New Delhi: The BJP Parliamentary meeting took place Tuesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party’s new national president J.P. Nadda, and a host of ministers including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, though, were missing from the year’s first BJP parliamentary party meet.
Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, who has been in the news for his comments on Shaheen Bagh protestors, was also present.
At the meeting, PM Modi said some people were trying to mislead public on the Union Budget and said critics acknowledged it was the best economic plan under the prevailing global economic scenario.
BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, who had triggered a controversy last year by calling Nathuram Godse a ‘deshbhakt’ (patriot), was also present.
The gathering was the first parliamentary party meet for Nadda as BJP chief after he took over the party’s reins on 20 January.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar was also present at the meeting, which comes a day after BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde dismissed India’s freedom movement as a “staged drama”.
The recently-signed Bodo accord also featured during the meeting, with PM Modi hailing the “historic” treaty. He said the agreement will usher in an era of peace in the North East which has suffered decades of bloodshed and violence.
While discussing the upcoming assembly elections in the capital, Nadda said over 240 party MPs were spending several days in Delhi’s poor colonies to reach out to voters.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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