{"id":240184,"date":"2024-05-12T00:06:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T18:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=240184"},"modified":"2024-05-12T00:06:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T18:36:19","slug":"gandhi-up-for-public-debate-on-ls-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2024\/05\/12\/gandhi-up-for-public-debate-on-ls-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Gandhi up for public debate on LS elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>NEW DELHI, 11 May:<\/strong> Lauding the initiative for a public debate on the Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that he or party chief Mallikarjun Kharge would be pleased to participate in such a discussion, and expressed hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also take part.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;It would be a positive initiative for the major parties to present their vision to the country from one platform for a healthy democracy,&#8221; Gandhi said in a post on X.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He added that the nation expects Modi to participate in the debate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Congress leader shared on X his reply to retired justices Madan B Lokur, Ajit P Shah and N Ram, who had written to him and the prime minister earlier this week, inviting them to a platform for a debate on the key election issues.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In their letter addressed to the country&#8217;s leaders, the trio stated that the proposal for the debate is non-partisan and in the broader interest of every citizen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gandhi said that he has discussed the invitation with Kharge and they agreed that such a debate would help people understand &#8220;our respective vision and enable them to make an informed choice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;It is also critical to put to rest any unsubstantiated allegations attributed to our respective parties. As the principal parties fighting the election, the public deserve to hear from their leaders directly,&#8221; Gandhi said in his letter replying to the invitation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Accordingly, either myself or the Congress president would be pleased to participate in such a debate,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former Congress chief said also that he looks forward to participating in a productive and historic debate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Please do let us know if and when the prime minister agrees to participate, following which we can discuss the details and format of the debate,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In his post on X, accompanied by the letter, Gandhi said, &#8220;Congress welcomes this initiative and accepts the invitation for discussion. The country also expects the prime minister to take part in this dialogue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At an event in Lucknow on Friday, answering a question from a member of the audience, Gandhi said he is &#8220;100 percent&#8221; prepared to take on Modi in a debate, and added that he knows that the prime minister would not agree.(PTI)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI, 11 May: Lauding the initiative for a public debate on the Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that he or party chief Mallikarjun Kharge would be pleased to participate in such a discussion, and expressed hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also take part. &#8220;It would be a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-240184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}