With two weeks of the monsoon session having passed without much significant business, Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal on Friday reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party top brass, including L K Advani, to discuss smooth passage of pending bills in the House.
This is the first Budget in my memory of Budgets over the last half a century which has embraced upfront, enthusiastically and emphatically, technology, modernity and fiscal sobriety, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Soon after United Progressive Alliance announced Pranab Mukherjee as its candidate for the Presidential election, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj to seek BJP's support for him.
Accusing the Opposition of not allowing the government to put forth its views in Parliament on Anna Hazare's detention, two senior ministers on Tuesday said such an attitude was "not fair" in a parliamentary system. Leader of the Lok Sabha and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Opposition created a pandemonium in Parliament forcing its adjournment.
The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also observed silence for two minutes in the memory of Mukherjee.
Responding to the price rise debate in Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said that it should be tackled by leaders across all the political parties.
The discussion on the joint statement would start after a special discussion on the issue of price rise of essential commodities, an issue that led to protests from several opposition parties in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday.
The standoff over Women's Reservation Bill ended on Thursday with the government announcing that the proposed legislation would be brought in the Lok Sabha only after consultations with all sections.
The Left parties were on Tuesday subjected to ridicule by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who suggested that they were not keeping pace with the "moving" world and contended that the UPA would have met its Waterloo if it had followed economic prescription of erstwhile allies.
The Sena leader further said the RSS's agenda behind inviting Mukherjee as the chief guest to one of its event, held in Nagpur on June 7, would only be clear after the 2019 general elections.
"Because when we disrupt the House then it serves no purpose. We cannot hear. We cannot speak. Only a handful of members completely throttle the desire of a silent majority to speak," Pranab Mukherjee said, initiating the debate to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first sitting of Parliament.
Notwithstanding the clear edge for Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential race, the opposition National Democratic Alliance on Saturday appeared keen on ensuring a contest even if it means supporting P A Sangma in a bid to gain new allies ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday slammed the government on the issue of the cartoon of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar in school text books and accused the Congress of "insulting" Gujjar, Jat, Sikh and Jain communities.
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.
The session will discuss a legislation on the offices of profit besides several other bills.
Pranab's earlier fear of Sonia relying too heavily on a coterie due to her lack of experience turned out to be unfounded. As per Pranab, Sonia had her close advisers but she did not follow anyone's advice blindly. A fascinating excerpt from Sharmistha Mukherjee's Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers.
Making a strong defence of the nuclear deal during the debate on confidence motion, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected the Left parties' allegations of betrayal and took potshots at leader of opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani, saying he should not "distort" facts in "over enthusiasm" to score political points.
The government is going all out to get the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill passed in Parliament, even if it means making changes to the
Advani wanted a reassurance from the government that Arunachal Pradesh is an inalienable part of India.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, an influential Congress leader from West Bengal's Murshidabad district and known to be close to President Pranab Mukherjee, is a three-time Lok Sabha MP.
Mukherjee's family and relatives paid their last respects clad in PPE kits while conforming to COVID-19 safeguards.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday took its grievances against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding his intervention on the coal allocation issue and attacks on a constitutional institution like the Comptroller and Auditor General.
A two-minute silence was observed in his memory and the two Houses, which were on their last day of the winter session, adjourned sine die as a mark of respect.
There are red faces in the government and the leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee is reported to be furious at the mismanagement and lack of co-ordination within the government of its floor managers, casual attitude of ministers and pressure from allies which has put it in a bad light and given the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party a new lease of life to take on the government. It appears to be "withdrawal" time in the government.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met President Pranab Mukherjee in the backdrop of the UPA pitching for Leader of Opposition status for her party in Lok Sabha.
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.
The book, which was in the news recently for Pranab Mukherjee's critical comments on the Congress, including his observation that the party lost political focus after his elevation as president, is set to be launched next month by Rupa, which published the two earlier volumes of his memoirs.
National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah Tuesday asserted that there should be no "fiddling" with the mandate of people in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Centre and the Raj Bhavan must not indulge in any "machinations".
The President may not have agreed with the government on many occasions. Not once was this ever made public -- though he told off ministers in private.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, holding special sittings on Sunday, will focus on the '60 years journey of Indian Parliament' as they celebrate 60th anniversary of its first session.
Mukherjee had lost the Lok Sabha elections twice earlier and it was third time lucky for him, much to the delight of the Congress leader's supporters.
Voicing concern over disruptions in Parliament, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday asked Parliamentarians to do "some introspection" over functioning of the House.
'Priyanka would not have been brought into active politics if there was confidence within the Congress in (party chief) Rahul's leadership'
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
There is a serious move afoot to reschedule the second half of the budget session of the Parliament with sources disclosing that leader of the Lok Sabha and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would discuss the rescheduling of dates in the meeting of floor leaders of political parties which he has called on April 5.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's bonanza to Members of Parliament of increasing their Local Area Development funds from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore has come as a shot in the arm for members of the Parliament cutting across party lines. All are happy except one leader, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday the Intelligence Bureau's 'chewing gum theory' regarding the alleged bugging of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's office as 'big joke'. The party has demanded a thorough probe into the matter.
Five-term Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Meira Kumar on Tuesday became the consensus candidate of the ruling United Progressive Alliance and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee led a UPA delegation to submit Kumar's nomination papers to Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary for the election to the Speaker's post scheduled to be held on Wednesday. Kumar, 64, will be the first woman to head the LS.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Monday demanded that the United Progressive Alliance government convene an all-party meeting over the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in retail before making any statement on it in the Parliament.
'Politics is a game of public perception and my father felt that by his long disappearances, Rahul Gandhi was losing the battle of perception.'
