Among the new entrants in the council headed by the Prime Minister, which will now have 147 members, are Ambika Soni, Dayanidhi Maran and Salman Khursheed have made their entry as Union Ministers while BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have come in as Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.
On the last day of the Budget Session, the National Democratic Alliance today created uproar in the Lok Sabha over the issue of alleged corruption involving Union Minister Virbhadra Singh and Scheduled Caste Commission Chairman Buta Singh and demanded action against them.
On the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the attack on Parliament, the government and the opposition were on Monday locked in a war of words on the hanging of terrorist Afzal Guru. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj raised the pitch by stating that the country wants to know why Guru has not been hanged despite the Supreme Court confirming his punishment, but Home Minister P Chidambaram countered it by saying he had explained the exact status of the case.
It is a measure of the overwhelming presence of the leadership of the original duo, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, in the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party that the party has had some difficulty in making the transition from the Vajpayee-Advani era. But in choosing Sushma Swaraj for the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has put its best foot forward.
Fifty BJP MPs on Tuesday tabled a breach of privilege notice in Lok Sabha against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for announcing outside Parliament his decision to reject setting up of a joint parliamentary committee on the issue of alleged phone tapping.
It was after a long gap that an aggressive and united Congress took the Bharatiya Janata Party head on in both the Houses of Parliament over the WikiLeaks exposure on the cash-for-vote scam as the party fielded its brightest and the best.
Parliament is set to witness heated debates on a range of issues like the NEET paper leak row, the Agnipath initiative and inflation when both houses reconvene on Monday.
The government on Wednesday rejected the Congress demand for resignation of Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani over 'Lalitgate' and 'fake degree' controversies, saying "our ministers do not do all that their (the United Progress Alliance) ministers used to do".
Stepping up attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party over Asaram Bapu controversy, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Sunday targeted Narendra Modi, asking why he has not taken action on the report of a judicial commission which probed the mysterious death of two boys at the godman's Gujarat ashram.
However, BJP has not given any assurance of support and conveyed to the Finance Minister that the matter will be discussed within the party and take a call, sources said.
Congress on Wednesday sought to demolish Sushma Swaraj's claim of helping Lalit Modi on humanitarian grounds in Lok Sabha, saying she could have done it under a legal framework and demanded response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Catch all the action from the Monsoon session of Parliament, LIVE
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will undertake a three-day visit to Bangladesh from June 25 during which she is likely to meet the top leadership of that country.
Making a strong attack against Narendra Modi, whom he termed a "megalomaniac psychopath liar", Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday stoked a fresh controversy saying why can the Bharatiya Janata Party not field a "better leader" like Sushma Swaraj as its prime ministerial candidate.
It was the turn of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka to hit back at the Congress and in a bid to do so, it held a mammoth rally in Bellary today. Sushma Swaraj who was invited by the organizers of the rally, the Reddy brothers said that the biggest dream of the Bharatiya Janata Party was to fly the flag of the party in Andhra Pradesh.
Congress does unto AAP what Kejriwal's party had done to it in Haryana.
Sushma Swaraj packs in the punches against the Congress.
Should Bhagavad Gita be the national book?
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday came under opposition attack in Rajya Sabha for demanding that the Bhagwad Gita be declared national scripture, with members saying this was a "sinister" design to alter secular character of the Constitution.
After much debate and opposition by one-time godmother and leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, B Sriramulu will now fight on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from the Bellary parliamentary constituency.
Bharatiya Janata party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday met visiting United States Vice President Joe Biden and raised the issue of visa to skilled workers but refrained from discussing the lifting of ban on American visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said that Shah had a detailed discussion with him on Modigate.
External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Saturday defended herself against allegations of helping former IPL chief Lalit Modi saying she never requested or recommended travel documents for him.
Several opposition parties have claimed that the mandate of 2024 Lok Sabha elections was against the ruling haratiya Janata Party, even though it was able to form the government with support of other parties.
The Congress dismissed as "very, very immature" Sushma Swaraj's remarks on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying the Congress chief can become the prime minister "tomorrow if the party decides" and she doesn't need anyone's approval.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said she firmly believes that culprits of such crimes like the brutal gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai should be given death sentence.
The decision to disrupt the House would be taken on a day to day basis, says Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived in Colombo on Friday on a two-day trip to set the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Sri Lanka next week, the first bilateral visit to the country by an Indian premier in over 25 years.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha teams up with the Madhya Pradesh CM. What's cooking?
His comments came hours after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in the Pakistani capital to attend the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Sushma Swaraj, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Jayalalithaa, Mulayam Singh or may be even Advani: positioning for prime ministership is the flavour of the current season, notes Neerja Chowdhury.
As of Thursday, June 18, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah did not have an escape route to save the Rajasthan chief minister.
As India makes efforts to deepen its diplomatic and economic engagement with its neighbours, Nepal on Saturday said there is a "historic opportunity" in taking bilateral ties with India to the "next level" and that it must be seized by both the countries.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that the onion price rise issue was a case of "divine justice" as it would lead to the "downfall" of the Congress government which had used an earlier jump in the prices of the vegetable to oust the saffron party from power in Delhi.
While the BJP has assured voters that these benefits will not be discontinued, AAP leaders have questioned the party's long-term commitment.
The government refused on Monday to go ahead with a listed short duration discussion on the ongoing violence in West Bank and Gaza, saying it could impact India's diplomatic ties with Israel and Palestine, both friendly countries.
Unsatisfied by the minister's reply during the Question Hour, the Congress members including former prime minister Manmohan Singh staged a walkout.
Unhappy over the treatment meted out to party colleagues Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley at Jammu airport, senior Bharatiya Janata Partty leader L K Advani on Monday talked to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to lodge a protest over the developments which had "never happened" earlier.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Tuesday said he suffered from an inferiority complex due to the oratorical skills of his party colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now has the same problem when he hears Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.
The past three weeks have demonstrated that the Congress is still to recover from the drubbing it received in Lok Sabha elections, says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal
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