Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's 'rashtrapatni' remark snowballed into a major political row on Thursday with the Bharatiya Janata Party accusing the opposition party of insulting President Droupadi Murmu and demanding that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi should apologise to the nation.
'Not just 12 MPs, but 22 former Shiv Sena MLAs as well as four MLAs who are still in Uddhav Thackeray's camp will be switching to our side gradually.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair an all-party meeting on Saturday to put forth the government's legislative agenda for the Budget Session of Parliament.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will brief parliamentary leaders of various political parties on August 26 on the developments in war-torn Afghanistan.
Opposition parties on Thursday suspended their dharna against the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs at the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the Parliament complex in view of the death of Chief of Defence staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others in a chopper crash a day ago.
The Budget Session of Parliament will commence on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on April 8 wherein the first part of the session will extend up to February 11, said the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Sunday.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP tweeted the image, explaining the sequence of events and the conversation between the two leaders.
In a late-night tweet on Thursday, the Prime Minister wrote, 'Since many have asked, what is it that I want for my birthday, here is what I seek right now: Keep wearing a mask and wear it properly; Follow social distancing. Remember 'Do Gaj Ki Doori'; Avoid crowded spaces; Improve your immunity.'
During the period of COVID-19 lockdown, no such actionable inputs were received by NCB revealing the nexus between people in the film industry and drug traffickers'
There's enough time for Mamata Banerjee to change her mind, Alva said.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
The protest march led to massive traffic snarls in several parts of the national capital, including Lutyens' Delhi and ITO.
Setting in motion the process for the 16th presidential election, the Election Commission on Thursday said anyone desiring to contest would need 50 electors as proposers and 50 others as seconders -- a move aimed at weeding out non-serious candidates in these polls that once saw nominations getting rejected for 36 out of 37 candidates.
In run-up to the session, while over 4,000 people including MPs and staff have been tested for COVID-19, most parliamentary operations have been digitalized, entire premises sanitised and doors made touch-free.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a two-day political tour of poll-bound West Bengal from Thursday during which he will launch the fifth and final phase of the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'Poriborton Yatra' from the South 24 Parganas district and attend several other programmes.
The coronavirus has so far killed more than 3,200 people globally.
Around 100 lawmakers from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples' Party submitted the no-confidence motion before the National Assembly Secretariat on March 8, alleging that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf government led by Khan was responsible for the economic crisis and the spiralling inflation in the country.
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper and summoned her for a second round of questioning in the case on July 25.
'Today arrogance of power has gone to your head. Why are you losing the mandate? We are endorsing all rotten policies of the Congress which is not in our interest. Leakage in drops of water from a pitcher empties it. So is with the mandate'
'But will there be matching action as far as tribals are concerned on the ground?'
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Sharif, 70, and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday filed their nomination papers for the post.
The change of government in Pakistan after the exit of hawkish Imran Khan and his likely replacement by hard-core realist Shehbaz Sharif may provide a little window of opportunity for the leaders of India and Pakistan to reset their nearly frozen bilateral ties, according to experts.
Modi's critics will say that he has put up cement and steel structures, but weakened the institutions of governance whereas Nehru strengthened them, observes T N Ninan.
The Central Vista revamp, announced in September, 2019 envisages a new triangular Parliament building, with seating capacity for 900 to 1,200 MPs, that is to be constructed by August, 2022 when the country will be celebrating its 75th Independence Day.
The Opposition hit out at the government over the absence of Rajya Sabha Chairman, Lok Sabha Speaker and ministers from the traditional event marking the birth anniversary of those whose portraits adorn Parliament's Central Hall.
The plea also states that the petitioners are also questioning why or how the project constitutes an "essential service", merely because some executive mandated contractual deadline has to be met.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday contested the assertion in a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement that the new farm laws were passed in Parliament after a full debate and discussion, terming it as 'a travesty of the truth'.
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.
She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.
Prime Minister Khan, who had effectively lost his majority in the 342-member National Assembly, made a brief address to the nation after a stormy parliament session was adjourned by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri.
To mark the day, the BJP has asked its workers to facilitate the COVID-19 vaccination drive as it eyes record-breaking numbers on Friday.
The revamp, which was announced in September last year, envisages a new triangular Parliament building, with seating capacity for 900 to 1,200 MPs, that is targeted to be constructed by August, 2022 when the country will be celebrating its 75th Independence Day.
Putting the blame on the Opposition for the unruly scenes witnessed during the monsoon session of Parliament, a group of Union ministers on Thursday said the Rajya Sabha chairman must take the strongest possible action against those who broke the rules.
'Despite our being a part of a welfare state, benefits are not trickling down to the intended beneficiaries at the desired levels. People's aspirations about leading a dignified life are often met with challenges. One of them, primarily, being poverty'
'This kind of poisonous and anti-national activities happening in the country and the economic failure of the Modi government may boomerang in the form of a Congress revival.'
The government on Tuesday asserted in Lok Sabha that it was ready to discuss issues related to farmers both inside and outside Parliament amid vociferous protests by the Opposition which forced repeated adjournments of both the Houses.
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was in conversation with Congress's Shashi Tharoor over something they saw on Naqvi's phone.
Assam CM said the police case filed against two senior Mizoram government officials - Deputy Commissioner of Kolasib district and Sub-divisional Police Officer of Vairengte - will be withdrawn.
The prime minister told the MPs that the northeast is very close to his heart and his love for the region is very natural. Quoting Modi, Rijiju saidthe PM asserted that he doesn't look at the region from the prism of politics.
'I don't know how Jayaji could ever think I am not on the same page as her.'
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