News Analysis India

Tag: Winter Session of Parliament

  • Focusing Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi unlikely to attend Winter Session of Parliament: Congress

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is likely to skip the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament to continue with his party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, said party General Secretary, Incharge of Communications Jairam Ramesh.

    The upcoming Winter Session of Parliament is likely to be held from December 7 to December 29, this year. There will be a total of 17 working days in the upcoming Winter Session.

    This will be the first session during which Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, will officiate proceedings in the Upper House.

    Senior Congress leader JairamRamesh (Photo | EPS)During the Winter Session, the Congress might also select a replacement for the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, a position earlier occupied by the party’s new president Mallikarjun Kharge, who quit at the time of filing nomination for organisational election to adhere to the party policy of ‘one man, one post’.

    The government will be drawing up a list of Bills to be passed during the upcoming session while the Opposition will demand a discussion on pressing matters.

    Jairam Ramesh further said that the Congress supports reservation in education and employment for Economically Backward Class (EWS) in all communities without disturbing the existing reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).

    Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra has reached its 66th day.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is at its Maharashtra leg, resumed from the Shevala village of Kalamnuri in Maharashtra’s Hingoli on Saturday.

    It is pertinent to mention that the Congress had claimed in its previous statement that the Yatra is the longest march on foot conducted by any Indian politician in Indian history.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra is nowadays in Maharashtra after it covered the parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

    The Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day.

    ALSO READ | Aaditya takes part in Bharat Jodo Yatra, marches along with Rahul in Maha’s Hingoli

    In Maharashtra too, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) have also agreed to participate in the yatra, adding to its importance.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on September 7 from Kanyakumari, will cover a further distance of 2,355 km in its 3,570-km march. It will end in Kashmir next year. It is the longest march on foot by any Indian politician in the history of India, the Congress claimed earlier in a statement.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day.

    ALSO READ | Rahul can challenge Modi in 2024, but common face will be decided by opposition parties: Gehlot

    Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also installed in some of the containers. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.

    The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles.

    NEW DELHI: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is likely to skip the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament to continue with his party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, said party General Secretary, Incharge of Communications Jairam Ramesh.

    The upcoming Winter Session of Parliament is likely to be held from December 7 to December 29, this year. There will be a total of 17 working days in the upcoming Winter Session.

    This will be the first session during which Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, will officiate proceedings in the Upper House.

    Senior Congress leader Jairam
    Ramesh (Photo | EPS)During the Winter Session, the Congress might also select a replacement for the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, a position earlier occupied by the party’s new president Mallikarjun Kharge, who quit at the time of filing nomination for organisational election to adhere to the party policy of ‘one man, one post’.

    The government will be drawing up a list of Bills to be passed during the upcoming session while the Opposition will demand a discussion on pressing matters.

    Jairam Ramesh further said that the Congress supports reservation in education and employment for Economically Backward Class (EWS) in all communities without disturbing the existing reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).

    Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra has reached its 66th day.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is at its Maharashtra leg, resumed from the Shevala village of Kalamnuri in Maharashtra’s Hingoli on Saturday.

    It is pertinent to mention that the Congress had claimed in its previous statement that the Yatra is the longest march on foot conducted by any Indian politician in Indian history.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra is nowadays in Maharashtra after it covered the parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

    The Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day.

    ALSO READ | Aaditya takes part in Bharat Jodo Yatra, marches along with Rahul in Maha’s Hingoli

    In Maharashtra too, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) have also agreed to participate in the yatra, adding to its importance.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on September 7 from Kanyakumari, will cover a further distance of 2,355 km in its 3,570-km march. It will end in Kashmir next year. It is the longest march on foot by any Indian politician in the history of India, the Congress claimed earlier in a statement.

    Bharat Jodo Yatra is getting support from various political parties and social organizations across the country and the response is increasing day by day.

    ALSO READ | Rahul can challenge Modi in 2024, but common face will be decided by opposition parties: Gehlot

    Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also installed in some of the containers. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.

    The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles.

  • Marriage age of women to be raised from 18 to 21, bill in Parliament soon

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The government has decided to raise the legal age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years, bringing it at par with that of men.

    The Union Cabinet on Wednesday had cleared a proposal to bring in uniformity in the marriageable age of men and women, sources said on Thursday.

    The government is likely to bring a bill in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, they said.

    The proposed bill may also seek to make consequential changes to various personal laws relating to the marriage of various communities to ensure a uniform marriage age, the sources said.

    As of now, the legal age of women to get married is 18 while that for men is 21 years.

    The decision came a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the government was deliberating on what should be the minimum age for the marriage of women.

    The decision is based on the recommendation of a four-member task force led by former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly.

    Speaking about the recommendation, Jaitly said there were two main reasons that were focussed on.

