The monsoon session of Parliament got off to a stormy start on Monday leading to adjournment of the two Houses without transacting much business following an opposition uproar over issues ranging from price rise to the Agnipath scheme.
The Opposition intensified its noisy protests in Lok Sabha on Wednesday over Pegasus snooping, farm laws and other issues with some unruly members even hurling papers and torn placards in the House, but the government went ahead with its legislative agenda and three bills were passed amid the din.
On Sunday, the Army expressed deep regret over the incident and ordered a Court of Inquiry.
Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Kabir Suman, who had sent an SMS text on Monday night announcing that he was quitting from the party and the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday postponed the decision by a week following a request by noted writer Mahasweta Devi.
The committee headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar is meeting later on Thursday to adopt its draft report in what is likely to be hotly contested by opposition members of the panel.
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.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised the Karnataka issue and accused the ruling party of 'poaching' its MLAs in the state.
Trinmool Congress MP Srinjoy Bose quit his party as well as his Rajya Sabha seat on Thursday.
Led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the Opposition members in the Lok Sabha demanded sacking of Union minister Ajay Mishra from the government in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
Participating in a debate on the bill in Lok Sabha, Moitra said women's reservation is dependent on two totally "indeterminate dates" and asked, "can there be a greater jumla".
Opposition members created an uproar in both Houses of Parliament on Monday over issues like allowing 51 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, demand for Telangana state and threat to people of Kerala due to Mullaperiyar dam.
Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday sought cooperation of all parties for the smooth conduct of proceedings with "decency, dignity and discipline", even as the Opposition demanded discussion on the Agnipath scheme, unemployment and farmers' issues.
Parliament on Monday passed The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, to repeal the three contentious agri laws against which farmers have been protesting for over a year, with its passage in Rajya Sabha.
The panel will likely play an important role as the Personal Data Protection Bill gets tabled in Parliament.
The issue of foreign direct investment in retail came to haunt the government again in Parliament with a united Opposition demanding an inquiry and reply from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on reports of Wal-Mart spending huge money to lobby for entry into the Indian market.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday reached out to Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati ahead of winter session of Parliament, but she remained evasive on her party's stand on plans by Trinamool Congress to bring a motion against Foreign Direct Investment.
It said the Congress will infuse new blood in leadership roles without creating new fault lines and cementing its ideological moorings.
INDIA bloc leaders will protest at Jantar Mantar Friday against suspension of MPs and nationwide protests will also be held in all district headquarters against the government's "immoral and illegal" behaviour of this government, the Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha said.
The session will begin with the address of the President to the joint sitting of the two Houses on Friday morning followed by the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.
"I am not allowed to speak in the Rajya Sabha often. Should I say it is because I am a Dalit?" he asked.
Because of the protest, Congress member Bhaskar Rapolu even refused to lay the Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident of two persons jumping into the house chamber from the public gallery with smoke canisters.
The Lokpal directive came while deciding a complaint by BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey alleging that Moitra had asked questions in the Lower House of Parliament in exchange for cash and gifts from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
The MGP, which had won three seats in the 2017 polls, is currently left with only one MLA after two of its legislators joined the ruling BJP.
In a letter the Central Bureau of Investigation dated April 6, West Bengal's chit fund scam accused and Saradha Group promoter Sudipta Sen has accused Trinamool Congress Members of Parliament Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose of blackmailing him for huge sums of money.
In the all-party meeting on Tuesday, Opposition parties demanded discussions on price rise, unemployment and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota among other issues, sources said.
Notwithstanding the ruling Congress remaining undecided on who should be its presidential candidate, Congress members of Parliament and members of Legislative Assembly have come out in open demanding the post for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
He also pointed out the high sums earned by the coaching centres leading to the commercialisation of education.
"A person cannot be punished twice for the same offence," a committee member said, adding that even BJP members took a "soft view" of the issue and were in favour of revocation of Chowdhury's suspension.
The proceedings of the House were almost washed out as it could not take up any legislative business.
Soon after the suspension of 33 opposition Lok Sabha MPs, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms have been thrown into the dustbin by this "autocratic" government and it has shown zero accountability towards Parliament.
'If she manages to throw out people, go for surgical operations, clean up her image, she will be victorious.'
RS member Derek O'Brien said due to the polls, MPs of his party would not be able to attend the Parliament session.
The deadlock in Parliament over Foreign Direct Investment in retail and several other issues continued for the ninth day on Friday with the opposition and some members of United Progressive Alliance partner Trinamool Congress creating uproar in both Houses to press for their demands. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned minutes after they met for the day.
Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday questioned Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Union Budget and claimed that the plates of all states except Bihar and Andhra Pradesh were empty in the budget allocation.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday said she will appear before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on November 2 in the cash-for-query case, but asserted that she should be allowed to cross-examine businessman Darshan Hiranandani, from whom she is accused of taking bribes to ask questions in Parliament.
The Lok Sabha MP from Maldaha Dakshin said Congress' alliance partner Communist Party of India-Marxist forged a tie-up with Indian Secular Front of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui as it feared it will not be able to win a single seat.
The 17th Lok Sabha, which was dissolved on June 5, did not have a deputy speaker for its full term, and it was the second consecutive term of the lower house without an LoP.
"Everything may look normal in Kashmir. Everything may look normal here. We may be celebrating the victory, although of course some people believe that that victory or that success of 2024 was perhaps only marginal, perhaps a lot more needs to be done," he said.
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