Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday urged the government to put an end to the alleged 'systematic interference' of Facebook and other social media giants in India's electoral politics.
Proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were disrupted as Opposition members raised slogans demanding a discussion and a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the fraud-allegation-triggered rout.
Most of the members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were seen wearing face masks. However, members had crowded the Lok Sabha chamber, while hardly a handful of others, including union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal, were seen seated in the Rajya Sabha chamber.
'It was Maulana Azad's foresight which created the IITs, UGC, science academies across the country.'
During the monsoon session, which began on Monday, the Opposition is seeking to corner the government on its handling of the standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the COVID-19 situation, economic downturn and unemployment, and is pressing for discussions on these issues.
Birla said he was assured by the leaders of their cooperation in conducting the Lok Sabha proceedings without any adjournment and added that he would give adequate time to all parties to raise their issues.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said legislators across the country should be driven by passion, performance and procedural integrity, and desist from disrupting law-making bodies.
Without naming anyone, Modi at a Constitution Day event in the Central Hall of Parliament hit out at family-based parties, describing them as 'party for the family, party by the family' and added, 'I don't think I need to say anything more'.
Amid growing concerns over the spurt in COVID-19 cases in China and some other countries, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the focus is to ensure that no unknown variant of the virus enters India and at the same time there is no impediment to travelling.
As soon as the House met at 2 pm, papers were laid on the table and two resolutions adopted amid slogan shouting and protest by Congress members.
After Rahul Gandhi gave 'permission' to another MP to speak while he was speaking, the Speaker said, "Who are you to give this permission? You can't give permission, that's my right."
'We strongly object to raising the internal issue of India here and we also reject the politicisation of this forum'
Presiding officers of both Houses Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday held deliberations on the logistics of organising the session in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sources said options were being explored so that both Houses could function simultaneously during the session, and not on alternate days as some sections of the media were claiming.
It was after a gap of two decades that saw such an occasion where MPs of the upper house enthralled their fellow colleagues at a dinner hosted by Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for 72 retiring members.
After the Shiv Sena's division in Maharashtra assembly, its parliamentary party was also staring at a split with several MPs set to petition Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to recognise them as a separate group.
She was offered sweets by her ministerial colleagues, but that did not help and she opted to discontinue the speech asking Speaker Om Birla to consider the remaining part of her speech as read. This was the longest Budget speech by any finance minister.
Frequent sanitisation of the entire parliament complex will also be carried out, while arrangements have been made to sanitise various parliamentary papers as well as footwear and cars of MPs, officials said.
The two actors-turned-politicians could not take oath as Nusrat Jahan recently got married to businessman Nikhil Jain and Chakraborty also attended the ceremony in Turkey.
Adani group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group. The group has maintained it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
Modi, who was accompanied by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Manoj Tiwari, said Dikhsit made a noteworthy contribution to the development of the national capital.
Several parties had requested that the session, which was originally scheduled to continue till April 8, be curtailed due to the five assembly elections being held in eight phases till April 29.
Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations in its report, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday rejected in Lok Sabha the claim by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury that he sat on Rabindranath Tagore's chair during his visit to Visva Bharati.
The protests came after Speaker Om Birla announced the end of Question Hour at noon as the designated time for it is 11 am to noon. While asking the first supplementary, Gandhi said he wanted to know the list of 50 top wilful defaulters, including funds given and the amount written off by banks but did not get a proper answer in the written reply.
The video clip shows the Rana couple sitting on chairs and sipping tea in front of police officials at Khar police station. Bottles of mineral water are also seen on the table in front of them.
In the letter sent on Sunday, the Lok Sabha MP from Amravati has demanded strict action against Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay PandeY.
The first part of the Budget Session of Parliament is likely to end on February 13 instead of February 15, sources said on Friday, underling that the total number of working days would however remain the same.
The BJP seems wanting to return to a 'Tamil Hindutva' agenda for elections in Tamil Nadu, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP's Badaun MP Sanghamitra Maurya has written to the Lok Sabha speaker, demanding disqualification of TMC MP Nusrat Jahan for allegedly giving a false affidavit over her marital status to the Parliament.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday said Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has recognised Rahul Shewale as the Shiv Sena leader in the Lower House of Parliament.
Chowdhury said the family faces threat to life and the cover by the elite security organisation should not have been withdrawn.
It is clear to any observer that the BJP risks its demolition drive boomeranging on itself. Except for one unpredictable factor in the works -- Rahul Gandhi himself, observes Shyam G Menon.
Leading the Opposition attack over the Adani-Hindenburg issue in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday linked Gautam Adani's meteoric rise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coming to power and said "magic" happened after 2014 that propelled the businessman from the 609th to the second spot on the global rich list.
14 bills were passed by the Lower House while 15 bills were passed by Rajya Sabha.
Opposition members, including from the Congress and the TMC, started raising slogans and showing placards to attack the government on the snooping issue as soon as the House met for the day at 11 am.
Naidu visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to enquire about his former cabinet colleague's health.
The two women MPs -- Jothimani and Ramya Haridas -- have filed a complaint with the Speaker Om Birla.
President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The ongoing session is scheduled to conclude on July 26, but the sources said the government was mulling to extend it till August 2 to ensure passage of all the bills listed for business.
The 77 ministers have been divided into eight groups to develop technology-based resources, create a pool of professionals for recruiting in their teams and other similar initiatives to be adopted in the offices of all ministers' offices to bring more transparency and further improve and efficiency of the Modi government, the sources said.
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