While Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked the protestors not to make the House a "clog in the wheel" of progress, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said they should keep in mind the larger interests of the nation.
Thursday was the penultimate day of the Budget Session of Parliament. The second half of the session which began on March 5 has been a washout with no legislative business being transacted due to stalling of proceedings by the opposition.
As many as 20 new faces are expected to be inducted into the Union Council of Ministers on Sunday in the first revamp exercise which is likely to bring in BJP leaders Manohar Parrikar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Bandaru Datttatreya while elevating a few.
'The central learning of the day was that if the BJP leadership can cajole, coax and convince regional parties to vote for bills, it would not be a stretch to see the same votes cast in favour of the land bill,' a senior Congress leader from a northern state told Rediff.com
BJP sources said their party has consistently maintained that while it is committed to the formation of a separate state of Telangana, it also wanted the concerns of the Seema-Andhra region to be adequately addressed. Oddly enough, Sushma Swaraj did not press this issue in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Anita Katyal reports.
The Andhra CM charged the BJP and Centre with 'mud-slinging' and trying to 'damage his credibility'.
The imapsse continues over issues like bank scams and special status demand for Andhra Pradesh.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government is ready for a discussion on the issue of alleged financial irregularities in the banking sector and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will reply to the debate.
In an open defiance, Union Minister M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday questioned the government's hurry to push the Telangana bill and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's disapproval of disruptions in Parliament was not "fair".
"The day news of the SP-BSP top leadership meeting came out, the BJP government used the CBI and raids were conducted in an old mining scam and the news of quizzing Akhilesh Yadav was deliberately spread. Is it not an action to defame the SP-BSP alliance?" Mayawati said.
Social Justice Minister Thaavarchand Gehlot sought to allay doubts raised by several opposition members about the legislation's fate if challenged in the Supreme Court, saying he can say with confidence that the apex court will accept it.
TRS candidate Kavita tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa that the people of Nizamabad will reward their party as "they are the ones who fought for the state as a result of which it was achieved".
M Thambidurai, leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam in Parliament, was unanimously elected as Lok Sabha's deputy speaker on Wednesday, making him the first leader to occupy the post twice.
The BJP's faces for 2019 will be Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Yogi Adityanath and Devendra Fadnavis, says R Rajagopalan.
The Bhratiya Janata Party has justified its poll alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh despite critical comments made in the past by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
In an exclusive interaction with Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Congress MP Goud says that he is certain that the Telangana sentiment will work for him in Nizamabad. As he prepares for hectic campaigning, the leader says that the BJP, which was initially expecting to make some gains in the newly-formed state, has wasted its chances after it aligned with the Telugu Desam Party.
A heavy agenda including the ordinance on the Food Security Bill awaits the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Monday amid expectations that the short sitting will be more businesslike and smooth as compared to the din and dust in the last few sessions.
Barely a few hours after Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu said at a rally that his party would fight alone in Seema-Andhra, the TDP has gone into damage control mode and says the statement was misinterpreted.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
The no-confidence motion against the government could not be introduced amid the din in the Lok Sabha.
The enquiry committee has been asked to file its report by August 3 and Mann has been asked to make a statement on Tuesday at 10:30 am.
Its governing allies are not happy on the economy and complain of ignored concerns but find themselves unable to be assertive.
The second half of the budget session of Parliament, beginning on Monday, is all set to be a stormy affair with opposition parties closing ranks over the imposition of Presidents' rule in Uttarakhand.
'Parties like ours and others like the Lok Janshatki Party will ensure that the BJP remains on the straight and narrow path,' says Shiromani Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral
In Rajya Sabha, the Opposition and the government clashed over technicalities of the passage of an anti-graft amendment bill with the latter insisting that it should be adopted without debate.
This is the first time that no-confidence motion notices have been moved against the Modi government in 4 years.
Proceedings in Parliament were washed out for the second consecutive working on Tuesday as Opposition members created pandemonium on a host of issues including JPC report on 2G, Telangana, price rise and death of children in relief camps for Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh) riot victims.
It's been 15 straight days that opposition parties have created a ruckus, forcing adjournment of proceedings.
The first day of the monsoon session of Parliament was marred by uproarious scenes over the decision to form Telangana even as the government said substantive and procedural issues related to the new state would be dealt with in a Cabinet note being prepared.
Having a young, untested leader makes sense for the Tamil Nadu BJP. But the new state president's immediate concern will be to gain acceptance within the state unit that is still in the grip of those with a strong RSS background, says N Sathiya Moorthy
The Bharatiya Janata Party chose not to raise any protests when their demand to raise Robert Vadra's suspect land deals was not considered by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari. Anita Katyal reports.
He said his government in the state will create a 'new model' of development under the guidance of Modi.
The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill passed amid din.
'If the Amendment Bill 2016 becomes law, the indigenous people of Assam will become a minority and the language, literature and culture of Assam will be lost.'
The UPA managers feel the remaining phase of the Winter Session of Parliament, which will be dominated by the Telangana issue, may actually end up as a repeat of previous sessions. Anita Katyal reports.
Members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow.
'Celebrities have to make sure they do enough due diligence on their own before they sign up multi-million dollar contracts.' 'Today, it is just easy money. Lend your name, lend your face and laugh your way to the bank.'
The Trinamool Congress sought complete withdrawal of the NRC, alleging that Indian citizens have also been left out of the final draft.
'She really doesn't care if she is called heartless.' 'For her, the job needs to be done. That's all that matters.'
After a 6.5-hour debate, the upper house clears the bill. Amit Shah said the bill is not anti-Muslim and Indian minorities have nothing to fear from its passage.
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