The pandemonium in Parliament over corruption issue continued for the 11th day on Friday disrupting functioning, but members gave a break to their agitation to pay homage to the martyrs of Mumbai terror attacks on its second anniversary.
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.
'His prestige would have been enhanced by a show of mea culpa and not diminished,' says Amulya Ganguli
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to downplay the comments of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on austerity on Twitter saying "it was a joke".
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.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday paid homage to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his 17th death anniversary. Amid a continuous drizzle, the departed leader's widow and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, along with her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka Vadra, reached his memorial 'Vir Bhumi' to pay their tributes. A prayer meeting was organised in the premises of the memorial.
Describing the Women's Reservation Bill as a 'giant step' towards the empowerment of women, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said in the Rajya Sabha that the measure was not anti-minority and anti-Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe. Dr Singh also expressed 'profound apology' to Chairman Hamid Ansari for the disrespect shown to the Chair by members in the House over the past two days. "On behalf of the government, I owe you a profound apology," Dr Singh said to Ansari.
Rangarajan, 77, who will replace Suresh Tendulkar, gave his resignation to Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari, who has accepted it.
Rajya Sabha was briefly adjourned on Tuesday following an uproar by AIADMK over Telecom Minister A Raja's role in Second Generation or 2G spectrum allocation that allegedly led to heavy loss of revenue to the government.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said in Rajya Sabha that "action has already started" for getting back black money belonging to Indians from Swiss banks.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who had served as the chairman of a committee which favoured withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, on Saturday said the prime minister would take a decision on the matter.
India's Vice President Hamid Ansari on Saturday urged the youth to join the economic reconstruction in strife-torn Kashmir.
Two days before Vice President Hamid Ansari's visit to Kannur, a sack of detonators and fuse wires were seized from a private bus plying between Kannur and Kozhikode on Thursday.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said the core values of diversity, tolerance and plurality of Indian civilisation must be kept in mind and cannot be wasted, in remarks that come against the backdrop of the Dadri lynching over rumours of beef eating.
Parliament on Thursday remembered those killed in the terror strike in Mumbai on this day last year with the Lok Sabha resolving to unitedly fight and defeat the forces of terrorism which pose the 'gravest threat to humanity.'
President Prathibha Patil will inaugurate a two-day conference of Governors on September 16. The main issues that will be discussed are internal security and terrorism.
With the global financial crisis affecting Indians in the Gulf region, Vice President Hamid Ansari has said the Indian government was mulling steps to ensure the welfare of expatriates reeling under the meltdown.
Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, governor of Riyadh and third in line to the throne, has over the last five days in Delhi, Agra and Mumbai reaffirmed the message that terrorism in the name of Islam is not Islamic and that the entire region must be united against jihad.
The nation on Friday remembered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 30th death anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and other leaders paying tributes to her.
Vice President Hamid Ansari's wife Salma says she has a "problem" with the Women's Reservation Bill and feels that it will not be of much help unless awareness is created among women at the grassroot level.
The awards are traditionally given away by the Prime Minister but since Singh is hospitalised, a decision was taken that the conferment would be done by the Vice President in his place, government sources said.
The Uttar Pradesh government may be spending nearly Rs 1500 crore on memorials and parks, but it has not been able to provide clean drinking water to even 10 per cent of its 18 crore population. According to him, "Around half the women in 15-50 age group and 85 per cent of children under 3 years of age suffer from anaemia and nearly 50 per cent of UP's children are stunted and underweight."
Three MPs, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, came on wheelchairs.
Dubbing the Mumbai terror strikes as 'most horrendous', Parliament on Wednesday sought strict action and all out efforts to prevent recurrence of such attacks. In the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes, Home Minister P Chidambaram will make a statement on terrorism in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was on Thursday conferred the coveted Indira Gandhi peace prize by President Pranab Mukherjee who said India will continue to support the African nation in its pursuit of stability and economic growth.
There was considerable disquiet in the Congress after Mukherjee accepted the invitation of the RSS to address its workers at its headquarters in Nagpur.
"Tributes to former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary," Modi tweeted.
The 61-year-old had submitted a fresh resignation letter as per the prescribed format, tendering a hand-written one-line letter.
The jury members included Ashish Dhawan, senior managing director, ChrysCapital, Keki Dadiseth, managing director, Omnicom, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman and managing director, Aditya Birla Group and S Ramadorai, chief executive, TCS.
India and Brunei on Tuesday emphasised the need for a peaceful solution to the South China Sea issue through discussions as Vice President Hamid Ansari held wide-ranging talks with the top leadership here, with the two sides signing three agreements including on defence.
President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and several other leaders greeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who turned 75 on Wednesday.
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.
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 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
"Baalu must resign. He and the Prime Minister's Office have misused powers for personal gains," Dr Maitreyan said. On Thursday, Dr Maitreyan was asked to leave the Rajya Sabha by Chairman Hamid Ansari after he sought the prime minister's response to charges against his Cabinet colleague Baalu favouring his sons' firms.
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.
The beginning of the month-long session will coincide with the vice presidential election, in which the victory of United Progressive Alliance-Left nominee Hamid Ansari appears to be certain.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and his party colleague Ram Gopal Yadav along with eight other new members of Parliament were administered oath by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari on Wednesday.
Rajya Sabha Secretary General Yogendra Narain is the returning officer for the vice presidential election.
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.
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