    “If we talk about gender equity and gender empowerment in every field, then we can’t leave marriage out because this is a very odd message that girl can be fit to be married at 18 that cuts away her opportunity to go to college and the man has the opportunity to prepare himself for life and earning up to 21.

    But these days when girls are capable of doing so much and the main reason why they are married off is that they are not an income-earning member of the family but why do we allow them that feeling,” she said.

    “We should give them an opportunity to earn and be equal to a man and she can’t become equal at 18 when a man has 21 years to do that. Secondly, we took opinions from lots of people but the main people who were most attentive were stakeholders themselves.

    “We conducted assessment calls with young people – universities, colleges and in rural areas where they are still at school or getting out of school and the unanimous opinion of stakeholders was the marriageable age to be 22 or 23. Across all religions everyone had the same opinion which was a very heartening thing,” she said.

    Jaitly said the task force submitted its recommendations to the PMO, Women and Child Development Ministry and NITI Aayog last December.

    The other members in the panel include Dr V K Paul, member (health) Niti Aayog, secretaries of higher education, school education, health, women and child development, legislative department apart from academicians Najma Akhtar, Vasudha Kamat and Dipti Shah.

  • Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day amid Opposition protests over suspension of MPs

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Monday amid protests by Opposition parties over their demand to revoke the suspension of 12 members of the House.

    As soon the House reassembled at 4 pm following four adjournments of varying durations, Deputy Chairman Harivansh called Home Minister Amit Shah to give a statement on the Nagaland firing incident in which 14 civilians were killed.

    Even as the minister was making a statement, Opposition members kept raising slogans against the government.

    Shah had made the same statement earlier in the Lok Sabha.

    As soon as Shah finished his statement, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the House for the day as Opposition members refused to relent and continued their uproar over the suspension of 12 MPs.

    Earlier, Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 4 pm as the House was unable to function amid protests by opposition MPs who had trooped inside the well over the suspension issue.

    This was the fourth adjournment of the day.

    After the House assembled at 3 pm following the third adjournment, Sushmit Patra, who was in the Chair, called for a short-term discussion on the situation in the country due to inflation, including the rise in the prices of petroleum products.

    Patra called the Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to speak on the matter.

    The septuagenarian leader, however, asked the chair to first revoke the suspension of the 12 MP and allow them to participate in the discussion.

    Kharge said, “In a democracy, it is a crime to run the House and start a discussion after suspending 12 members.”

    Patra said that the proposal for the short-term discussion was brought by them only and now they don’t want to discuss it.

    “This topic is decided by them. The opposition wanted to discuss this and the government has agreed for this discussion,” said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

    “They are talking about democracy and we have agreed for it. Is it not democracy and spirit of the house?” “We are not running away from debate. We want to debate and discuss price hikes but you are seeing this. This is the hypocrisy of the opposition,” Sitharaman said pointing towards the MPs who trooped in the well of the House with placards and were raising slogans.

    After this, Patra asked Congress leader Anand Sharma to speak on the inflation issue as Kharge was not speaking on it.

    However, there was no answer.

    “You had given a proposal for short-duration discussion,” Patra said.

    Patra also called NCP MP Fouzia Khan to participate in the debate, who too asked the Chair to first revoke the suspension of the opposition MPs.

    Patra again called for Kharge, who asked him to first bring the House in order, then only he would speak.

    “You first bring the House in order. I am ready to speak but you revoke the suspension,” the Leader of Opposition said.

    Patra requested the protesting MPs to return to their seats saying Kharge was ready to speak, The protest, however, continued.

    Amid the din, Leader of House Piyush Goyal said, “Now the leader of opposition claims that he is ready to speak and wants to start the discussion and asks you to bring the House in order. This is like playing a game. Their own members are here (in the Well)….The Congress members are in the House.”

    The Leader of the Opposition “on one hand claims to bring the House in order and on other hand encourages its own MPs to be in the well,” Goyal said while holding the opposition responsible for the price rise, particularly of petroleum.

    The Union government has not only reduced excise duty on petroleum products the BJP-ruled states have also reduced VAT on petrol and diesel, he said.

    ​ALSO READ | Nagaland firing incident case of mistaken identity, govt expresses regret: Amit Shah in Lok Sabha”They (non-NDA parties) are responsible for this situation, particularly on petroleum prices and to cover up they are in action,” Goyal said, adding the whole nation is watching.

    Following this, Patra adjourned the House session.

    Earlier in the day, following a round of adjournment, when the House gathered in the afternoon, Deputy Chairman Harivansh called for laying on the table the statement of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

    The deputy chairman then sought initiation of the short-duration discussion on the ‘situation arising out of price rise in the country including the rise in the prices of petroleum products’.

    Kharge stated that he was ready for the discussion but requested that the suspended MPs be first called in the House.

    “I request you to please call them inside (the House) for once,” he said, noting the 12 MPs have been out of the House for five days.

    To this, the Chair said the Leader of Opposition and Leader of the House should sit together to find a solution to this.

