Parliament on Monday passed The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, to repeal the three contentious agri laws against which farmers have been protesting for over a year, with its passage in Rajya Sabha.
The proceedings of the House were adjourned till 2 pm as slogan-shouting TMC and other opposition MPs trooped into the well of the House, some holding placards, to demand a discussion on the issue of Israeli-made, military-grade Pegasus spyware being used to snoop on opposition leaders, government critics and journalists.
The Centre needs to have dialogue with the Opposition instead of letting politics come in the way; it needs to stoop to conquer, says Aditi Phadnis.
Differences of opinion are a part of democracy and there are ways to find solutions to that, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Thursday in Rajya Sabha on whether there exists differences between the judiciary and the executive on the issue of appointment of judges.
The opposition strategy to corner the government on Manipur will continue in the Rajya Sabha as well, the sources said.
'Union Budgets are often used as political instruments and that was the intention of this government too.' 'But while the exercise has settled two fronts, it has left open several others and this has the potential to aggravate with time,' predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The TMC and the Congress are at daggers drawn over the recent instances of 'poaching' by the Mamata Banerjee-led camp.
Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee attributed her party's abstention from voting on the Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha to a "communication gap" and said she was committed to the Constitutional amendment.
While several opposition parties criticised the move, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the Parliament session is being held under special and extraordinary circumstances.
The controversial Land Ordinance was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday by Union Minister of State for Skill Development Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Only vegetarian dishes were served at the official dinner held at a state-run five-star hotel.
An interim report on the action has also been sent by the field investigation wing of the income tax department to the Central Board of Direct Taxes in Delhi, the administrative body for the department.
The West Bengal Congress unit issued a denial and said the state president meant "TMC and BJP are just the opposite sides of the same coin as both are venomous and spread lies".
Parliament proceedings were adjourned for the day following disruptions by Opposition parties which raised slogans on the Pegasus snooping row and the farmers' issue by gathering in the Well of the House.
The only other legislative action was the approval of the Supplementary Demands for Grants.
Top Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy has been asked by Central Bureau of Investigation to appear before it in the Saradha chit fund scam probe, drawing angry reaction from the party which accused Bharatiya Janata Party of using the agency as a "political tool".
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Trinamool Congress on Saturday removed Mukul Roy, a former confidante of Mamata Banerjee, from the key post of party general secretary.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party candidates Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki on Friday won Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress on Friday welcomed the statements of opposition leaders condemning Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha and said it was now time for the party to take on the job of building the opposition unity in a "systematic way".
Kejriwal said the eight MPs were fighting for the rights of farmers without worrying about heat, mosquitoes or other inconveniences and have spent the night protesting in the Parliament complex.
'If she manages to throw out people, go for surgical operations, clean up her image, she will be victorious.'
Watch the live telecast from the Parliament.
18 leaders from 14 parties said it is unfortunate that the government has 'unleashed a misleading campaign to malign the combined opposition' and blaming it for the continued disruption of Parliament proceedings.
After the trio who called on Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday -- retired diplomat and ex-Janata Dal-United MP Pavan Varma; retired cricketer and former BJP MP Kirti Azad; former Congressman Ashok Tanwar -- it was Dr Swamy's turn to call on Didi at her nephew Abishek Banerjee's Delhi home on Wednesday, instantly triggering speculation of his joining the TMC.
"The conduct of opposition leaders in the Upper House of Parliament on Sunday was shameful, irresponsible and utter disrespect to parliamentary rules and dignity," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Senior police officials said they received a complaint and are looking into it.
The accident occurred at 3.45 AM near Barabamboo, around 80 km from Jamshedpur, under the Chakradharpur Division of the South Eastern Railway (SER), they said.
Its passage in the Lok Sabha is all but certain due to the massive majority the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies have, and the Union government is confident of its passage in the Rajya Sabha as well with the support of several non-aligned regional parties which have often joined the treasury benches in the past.
Members from parties, including National Democratic Alliance partner Telugu Desam Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Trinamool Congress, continued their protests on various issues.
Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed another low with a member tearing a newspaper and throwing its pieces in the House, drawing strong condemnation from the Chair.
Some constituents of the alliance have raised concern that the panels, particularly the 14-member coordination committee, are at risk of becoming ineffective, as their decisions have so far not been acted upon.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
Soon after the obituary references and laying of papers, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan moved a motion for Shantanu Sen's suspension. The TMC member had snatched papers from Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and tore those in the House on Thursday. The motion was passed by a voice vote and Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked Sen to leave the House.
Banerjee, who met party MPs, discussed various issues that need to be brought up in Parliament, including the Nagaland tragedy in which 13 civilians were killed in firing by security forces, the COVID-19 situation and the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members.
Opposition parties have not been given the chairmanship of any of the four key parliamentary panels including the committee on home affairs and information technology, which were with the Congress, in the latest rejig announced on Tuesday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was an experienced leader and it would be great if a proposal came to make him the convenor of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
'Most senior Congress leaders in Assam have a secret understanding with the BJP.' 'They are hobnobbing with the chief minister for their self-interest.'
