His term saw the lowest average of 57 hours.
'The chair is a referee in a match, whether this side is playing better or that side is playing worse is no concern of the chair.'
Agitated by repeated disruptions, Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari on Tuesday wondered whether members wish the House to become a 'federation of anarchists', a remark which drew sharp reaction with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding its withdrawal and the government asking for expunging it.
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.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday led the Rajya Sabha in felicitating Hamid Ansari on his second term as vice president and chairman of the House, saying his re-election was a tribute to his qualities. When the House met for the day, the prime minister stood up to felicitate and congratulate Ansari, who took oath as the vice president for his second term on Saturday.
United Progressive Alliance nominee Hamid Ansari appears set to get a second term as Vice President by emerging a clear winner against National Democratic Alliance's Jaswant Singh in a direct contest for the post on Tuesday.
United Progressive Alliance candidate Hamid Ansari was on Tuesday re-elected as Vice President, becoming the second person to get the second consecutive term as he defeated National Democratic Alliance nominee Jaswant Singh by a large margin of 252 votes.
The 70-year-old Ansari was administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top leaders at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
Nishad had campaigned for the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the assembly elections in Bihar in 2005 despite being a member of the BJP, which had prompted party member Sushma Swaraj to file a disqualification petition against him in December that year. Ansari disagreed with Nishad's contention that he had tendered his resignation from the primary membership of the party on 18 October, 2005 'in an agitated mental condition', which he later withdrew by a letter dated 17 Nov '05.
Opposition parties want to contest the election to the post of the deputy chairman on August 21 while the Congress is keen to get its nominee P J Kurien get elected unopposed.
Exactly 50 years after late philosopher-statesman Dr S Radhakakrishnan's feat, Hamid Ansari on Tuesday emulated his footsteps by getting a second term as Vice President, a position into which he had seamlessly transformed from diplomacy and education.
Singh, once a close associate of Gandhi, turned her critic after the Iraqi oil-for-food scam broke out and he was forced to resign from the government in November 2005.
'It is to be fervently hoped that a person as rational and brilliant as Hamid Ansari will not be allowed to wilt and simply wither away.'
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya's tenure in the Rajya Sabha came to an end on Wednesday with Chairman Hamid Ansari accepting his fresh resignation letter.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Uttarakhand B S Koshiyari withdrew his resignation from Rajya Sabha on Friday in keeping with the directive of the party's central leadership.
Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathy ordered the issuing of notices to Ansari and the Secretary General of the Upper House after hearing a petition filed by Nishad challenging his termination as Rajya Sabha member. Justice Tripathy asked them to explain their stand on the matter and fixed May 14 as the next date of hearing of the case. The order was passed on Wednesday.
The meeting held on the eve of the resumption of the Budget session was convened by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with senior members from various parties.
Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, facing a case of loan default of over Rs 9,400 crore, is all set to be expelled from the Rajya Sabha as Chairman Hamid Ansari on Tuesday turned down his resignation on procedural grounds.
As soon as the House assembled for the day, SP members were up on their feet shouting slogans but Chairman Hamid Ansari asked the members to settle down as obituary references had to be made. The SP members raised slogans demanding arrest of Raj Thackeray and protection of the Constitution.
The Rajya Sabha is all set to go digital to minimise the massive wastage of paper in the House, thanks to an initiative by Vice President and Chairman Hamid Ansari.As per the suggested changes, Parliamentarians will receive documents in hard copy only if they request for it and special incentives will be provided to MPs who opt for the digital format.Ansari, a retired Indian Foreign Service officer, wants Parliament to set an example.
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien, who is in the eye of a storm over the Left demand for his resignation in the wake of fresh charges in the Suryanelli rape case, on Friday presided over the Upper House without objection from any member.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Rajeev Shukla, and Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi and actor Jaya Bachchan were among the 50 new members who took oath in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The Rajya Sabha is likely to work till 8 pm from Tuesday to discuss and dispose of the innumerable pending bills and other legislative business.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Wednesday shocked the Rajya Sabha by telling Chairman Hamid Ansari that he is "not seen" in the House in the afternoon after which the House is not allowed to function.
Union ministers Prakash Javedkar and Nirmla Sitharaman and senior Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party's Praful Patel on Monday took oath as members of Rajya Sabha.
It is not in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP has a clear majority, but the Rajya Sabha that the Opposition has ganged up to checkmate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious plans.
Just like with millions of Indian Muslims, even the vice president of India has been forced to undergo the covert loyalty test: 'you are presumed to be pro-Pakistan until you demonstrably prove you are a nationalist', says Shehzad Poonawalla.
He was deliberately reducing Ansari to his Muslim identity by linking his career as a diplomat in the Arab world and educationist and his reflections on intolerance with his religion.
The BJP decided to register its protest against the manner in which, it says, he used an old rule to punish All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member of Parliament Dr V Maithreyan on Thursday
Business in Rajya Sabha was on Thursday deadlocked with the opposition objecting to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader V Maitreyan being asked to leave the House after he sought the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's response to charges against his cabinet colleague T R Baalu for favouring his sons' firms.
Tendulkar, who was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member in April last year along with Bollywood actor Rekha and businesswoman Anu Aga, shook hands with some MPs before taking his seat.
Running a fractious House full of members every bit as well versed in parliamentary law as the chair, has, in the past, reduced several Rajya Sabha chairmen to tears.
'I think we have had these periods of standoffs with China.' 'And there is enough knowledge, enough experience, enough wisdom still available to be able to retrieve situations.'
Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was sworn in as the 15th Vice President of India, succeeding Jagdeep Dhankhar.
A draw of lots was held on Friday to allot Rajya Sabha members to Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh following division of the state.
The 61-year-old had submitted a fresh resignation letter as per the prescribed format, tendering a hand-written one-line letter.
The Rajya Sabha on Monday witnessed uproar over the steep Rs 2.35 a litre hike in petrol price and 50 paisa a litre increase in cost of diesel.
The Rajya Sabha on Monday adopted a resolution condemning the bail granted to Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and asked Pakistan to ensure that no perpetrator of any terrorist activity went unpunished.
The Modi government is learning to deal with the reality that it does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha.
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