Hazarika and Deshmukh were given the Bharat Ratna posthumously.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has strongly pitched for holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies which should have a "fixed tenure" and sought the President's initiative in this regard, saying frequent polls affect decision-making process
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday rejected in the Supreme Court the plea of former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma that he was holding an office of profit on the day of filing nomination for President's election, saying he ceased to be the Leader of the Lower House as a result of his resignation from the Union Cabinet.
With these three recipients, 48 eminent people have been conferred the award so far.
The budget session of Parliament will begin on February 21 and the general budget is slated to be presented to Lok Sabha on February 28.The decision to recommend the date for convening of the session to the President was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also Leader of the House in Lok Sabha.
Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party MP Babubhai Katara, allegedly involved in the infamous human trafficking case, was expelled from the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, taking the total number of members axed in the current term to a record 11. Katara, representing Dohad (ST) seat in Gujarat, was shown the door after the House adopted a resolution expelling him, a day after a Lok Sabha panel recommended his removal for "grave misconduct".
The Budget session of Parliament will begin on Feb 21 and the general budget is slated to be presented to Lok Sabha on Feb 28.
President Pranab Mukherjee -- rewarded as president yet not trusted enough to be prime minister.
By getting Jagdeep Dhankhar to resign at short notice, Narendra Modi has sent a message to his own ideological clan that he brooks no one trying to get too big for their boots, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed by a majority ruling former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma's petition challenging the election of senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee as President. Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, who led the 3 to 2 majority ruling, held that Sangma's petition is not maintainable for regular hearing.
Terming the ordinance on convicted members of Parliament and members of Legislative Assembly as "immoral and unconstitutional", the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said President Pranab Mukherjee is not "duty-bound" to give assent to it and suggested to him that he should send it back to the government.
Sonia, Sumitra Mahajan share a laugh at the event
Leader of the Lok Sabha and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has invited leaders of all parties for a luncheon meeting to discuss a way out to end the impasse in Parliament as both Houses have not been able to transact any business since the winter session commenced.
'We are confident that you, with your vast experience, will conduct the proceedings in accordance with highest traditions of democracy,' Dr Manmohan Singh.
Two Lok Sabha Members of Parliament of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha on Saturday formally withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance government, slamming it for anti-people decisions like FDI in multi brand retail, inflation and "creating a record in corruption". A delegation of JVM MPs and seniors leaders, led by party chief Babulal Marandi, met President Pranab Mukherjee and submitted a letter withdrawing support from the government.
Two women candidates; Lok Sabha Speakers; Chief Justices; A Chief Election Commissioner; drafters of the Constitution; the RBI's first Indian governor; a farm leader who unsuccessfully contested four times; an iconic Bharata Natyam dancer...
In a House of 243, the ruling United Progressive Alliance has the clear support of 101 members and needs at least another 21 members to ensure a simple majority for the bill
Opposition backed Presidential candidate P A Sangma will file his nomination on Thursday, the day when United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee will submit his papers.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's meeting with BJP top brass L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday ended on a positive note with both sides reaching a consensus on most issues in the draft bill.The Parliamentary Standing Committee finalised its report on Nuclear Liability Bill. The Compensation cap raised from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.
A solution is expected on the issue of suspension of seven Rajya Sabha members by Thursday evening.
Stepping back to break the logjam in Parliament, the government on Wednesday put the controversial decision on foreign direct investment in retail on the backburner till a consensus is evolved, a proposal the entire opposition and the dissenting allies accepted without reservation.
Rediff.com has reliably learnt that 'Rahul is likely to be appointed as defence minister'.
The Congress under a 'no surrender' policy evolved by Rahul Gandhi has decided to play tough in all the states where the party is negotiating with prospective and even existing alliance partners. The aim is to bag the largest number of seats possible.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has held consultations with senior party leaders ahead of Opposition's plans to raise the controversy surrounding Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's alleged murky deals in the Indian Premier League in Parliament on Friday.
Skating on a razor-thin majority in the Lok Sabha, the Congress managers have zeroed in on Ajit Singh and his five Members of Parliament to lend support to the United Progressive Alliance government to give the government a much needed cushion, and also to help the party get a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.
Manmohan Singh, reveals the former President, was keen that either P Chidambaram or Montek Singh Ahluwalia be the finance minister.
'It is something like traditional Indian families.' 'The family might be run by younger people, but if the patriarch says that you should consider someone for some task, it is very difficult for the others to ignore it.'
Putting aside its winter fiasco, Parliament is all set for a smooth budget session from Monday with government telling the Opposition that an announcement on the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G spectrum will be made on Tuesday.
With the new sugarcane pricing policy creating an uproar in Parliament, the Centre has invited leaders of all political parties for a breakfast meeting on Monday in a bid to hammer out a solution to the issue.
Office of Profit: BJP against diluting spirit of statute
Akali Dal member of Parliament and former speaker of the Punjab assembly, Charanjit Singh Atwal, was today unanimously elected Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha
The monsoon session of Parliament has been further delayed, indicating that the session may be convened on August 7 instead of earlier planned July 30.
Former speaker of Lok Sabha P A Sangma, who is in the fray for the Presidential poll, on Wednesday resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party.NCP chief Sharad Pawar had urged Sangma to withdraw from the contest, after the ruling United Progressive Alliance unanimously nominated senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee as it its candidate for the President's post.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, whose absence from the Lok Sabha was noticed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Union Budget for 2011-12, has injured himself while exercising and has been advised complete rest for four weeks.
The meeting saw Opposition agreeing to undertake orderly behaviour in the House and in turn Chatterjee withdrawing the controversial reference of the MPs, mostly from the BJP- led National Democratic Alliance, to the Committee, sources said. An announcement on the issue is expected when the House reassembles at 14.00 hours. "Wait till two," the Speaker said, when reporters asked him about the outcome of the meeting.
Bowing to demands by several political parties, government on Tuesday said it has decided to include caste in census and the formality of endorsing it is expected at the next Cabinet meeting.
Former PM Manmohan Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also paid their tributes.
Mukherjee, a two-time Lok Sabha MP from his father's pocket borough of Jangipur, said he joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party because she has taken a strong stand on this issue.
The standoff between the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha appears set to end on Thursday when a discussion on an adjournment motion on the issue of black money takes place following an agreement reached between the two sides on Wednesday night.
Denying desisting from their stated position on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties on Tuesday asserted that they were ready for "any eventuality" even as they continued their engagement with the government to break the impasse over the issue.
