A fresh plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, claiming it was a "blatant intrusion" into the rights of a religious denomination to manage its own affairs in the matter of religion. The plea, filed by Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema, argues that the amendments would distort the religious character of Waqfs and irreversibly damage the democratic process in their administration. Several other petitions have been filed in the apex court challenging the validity of the bill, including those by Congress MP Mohammad Jawed, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, and AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan.
'It is not as if Hindus are not being touched at all, and only Muslims are.'
On Tuesday, 49 opposition MPs were suspended for the remaining part of the session for disrupting proceedings, taking the total tally of suspended MPs in Lok Sabha to 95.
Meanwhile, the Congress and RSP whole-heartedly backed the Kollam MP.
On Tuesday, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused BJP MP Anurag Thakur of "abusing and insulting" him during the Lok Sabha discussion on the Union Budget.
The BJP's Bihar unit responded to the tweet saying, "The first picture is your future and the second is of India. Understood?"
According to the agenda papers circulated by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar will lay on the table of the House the panel's first report.
Navendu Mishra (Stockport) and Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) were among the other Labour MPs re-elected with convincing majorities.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
What would Parliament be without these nine ladies?
The special session saw the women's reservation bill being passed by both Houses.
There is a proposal from the BJP camp that they would resort to a proportion-based increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats for individual states, based on what they now have. On the face of it, this sounds like a fine argument that those demanding a 'freeze' now cannot oppose without reasons and justification, avers N Sathiya Moorthy.
Jha, accompanied by a man, reached the Kartavya Path Police station in the national capital where he was handed over to the special cell.
Jha, who had been on run since Wednesday when four people breached security protocol inside and outside Parliament, walked inside a police station in the New Delhi district Thursday night and is now being interrogated by a counter intelligence team, the police source said.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the new Parliament building should be called a 'Modi Multiplex or Modi Marriot'.
V Vijayasai Reddy, a Rajya Sabha member from the YSRCP, has announced his decision to quit politics and resign from his parliamentary membership. He stated that agriculture will be his future and that his decision was personal, with no pressure or influence from others. Reddy's announcement comes as the YSRCP faces challenges after its defeat in the 2024 Assembly elections. He thanked YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for providing him the Rajya Sabha opportunity and highlighted his working relationship with the ruling TDP and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan.
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran objected to the provision of simultaneous interpretation of Lok Sabha proceedings in Sanskrit, calling it a waste of taxpayers' money fueled by RSS ideology. Speaker Om Birla defended the decision, asserting that Sanskrit is India's primary language and that simultaneous interpretation is available in 22 recognized languages, including Hindi and Sanskrit.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet in the National Herald case, accusing Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of a "criminal conspiracy" to "usurp" properties worth Rs 2,000 crore of its public company AJL by transferring 99 per cent shares for just Rs 50 lakh to their private company Young Indian. The ED has named Sonia Gandhi as accused no 1 and Rahul Gandhi as accused no 2 in the chargesheet, which was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Manoranjan D, one of the accused, introduced co-accused Sagar Sharma as a friend to the MP's office and got passes issued to them on the pretext of watching the new Parliament, according to sources.
Amol Shinde, arrested for protesting outside the Parliament building on Wednesday, had left his village in Maharashtra's Latur district saying he was going to Delhi to take part in an army recruitment drive, a local police official said.
One fact is irrefutable: Nepal's recent political history tells us that the route to a return of monarchy cannot go through India despite friends in high places, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
The increased numbers of the Opposition bloc would mean that their MPs are likely to head several more panels than the four that they did by the end of the term of the 17th Lok Sabha.
'It is typical of China's strategic deception of making virtue out of necessity,' observes Rup Narayan Das.
Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has taken on new academic roles at the University of Oxford and Stanford University, both alma maters of the Conservative Party member of Parliament. Sunak will join Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government as a member of the World Leaders Circle and a Distinguished Fellow, while at Stanford, he will be the William C Edwards Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Sunak expressed his enthusiasm for contributing to both institutions, highlighting their leading research in global challenges, economic policy, and technological advancements. He emphasized the significance of his education at both universities in shaping his life and career. The appointments have been welcomed by both institutions, with leaders praising Sunak's expertise and experience in global affairs and economic policy.
The government has deferred the introduction of bills related to 'one nation one election' in the Lok Sabha till after the completion of financial business, sources said.
Modi will also perform the ground-breaking ceremony for the building, which is expected to be completed by 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs 971 crore.
The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is open to the idea of having a deputy speaker in the Lok Sabha, sources said on Thursday, stressing that a call on the matter will be taken later.
Engineer-turned-philanthropist Sudha Murty on Thursday took oath as Rajya Sabha MP in the presence of her husband N R Narayana Murthy.
In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu could not read out his customary closing remarks that sum up the business conducted in the House during the session, as Shiv Sena and other opposition MPs created a ruckus.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Thursday revoked the disqualification of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Afzal Ansari as a member of the Lower House after the Supreme Court conditionally suspended his conviction in a Gangsters Act case.
This is a major security breach, Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told party's Lok Sabha MPs to ignore comments of "middle- and low-rung" leaders of INDIA bloc parties and asserted that the Congress as the largest party in the opposition grouping is capable of addressing issues, sources said. The advice by Gandhi comes amid various leaders of the INDIA bloc weighing in on the leadership issue and TMC leaders aggressively pitching for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to head the opposition alliance.
'They want to snatch the land and give it to their friends'
BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya said there is a certain propriety and protocol one associates with these all-party meetings.
The Enforcement Directorate on Monday raided the premises of former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel as part of a money laundering investigation against his son in the alleged liquor scam case and seized about Rs 30 lakh apart from some documents, official sources said.
A Delhi court on Thursday sent the four accused arrested for the shocking breach of security at the new Parliament building to the city police's custody for seven days for interrogation.
Sonia also described the mention of Emergency by the PM, the Lok Sabha Speaker as an attempt to divert attention from the "assault on the Constitution".
Once more women assume leadership roles and join the nation-building process, he said, adding they will become a guarantee of the country's bright future.
Former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment: 'It's a conspiracy by Congress'
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
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