The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday slammed the government on the issue of the cartoon of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar in school text books and accused the Congress of "insulting" Gujjar, Jat, Sikh and Jain communities.
With two weeks of the monsoon session having passed without much significant business, Leader of the House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal on Friday reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party top brass, including L K Advani, to discuss smooth passage of pending bills in the House.
A meeting of political parties supporting the Women's Reservation Bill on Tuesday failed to evolve a strategy on its passage in Rajya Sabha, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Left parties demanding that a discussion be held before voting.The meeting was called by leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee to discuss a strategy to ensure smooth passage of the Constitution amendment bill.Sources said the meeting failed to reach a consensus on the passage of the proposed law.
The government is going all out to get the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill passed in Parliament, even if it means making changes to the
External Affairs Minister and leader of House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee called up Leader of the Opposition L K Advani expressing willingness to re-schedule the session as suggested by the latter at an all-party meeting on Friday on account of festivals, including Diwali, and the assembly elections.
There are red faces in the government and the leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee is reported to be furious at the mismanagement and lack of co-ordination within the government of its floor managers, casual attitude of ministers and pressure from allies which has put it in a bad light and given the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party a new lease of life to take on the government. It appears to be "withdrawal" time in the government.
The session will discuss a legislation on the offices of profit besides several other bills.
The National Democratic Alliance on Tuesday evening agreed to end the boycott of parliamentary committees.
A two-minute silence was observed in his memory and the two Houses, which were on their last day of the winter session, adjourned sine die as a mark of respect.