In a bonanza for lawmakers, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday announced that the constituency fund of Members of Parliament will be more than doubled to Rs 5 crore per year from April 1.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress comes to power, it would redistribute wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
Activists Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare, who have been sitting on a hunger strike at Wadigodri village in Jalna district since June 13, did not allow doctors to check their health or administer intravenous fluids.
Today even those who support Prime Minister Modi feel there is a certain sense of listlessness in this government. What is it intending to achieve? This is not easy to say, notes Aakar Patel.
The United Progressive Alliance government's austerity drive is expected to be extended to all Members of Parliament following an all party meeting, according to sources.Vice President Hamid Ansari will call an all-party meeting to decide on the issue once Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar returns from Rome. The chairman of the Rajya Sahba and the Lok Sabha speaker are expected to hold a discussion on the austerity drive.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned twice while the opposition parties staged a walkout in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, voicing their protest against the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas LPG.
'The other panelists (Praniti Shinde and Priyanka Chaturvedi) were misbehaving with me.' 'Despite that I kept quiet because I have witnessed many such scenes in the 25 years of my public life and debates.' 'Amid all the ruckus, when I heard Praniti calling me out for 'cheap behaviour' I couldn't take such misbehaviour anymore.'
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
The Mullaperiyar Dam issue generated heat in Parliament on Wednesday with members from Tamil Nadu and Kerala clashing in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Rumblings within Congress over its decision to form Telangana grew on Friday with its seven MPs, a state minister and seven MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions quitting amid indications that some more are likely to follow suit.
This strategy was discussed when Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently visited Mysuru to discuss the BJP's Lok Sabha plan, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The ruling alliance also has some smaller parties like Republican Party of India-Athawale, Asom Gana Parishad, Mizo National Front, National People's Party, Naga People's Front, Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bodoland People's Front, which have one seat each, totalling seven seats.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Sunday ordered a high-level probe into the reported killings of civilians.
Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday suspended Congress member of Parliament Rajani Ashokrao Patil for the remainder of the current Budget Session for filming House proceedings.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday directed all party Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly to donate their one month salary for relief work in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand as the magnitude of the flash flood tragedy continued to unfold, taking the death toll in the rain fury to 190.
The stalemate between the opposition and the government over the issue of suspension of 12 MPs continues.
Pawar will not restrict himself to the Rashtrapati Bhavan," the minister from the NCP said.
He underlined the need for patience in political life and said those seeking a change of guard should go back to the people to achieve it.
TMC's Dola Sen and Mausam Noor were there at the site till midnight.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu had on April 23 rejected the impeachment notice against the CJI given by seven opposition parties led by the Congress on five grounds of "misbehaviour".
The party had also decided to ask Congress workers to contribute Rs 250 annually to the party.
If the Opposition is bent upon shouting its own agenda on a deaf ruling dispensation, then it becomes binding upon the chair to ensure that the parliamentary affairs aren't reduced to a farce.
The first-of-its-kind monsoon session will see Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sitting in two different shifts, while special seating arrangements have been made for MPs in adherence to social distancing guidelines.
While nearly 200 members were present in the Lok Sabha chamber, a little over 30 were seated in the visitors' gallery located above the main chamber.
Carrying bottles of dirty water, the BJP protesters raised slogans against the AAP government and smashed 'matkas' (earthen pitchers) as a mark of protest over water scarcity in the national capital.
Despite this setback, Pandey emphasised that discussions regarding ticket distribution are ongoing and solutions will be found through timely communication.
Amidst repeated disruptions in Rajya Sabha by Congress members over Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's remarks, Bharatiya Janata Party MPs of the Upper House on Friday gathered before Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament House complex praying for "wisdom" to the protesting members.
To keep their MLAs together, political parties are organising dinner meetings and arranging hotel stays for them ahead of the council elections, which are taking place just three months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
The stalemate between the opposition and the government over the issue of suspension of 12 MPs continues.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday said the Lok Sabha poll mandate is a "decisive rejection" of the politics of divisiveness and hate, and stressed that the INDIA bloc must continue functioning cohesively both inside and outside Parliament.
The party's Lok Sabha MPs Jaisingh Thiyagaraj Natterjee (Tuticorin), Senguttuvan (Vellore) and R P Marutharaja (Perambalur) extended their support to Pannerselvam.
In a show of unity on the demand for Telangana, all Congress Members of Parliament from the region on Wednesday night requested party chief Sonia Gandhi to accord a separate state to honour sentiments of the people there. In a letter to Gandhi, 15 MPs including 11 from the Lok Sabha and four from the Rajya Sabha asked her to accord separate statehood for Telangana, considering the earlier promises made by the party, including in the poll manifesto.
Some lawyers in the Congress argued against upsetting the judiciary. It was a tongue lashing from Sharad Pawar that spurred the Congress and other parties to go ahead with their move.
"The conduct of opposition leaders in the Upper House of Parliament on Sunday was shameful, irresponsible and utter disrespect to parliamentary rules and dignity," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The election to the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee will be held on February 22 after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to convene the municipal House last week.
Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women.
Sushmita Dev said it would have been better if there were more women MPs in the panel.
The biggest highlight of the day will be The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 that will be tabled in the Lok Sabha.
One fallout of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification will be reflected in the Opposition's role in Parliament and related institutions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday said M Venkaiah Naidu's witty one-liners were 'revered, and never countered', and hailed his highly productive five-year term as vice president of India and Rajya Sabha chairman.
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