 billion people of the country twice and has now turned to the Indian NRI population living abroad. He also said the hypocrisy of Congress knew no limits.

Earlier, Jaishankar had slammed Gandhi for his habit of criticising India outside the country, saying this was not good for the health of democracy in India. He added, he did not have a problem with what happened within the country, but taking politics outside the national boundaries was not best for the nation’s interest.

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala mocked that the BJP had given an old script to Jaishankar and he should read a new one. He further added, the Prime Minister had made fun of previous governments and insulted the country’s 70-year-old history, whereas Rahul Gandhi had said that there was a planned systematic attack going on the democratic institutions of the country, which was the truth.

Earlier, Jaishankar had said in a press conference that Gandhi has a habit of criticizing the country and making comments on domestic politics in foreign soil. He said the world has its eyes set on India and this creates a detrimental effect on the image of the country on the world stage. He said elections are held and sometimes one party wins or the other party wins. He was confident the NDA-led government would come back to power in 2024.

He advised Rahul Gandhi that taking politics outside India will not help in improving his face value.

A dispute over Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha’s official bungalow is ongoing. The matter is to be moved to a higher Court after a Delhi Court put on hold an order canceling its allotment. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat had ordered Raghav Chadha to vacate the bungalow in Central Delhi’s Pandara Road, which he had been allotted a year ago.

He was told that the bungalow was above his grade as a first-time MP. However, the Patiala Court had paused the order saying Chadha, who was staying with his parents in the bungalow, could not be thrown out and the proper process had to be followed as per the law. The next hearing will take place on July 10.

Head of the Rajya Sabha Housing Committee CM Ramesh said the ruling will be challenged.

He further added that Chadha, as a first-time MP, was not entitled to a type 7 bungalow. These types of bungalows are assigned to former Chief Minister, former Union Ministers, and former Governors. He cited BJP MP Radha Mohan Das had been moved from a type 7 bungalow to a type 5 bungalow.

Chadha had approached the Court after receiving the cancellation notice. He asked the notice to be declared illegal and demanded Rs 5.50 lakhs in damages for mental agony and harassment.

He told the Court that he had been allotted a type 5 bungalow on July 6, 2022. On August 29, he wrote a letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat requesting a Type 7 bungalow. He was then assigned the current bungalow from the Rajya Sabha pool on September 3.

Chadha said, he accepted the allotment and shifted with his parents in November, after carrying out renovations. He further added that the allotment was canceled without a reason or logic and he was informed about the same on March 3, 2023.

A mega opposition meet is scheduled to take place in Patna, Bihar on June 23. A meeting that is expected to bring a series of opposition parties from across the country together at the same table.

The meeting will be attended by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

The meeting will also witness the presence of Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray and Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar’s Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.

Leaders of the left front are also likely to join the meeting.

The huge meeting convened by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal(United) supremo Nitish Kumar was earlier slated to take place on June 12. Reports said the decision to change in dates was taken after Congress announced Kharge and Gandhi would not be able to be part of the meeting on June 12 due to prior commitments.

This will be the first mega meeting of all the opposition parties together, which was in planning for almost two months now. Bihar CM Kumar had started his bid for opposition unity against the Centre ruling BJP in April when he met Kharge and Gandhi in Delhi with his deputy Yadav and other leaders of Bihar Mahagathbandhan.

The Agenda of the meeting in Patna is expected to be deciding a common strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Opposition parties have been throwing signals of unity for some months now, the most recent one, the boycott of the inauguration of the new Parliament building by 20 like-minded opposition parties, the show of strength- leaders of different parties shared the stage while attending the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM on May 20.

Congress leader KC Venugopal said they believe in unity and are committed to the purpose of defending democracy. He further added they would surely defeat the divisive forces which are in power at the Centre.