'It is a crisis of BJP's own doing. This is an in-house fire.'
With the second phase of Parliament's Budget session set to start next week, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday held a strategy meeting with senior leaders at a time when the Opposition is expected to raise the coal scam and 2G spectrum issues.
The Budget Session of Parliament will begin on Monday with the address by President Ram Nath Kovind to both Houses in the Central Hall.
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In his notice to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, the Congress leader alleged that the home minister had made unfounded allegations against chairperson of Congress parliamentary party with "a premeditated motive to malign her reputation."
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On the eve of the budget session of Parliament, the government on Sunday reached out to the opposition
At a meeting of the business advisory committee of Lok Sabha, which has floor leaders of all parties besides the government representatives and is chaired by the Speaker, most political parties favoured curtailment of the session, which started on September 14 and was scheduled to conclude on October 1.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday issued a three-line whip to all of its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the House for the passing of the Union Budget 2025-26.
Senior government officials say that barring the National Housing Bank Amendment Bill, no major Bill -- not even the Banking Bill which the Cabinet has cleared -- will make it to Parliament by May 22, the last day of this Budget session.
The recent surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are expected to grab limelight during the month-long session. Some parties have alleged that the government is trying to politicise it.
The Lower House of Parliament took up the Demands for Grants and Appropriation Bills after two adjournments as the ruling and Opposition MPs engaged in a matching duet over demands for an apology by Rahul Gandhi and the Adani issue.
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The deadly stampede at the Maha Kumbh, leading to the deaths of at least 30 people, resonated in both Houses of Parliament on Monday, with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other Opposition leaders demanding a list of the deceased.
The session will see 18 sittings without any weekend break or holiday, they said. The dates and other details of this first-of-its-kind session will be announced soon.
The Indian government has increased the salaries of Members of Parliament (MPs) by 24 percent, effective April 1, 2023. This increase was based on the Cost Inflation Index and brings their monthly salary to Rs 1.24 lakh. The notification also included increases in daily allowances for sitting members, pension, and additional pension for former MPs. While some MPs welcomed the increase, others expressed dissatisfaction and instead advocated for a rise in the MP Local Area Development Fund (MPLADS). The increase has been implemented based on the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act and the Cost Inflation Index specified in the Income Tax Act of 1961.
The first two days of the session will be devoted to swearing-in of the newly elected MPs while the Lok Sabha speaker will be elected on June 19.
Day 3 of the second part of the budget session of Parliament.
"The President was getting very tired by the end... she could hardly speak, poor thing," Sonia Gandhi, the former Congress chief, was heard saying in clips in what appeared to be a reference to how long the address was.
The Question Hour in Lok Sabha has been disrupted every day since March 13.
Rajya Sabha Chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar sought views of leaders of various political parties on ways to curb disruptions in the House at a meeting held on Sunday on the eve of the start of the second phase of the Budget session.
The need for finding options for proper functioning of Parliament is of paramount importance as the frequency of the passage of Budgets and other economic Bills without discussion or debate has only increased in the last few years, notes A K Bhattacharya.
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The prime minister, who spoke in the Upper House as it bid farewell to 53 retiring MPs, noted that Rajya Sabha members are representatives of the states and the interest of their state should be a priority for them.
The Budget session of Parliament is likely to conclude on Thursday, a day ahead of schedule.
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'With one more year remaining in the term, and 58 average sitting days a year, the 17th Lok Sabha is unlikely to sit for more than 331 days.' 'This could make it the shortest full-term Lok Sabha since 1952.'
In a statement, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said Thursday that due to their location at different places in the Parliament premises, visitors were not able to see these statues conveniently.
A leading Catholic Church daily in Kerala has described the Waqf amendment bill as a crucial test of secularism in Parliament, urging MPs to support it. The editorial in Deepika daily comes as the union government prepares to table the bill for parliamentary consideration. The editorial calls the bill a test of secularism and warns MPs that failing to support it would mark them in history as endorsing religious fundamentalism. The paper added that the bill will also put an end to the injustices faced by thousands of Hindu, Christian, and Muslim citizens who have suffered due to the Waqf law. The editorial also recalled the recent statement addressed to Kerala MPs by Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) where the KCBC President Cardinal Mar Baselios Cleemis Catholicos urged amending provisions in the Waqf law that validate claims over land which people of Munambam have lawfully possessed. Opposition parties have slammed the bill as "unconstitutional" and against the interest of the Muslim community.
The Indian government has informed Parliament that 25 Indian nationals have been sentenced to death in the UAE, but the judgments are yet to be implemented. The Ministry of External Affairs stated that 10,152 Indian prisoners, including undertrials, are currently incarcerated in foreign prisons. The government provides assistance to Indian nationals sentenced to death abroad, including consular access and legal aid. In the past five years, Indian nationals have been executed in Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The UAE authorities have not shared any data regarding the execution of Indians, but informal information suggests no executions have occurred since 2020.
The Congress party has accused the BJP of engaging in "damage control" after the party distanced itself from comments made by two of its MPs, Nishikant Dubey and Dinesh Sharma, criticizing the Supreme Court. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh stated that the BJP's clarification was merely an attempt to mitigate the damage caused by the MPs' remarks and that the party's actions were hypocritical, given the silence of the BJP president on similar comments made by other party members.
