Embroiled in a CD controversy, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Monday resigned as chairman of a parliamentary committee and party spokesperson in a damage control exercise ahead of the resumption of the budget session Tuesday.
With the government inches closer to the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee after the Congress party reportedly took a decision that enough damage had been done by Parliament being stalled and a signal filtering across that the government had something to hide, sources said that the modalities of how this has to be done are still to be worked out.
One of the reasons why the TMC decided not to demand a JPC is that the chairperson and most of its members would be from the BJP, he said, adding JPC means putting the issue under the carpet.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Tarun Vijay on Friday rejected the government theory that the Central Bureau of Investigation raids on Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is a natural culmination of unearthing the corruption in staging the gala Games.
Ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament, the government has convened a meeting of floor leaders of political parties in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Saturday.
The opposition alliance that will take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and an 11-member committee will be set up for coordination, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced after a meeting of the parties in Bengaluru.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kharge termed the high-level committee constituted by the Centre to examine the feasibility of 'One Nation, One Election' a 'gimmick' and alleged the Modi government wants to slowly replace democracy in India with dictatorship.
After promising support to the United Progressive Alliance government over the 2G Spectrum controversy, Tirnamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee took the Congress by surprise when she joined the Opposition in their demand for a joint parliamentary committee on Monday.
The impending expulsion of Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha, three bills to replace criminal laws and a proposed law for the appointment of election commissioners are issues set to dominate the Winter Session of Parliament, with the government urging the Opposition to ensure a conducive environment for discussions in the House.
By filing his nomination as Congress president on Friday, Shashi Tharoor has shown he is no 'quockerwodger' -- a word he introduced into our lexicon which means someone acting on the instructions of an influential third party.
"The Bhartiya Janata Party wants to use the Joint Parliamentary Committee as the political tool. It's the issue of ego. It's a political demand so the Congress is not agreeing to it," says Janardhan Dwivedi, chairman of media cell of the Congress, while talking exclusively to rediff.com about why Congress is not agreeing to a JPC to look into allegations related to the allotment of 2G spectrum.
Nearly half of the MPs elected in the 2019 general elections in India were first-timers.
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Monday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which is probing the 2G spectrum scam, to explain how the government auditor quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Rai was asked to brief the Committee, chaired by Congress leader P C Chacko, on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum during 1998 to 2009.
Doubting the United Progressive Alliance government's intentions in conducting an impartial probe into the VVIP chopper deal, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded that a special investigation team be set up to investigate the matter under a monitoring mechanism.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday named its candidates for assembly bypolls in several states, fielding six disqualified MLAs of the Himachal Pradesh assembly in the state days after they joined the party after leaving the Congress.
Both Houses have been witnessing a ruckus over the Rafale fighter jet deal and Cauvery river issue, among other matters.
Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan was named a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G spectrum scam after her colleague Abhishek Singhvi recused himself taking the plea that he had appeared for cellular operators in the court as a senior advocate.
With the government moving a resolution in the Lok Sabha to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, the battle lines between the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party have become more tightly drawn with the Congress preparing its ammunition to target the BJP during its National Democratic Alliance government, in a bid to expose the actions of their telecom ministers.
Modi will inaugurate the new Parliament building on May 28 following an invitation by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
India will benefit hugely if the representation of women in Parliament is increased to a just level.
A fresh political war of words erupted on Tuesday over the Rafale issue as the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress leadership of corruption citing claims of a French media report on 'commissions' being paid during the United Progressive Alliance rule and said the Indian National Congress should be renamed 'I Need Commission' party.
21-member parliament panel would review the bill.
The Congress said on Wednesday that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad did not give any dissent note to the Women's Reservation Bill despite being a member of the Parliamentary Committee concerned, which went into the measure.
With the Parliament stalled for the 18th consecutive day on Tuesday over the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G spectrum scam, the Congress core committee met yet again on Tuesday evening to take stock of the situation both inside and outside Parliament.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation by the Congress led-United Progressive Alliance government.
A meeting of Joint Parliamentary Committee examining 2G scam on Tuesday saw heated exchanges as Bharatiya Janata Party members demanded summoning of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and top PMO officials which was countered by Congress members with their own list of witnesses that included all National Democratic Alliance telecom ministers.
Moitra brought two birthday caps in the House to press her argument that the businessman being most talked about had "topi-pehnau-ed" the government.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to meet on Friday evening in the backdrop of opposition demand for a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into the Indian Premier League controversy.
With this, the total number of MPs suspended for unruly behaviour from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha stands at an unprecedented 146 since December 14.
The ruling BJP has issued a whip to its MPs, asking them to ensure their presence in the House.
Sources at the private hospital where Mitra was admitted to said he died due to heart and age-related ailments.
Leader of opposition Sonia Gandhi, deputy leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Shivraj Patil, and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Vijay Kumar Malhotra and former minister Shanta Kumar may also be part of the committee.
The Congress has, however, countered this saying someone who is not an MP of Rajya Sabha cannot be called to the House and there cannot be any discussion/reflection on or about an MP of Lok Sabha.
Apparently seeking to pacify an angry BJP, Joint Parliamentary Committee chief P C Chacko on Tuesday dismissed reports that the panel has named former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in its draft report in the 2G scam.
Panel chairman Thakur is believed to have informed Dev that the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting.
Leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc are set to meet at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi on December 6 to formulate a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee will probe the controversial chopper deal, with the government on Wednesday asserting that there will be "no cover up" as it was determined to go to the root of the scam and give maximum punishment to the guilty.
Fondly remembering the contribution of retiring members from the Rajya Sabha, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said the wisdom shared by them would be greatly missed and their departure would leave a void.
