Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the current National Democratic Alliance government's fifth and arguably his toughest budget.
With a sulking Jaswant Singh set to contest from Barmer as an Independent after being denied a party ticket, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday said leaders should sometimes learn to accept a "no" from the party.
As part of government's efforts to ensure better coordination with the party, Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley will chair a meeting of its leaders and ministers every Monday.
The finance minister has been suffering from a kidney ailment and skipped office since Monday.
In an apparent show of unanimity, the report of the Select Committee on Lokpal Bill, which has recommended delinking creation of Lokayuktas in states from the central bill, is scheduled to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Friday by Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
28 private sector companies are having FDI varying up to 26 per cent.
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The budget session of the Parliament begins today.
BJP on Thursday alleged the government is trying to spread disinformation that the opposition had initially supported the bill on convicted lawmakers but did a volte face later and insisted that it has been against the move from the beginning.
In a sharp reaction to Rahul Gandhi's comments on the Lokpal Bill, the Bhyaratiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged Congress and its allies are blocking the passage of the legislation and it is ready to support the measure even amid the din and without a discussion.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, "the BJP core group would be meeting later today to decide what it will do on the road (on the Lokpal issue). We will expose the government on the road and make the public aware in the wake of Thursday's developments. We will take up this Bill in the next session and expose the government there also."
'I am being treated for kidney related problems and certain infections that I have contracted,' he said in a tweet.
The GST bill is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA govt does not have a majority as well as stiff opposition by the Congress
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A combative Rahul Gandhi asked how the govt allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks, to leave the country.
He slammed those trying to stall passage of the Bill in Parliament saying they were attempting to 'stop progress of the country
While Jaitley posted his hard-hitting response to the opposition's move in Facebook, BJP fielded its spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi, who is also a lawyer, to take on the Congress.
Will the Parliament function today or the logjam continue? Watch.
Jaitley in his Facebook post titled: 'Who killed the Sohrabuddin Investigation' said that those who have recently shown a belated concern for institutional independence, "should seriously introspect as to what they did to the CBI when they were in power."
He said the Congress party is capable of dragging the judges into an unsavoury controversy and make them controversial 'should their judicial opinion not appear favourable in the cases in which the party has an interest'.
Battle lines have already been drawn and the opposition has insisted on a debate on demonetisation.
The finance minister is in Singapore for The Singapore Summit.
Jaitley is now a minister without portfolio in the Narendra Modi government.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Monday hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley for his criticism of Press Council of India Chief Markandey Katju over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, calling it "unnecessary and outlandish".
A Bill to change the PCA (1988) was introduced in the Rajya Sabha earlier this month.
The Goods and Services Tax Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in May.
The Congress accused the Centre of making a serious assault on the basic structure of the Constitution, saying the action subsumes the independence of the judiciary.
The voting for the second and final phase of Gujarat assembly elections is underway for 93 seats of North and Central Gujarat.
The first to bowl was Ramesh, who called Jaitley a "master spinner of facts".
A kidney transplant operation was scheduled for Saturday and all formalities for a donor kidney were also completed.
In a veiled reference to various populist schemes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, "When crores are spent not on asset creation but on populist schemes, it disturbs the economy of the country."
In a veiled reference to various populist schemes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, "When crores are spent not on asset creation but on populist schemes, it disturbs the economy of the country."
The Rohith Vemula suicide and the Jawaharlal Nehru University row continues to dominate the discussions in Parliament on Day 3 of the Budget Session.
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday described the electoral bonds scheme as a 'very big scam' and demanded that a special investigation team (SIT) be set up with court-appointed officials to probe the alleged quid pro quo and wrongdoings under it.
Anshuman Mishra, who has leveled certain allegations against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders after the party backed out of supporting him for Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand, on Monday retracted his comments and apologised to them.
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.
Raising strong objections to the "highly improper" procedure adopted by the Union government in making key appointments to the posts of Lokpal, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley has charged the department of personnel with diluting the role of the Selection and Search Committees.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dinner on Thursday for the Bharatiya Janata Party top brass failed to break the impasse over the Foreign Direct Investment in retail issue with the opposition party insisting on a discussion in Parliament on it under provisions which entail voting.
"The Parliament session has a very heavy legislative agenda. We are reaching out to the various political parties to carry through these agenda in the four weeks that we have for the session," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today at a press conference in New Delhi.
With the Cabinet clearing a bill to provide reservation in promotion to Scheduled Caste /Scheduled Tribes in government jobs, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday met top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to seek their support for its passage in the current session of Parliament.
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