A meeting of political parties supporting the Women's Reservation Bill on Tuesday failed to evolve a strategy on its passage in Rajya Sabha, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties demanding that a discussion be held before voting.The meeting was called by leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee to discuss a strategy to ensure smooth passage of the Constitution amendment bill.Sources said the meeting failed to reach a consensus on the passage of the proposed law.
Calling for a national discussion on replicating the Gujarat model of making voting compulsory, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday criticised the Congress and Left parties for opposing it 'without applying their minds'. Describing the bill as 'innovative and useful', senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the modalities of experimenting it in other states should be discussed.
'Who has given them the right to decide that I am not a Hindu like them'
Scores of opposition workers were taken into custody by police in several areas across the state.
Modi termed it a 'historic document' to fulfil his government's aim of 'sabka sath sabka vikas'.
'The situation in the country is very scary.' 'There is an increasing attack on the Constitutional democratic rights of our people.'
Even two-and-a-half years after the National Democratic Alliance came to power, people remember the previous United Progressive Alliance regime for corruption, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday, asserting that demonetisation would go a long way in curbing black money.
Sources said the Congress leadership is also in talks with AAP leaders and senior leaders within the party are trying to convince Delhi Congress leaders for an alliance.
The Bihar government on Sunday vowed to punish those responsible for "lapses" that led to the stampede at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna on October 3, leaving 33 people dead and 29 injured.
The National Democratic Alliance, led by strong man Narendra Modi secured a whopping 352 of 542 seats, making it evident that his message of muscular nationalism, security and Hindu pride had worked wonders.
Shah said the government was committed to ensure development in the country.
Parallel to this, the ruling Telugu Desam has been organising rallies across the state in solidarity with its MPs.
Meanwhile, the prime minister's media adviser Sanjaya Baru described as "incorrect" reports that Manmohan Singh has appealed to Left parties not to boycott Bush's visit to India.
Kerala Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal CM and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, and Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy lent support to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government's fight with the Centre.
Left parties on Monday agreed to consider government proposals to divest small percentage of equity in non-Navratna profit-making PSUs on a case-to-case basis.
The former UP CM also expressed his gratitude towards Mayawati, who was once his party's bitterest rival in UP.
Some of the key proposals of the agenda relate to transforming the banking sector, addressing agrarian distress, countering hate crimes and discrimination, and spurring employment generation.
Seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation under court supervision into chit fund scam in West Bengal, Left parties on Thursday accused the Mamata Banerjee government of opposing such a probe into the "unprecedented fraud" and failing to take any step to recover "hard-earned" savings of the people.
Among those attending the meeting from the government side were Defence Minister AK Anthony, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal. The Left parties were represented by the Communist Party of India's A B Bardhan and D Raja, and the CPI-M by Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri
The Communist Party of India Marxist, the largest among the Left parties, said the increase in FDI cap would lead to the outflow of Indian people's savings to lubricate speculative profits. It maintained that the Left had not allowed the UPA to take this decision for the past four years.
It was an eventful year for the Left parties capping over four years of love-hate relationship with Congress-led United Progressive Alliance coalition with which they severed ties on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
In the second phase on April 18, 97 seats,spread across 13 states and one Union Territory, will go to the polls.
Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties on Friday slammed Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily for claiming to be under threat from oil import lobby, saying that the minister was concocting a story to help private firms gain from his proposal to raise natural gas prices.
Opposition and members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G on Wednesday demanded the ouster of chairperson P C Chacko for being "highly partisan" and asked Speaker Meira Kumar to replace him with a new chief. The JPC has 30 members, including Chacko.
A controversy erupted on Monday over business tycoon Mukesh Ambani being provided Z category security with Left parties condemning it as "unprecedented" while the Centre sought to defuse the row saying he will bear the expenses.
Fresh from confabulations with AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, CPI top leader A B Bardhan sees another opportunity for the Left parties to play a more effective role at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Condemning the Hyderabad blasts, the Left parties on Friday warned against any "preconceived notions" about probable culprits or attempts to communalise the incident, saying several innocents have been imprisoned wrongly and released later in earlier cases.
President Pratibha Patil has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet her on Thursday in the wake of Left parties withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance government. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued on Wednesday, hours after the four Left parties submitted letters snapping ties with the UPA government, said, "Keeping in mind these political developments, the President has requested the Prime Minister to meet her tomorrow to have his views."
Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party for not supporting the United Progressive Alliance government's efforts to pass a resolution in Parliament on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and rejected accusations hurled at the Congress.
Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members were on Monday evicted enmasse from Tamil Nadu Assembly with a couple of them being handed a two-day suspension for disrupting the proceedings.
The already strained relations between the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the Left parties hit the nadir on Friday with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi stating that Communist Party of India - Marxist leader N Varadharajan's remarks only showed that the Left parties had already decided to walk out of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance. Karunanidhi took a dig at the CPI-M state secretary on the latter's remarks that Congress was a 'sinking ship'
'The Congress's arrogance and unrealistic claims have weakened the anti-BJP movement at the national level.'
Left parties on Tuesday stopped short of seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after the Supreme Court's observations on the coal allocation scam, but asked him to face Parliament as he "owes an answer" to the country. They demanded the ouster of Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.
Singh also said that lynching incidents have been happening for years and mentioned that the biggest lynchings happened in 1984.
The Left Front leaders, led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat, have reached the Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit their letter withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance government to the President. Following the withdrawal of support by the Left parties the strength of the ruling coalition has been reduced to 230.
The Left parties will submit by July 10 to President Pratibha Patil their letter withdrawing support to the UPA government, Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said on Monday.
Days before the passage of the Finance Bill in the Parliament, Left party leaders on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded urgent steps by the United Progressive Alliance government to check growing prices of essential commodities. Top leaders of four Left parties, supporting the government placed six demands before him, saying these measures should be taken immediately to curb burgeoning prices.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday played down the Left parties' threat to withdraw support from the United Progressive Alliance government over the nuclear deal. Once negotiations are over on the nuclear deal the government will come to Parliament before operationalising the deal, Dr Singh said.
During the nearly two-hour meeting that lasted almost till midnight at 10 Janpath, Mukherjee, the government's pointsman on the deal with United Progressive Alliance allies and the Left parties, and Antony apprised Sonia of the talks they had with leaders of the constituents of the ruling alliance and the Communist Party of India-Marxist and CPI in the last two days. Emerging from the meeting, neither Mukherjee nor Antony spoke to the media.
The Left parties have steadfastly opposed the 123 agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States. The United Progressive Alliance-Left Committee on Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation was constituted to discuss the problems arising out of the provisions of the Hyde Act and its impact on the 123 agreement.
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