Excerpts from a speech on the Supplementary Demands for Grants, December 15.
'They have a voracious appetite.' 'But there are many places where they go and they lose.'
It is a tribute to India's democracy, however flawed, that the very same MPs who had harangued her intermittently from Opposition benches now surged towards her, anxiety writ large on their faces. One offered her some homoeopathic tablets, another advised her to stay seated, another grasped her hand wishing her good health... the crowd parted as Prime Minister Narendra Modi strode up to congratulate her. But it was mostly well-wishers from the Opposition and the NDA that kept the finance minister cocooned with good wishes until it was time to leave, reports Aditi Phadnis.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said there is no alternative to the Trinamool Congress, and no other party can take its place in the state.
After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the amended Finance Bill for consideration by the Lok Sabha, Deepender Hooda (Congress) said this was a "historic" occasion as never in the past had the Rajya Sabha amended the Finance Bill.
Lok Sabha Speaker on Wednesday referred the issue of some Trinamool Congress members allegedly accepting bribe, as shown in a purported sting operation, to the Ethics Committee, asking the L K Advani-headed panel to examine and investigate the charges.
'Whether the Hindu voter will vote for us or not, we can't say, can we?'
Participating in the debate on the triple talaq bill on Thursday, Khan made certain observations on a ruling party member.
'From now on, every time Modi takes a foreign dignitary in his arms, the Indians will remember how he was taken aback when an Indian indulged in hugplomacy,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the 59 seats spread across seven states and one Union territory going to polls in the last and final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 19, 2019.
A controversial bill which paves the way for the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh by merging some villages and mandals of Telangana with Seemandhra was approved in the Lok Sabha on Friday, amid stiff opposition from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Biju Janata Dal and some other parties.
If the BJP wins Bengal, would Kishor's indiscretions have played a significant role in that victory? Victory for the TMC would be another badge of honour in his CV, but defeat would raise an unsavoury question: Which party was Kishor actually working for? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
Members in the Lok Sabha on Thursday expressed grave concern over hate crimes against Indians in the United States, with opposition parties questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on the matter and the government saying it was being "viewed seriously".
'People say my personality doesn't have sharp edges, but politics doesn't have to be about pulling down your opponents or bad mouthing them.'
On Tuesday, police in Suri in West Bengal's Birbhum district used batons to disperse a rally where 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans were raised.
Heated exchanges were witnessed in Lok Sabha on Tuesday over the rising number of communal incidents.
Culture Minister Prahlad Patel asserted that national memorials cannot be 'political memorials' and they should be kept away from politics.
Ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, political parties on Saturday pitched for holding dialogue with "all stakeholders", including Hurriyat, to douse the unrest and banning the use of pellet guns by security forces.
Rejecting the opposition's charge that the bill will weaken the act, the government said it was fully committed to transparency and autonomy of the institution.
Responding to a discussion during Zero Hour in the Lower House, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he was falling short of words to condemn the heinous crime.
The Bill provides for according Indian citizenship to the the Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 years even if they do not possess any document.
No mention of cab aggregators in GST bills
'Mamata Banerjee was an anti-body that the people of West Bengal needed to throw the CPI-M out. Though the disease is no more, we are suffering the anti-body. It is a punishment for the people of this state.' BJP leader Tathagatha Roy lashes out at the West Bengal chief minister.
The Minister assured the House that security requirement of the Election Commission will be met for free and fair assembly election in the state.
In Lok Sabha, the Opposition demanded action against cow vigilantes.
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
In a setback to Trinamool Congress, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Calcutta high court order asking the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the Narada sting case in which several ruling party leaders of West Bengal were allegedly caught on camera taking money.
In a major embarrassment to the United Progressive Alliance government, Rahul Gandhi on Friday denounced the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers as "complete nonsense" and said what "our government has done is wrong".
Rahul Gandhi's blunt denouncement of the ordinance on lawmakers was rubbished by the opposition with the Bharatiya Janata Party calling it a "desperate and belated" damage control exercise and saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit if he had any self-respect.
Clashes were reported from Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, Narayanpur in North 24 Parganas, and Alipurduar town in north Bengal, among others.
Opposition parties on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain on the issue of the help provided by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to scam-tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi and also sought her resignation in the matter.
The amendments will also allow the NIA to probe cyber crimes and cases of human trafficking.
What the Congress will have to understand is that it is not enough to have a 40-something vice-president in New Delhi, but young faces with fresh ideas in the states,' says Amulya Ganguli.
As the government came under attack from the Opposition during the debate on the recent communal riots in the national capital that have claimed over 50 lives, the BJP members alleged that the violence was a pre-planned conspiracy and the home minister and authorities took pro-active steps to control the situation.
The debate on the Rafale jet fighter deal saw a head-on collision between the government and the Congress in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
A 7-hr debate was held over the contentious bill. Oppn amendments rejected.
The election commission had upped the expense limit for Lok Sabha elections from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh per candidate in big states but a new report states that 537 MPs declared expenses of less than 50 per cent of the limit. Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com reports
Sanjiv Mehta, chairman of the country's largest consumer goods company, HUL, believes that the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic between April and June this year has been a mere pause in India's consumption story, and that it will not change the country's overall growth trajectory. India is poised for growth, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, Mehta told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday. The signs of recovery are becoming evident with many states lifting lockdown restrictions in recent weeks.
Hijacking of an aircraft will now entail capital punishment in the event of death of "any person" as Parliament on Monday passed a bill to provide widen the ambit of the law in dealing with this crime.
In a first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission had Wednesday ordered campaigning in the nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, instead of 6 pm on Friday, in the wake of violence between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata during Amit Shah's roadshow.