    Kharge said the suspended MPs also want to discuss the price rise issue.

    However, the deputy chairman called out his name to initiate the discussion.

    When Kharge continued with his plea to call the suspended MPs to the House, Harivansh called the name of Anand Sharma then Fauzia Khan and subsequently Manoj Jha to participate in the debate.

    However, no member spoke a word on the issue of price rise.

    Opposition members started shouting and many members trooped into the well following which the deputy chairman asked them to go back to their seats.

    As the protest continued, he adjourned the House for an hour till 3 PM.

    Twelve Opposition MPs were suspended from Rajya Sabha last Monday for the entire Winter Session of Parliament for their “unruly” conduct in the previous session in August.

  • Centre firm, Opposition unrelenting, Winter Session of Parliament in limbo

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Uproar in Rajya Sabha over the suspension of 12 MPs is expected to continue this week, with the Opposition determined to continue pressing for revocation of the suspension order and the Centre adamant that MPs should apologise.

    Rajya Sabha saw repeated adjournments on Wednesday, with Chairman Venkaiah Naidu saying that suspended members have no remorse. He reiterated that these MPs did everything unparliamentary and there is no question of revoking the suspension. “It is a sacrilege of the House and what can we do?” he said.

    Sources said the Upper House is expected to witness similar scenes in the coming days.Suspended MPs sat in protest at the Gandhi statue, while MPs from various parties joined them. It turned out to be an embarrassing situation when Lok Sabha Chairman Om Birla led a Mongolian parliamentary delegation on a tour of the Parliament compound and could not take the visiting delegation to the Gandhi statue where suspended MPs sat with placards saying ‘democracy killed’ and ‘save democracy’.

    The suspended MPs were quick to call out and wave at Birla, who briefly smiled and waved back.   A senior Congress leader said there has been no effort from the Centre to break the logjam. “We have repeatedly requested the Chair and even Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge has written to him but the Chair is not ready to accept it. We will continue with our demand. There is no question of apologising.”As the House met post lunch, Kharge again raised the matter but the Chair asked Union Water Resources Minister GS Shekhawat to table the Dam Safety Bill, 2019 before adjourning for the day. 

    The Lok Sabha also continued to witness disruptions with the Opposition raising slogans and displaying placards. Congress MP Manish Tewari brought an adjournment motion to discuss the issue of inflation. TRS MPs too raised slogans on farmers’ issues. Birla’s efforts to pacify agitating members went in vain. In brief business conducted during the day, Lok Sabha passed the “Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2020”. 

    Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Pralhad Joshi to discuss the situation in Parliament.

  • Government ready to answer all questions, debate any issue in Parliament: PM Narendra Modi

    By Online Desk

    As the winter session of Parliament began on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the media outside Lok Sabha, said that his government was ready to debate and answer all matters in the Parliament.

    “This is an important session of the Parliament. The citizens of the country want a productive session. They are fulfilling their responsibilities for a brighter future”, the Prime Minister added.

    PM Modi asked the Opposition to maintain decorum during the proceedings. He said that the “citizens of the country want a productive session.”

    Twenty-six new bills are on the agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government.

    The government has indicated that the bill to repeal three farm laws will also be taken up on priority. The bill was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week.

    PM Modi also said on Monday morning that the country should be on alert in view of the new Covid variant ‘Omicron’.

    The winter session is scheduled to conclude on December 23.

    (Inputs from ANI)

  • Bill to amend Scheduled Tribes list in Uttar Pradesh before 2022 polls

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The BJP’s social engineering for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections appears to be taking shape, with the government listing a legislative proposal to amend the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the poll-bound state in the upcoming winter session of Parliament. A similar bill to amend the list of STs in Tripura, where the BJP is facing heat from the Trinamool Congress, is part of the proposed legislative business. 

    In all, 26 new bills and three others that had already been introduced, have been lined up for the forthcoming session. The bulletin released by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday also listed a bill to repeal the three contentious farm laws that were enacted by Parliament last year. 

    While Parliament had earlier this year amended the list of SCs in Tamil Nadu following a recommendation from the state government, a senior minister in the UP Cabinet said the state administration hasn’t yet forwarded any such proposal. He, however, added that Parliament on its own can amend the list of STs in the state to address long pending demands of certain communities.

    As for Tamil Nadu, Parliament had classified certain castes in the SC category ahead of the Assembly elections in the state. While Sonabhadra and its adjoining districts of UP have tribal concentrations, there has been a growing demand for the inclusion of fisherfolk in the state in the list of STs. The fishermen community is electorally influential. 

    “The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021” seeks to amend the list of STs pertaining to UP. A parallel one for Tripura has been listed in the agenda of the official business for introduction, consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha. 

    The BJP’s poll mantra in UP, incidentally, for the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 Assembly polls had been the consolidation of the non-Yadav other backward classes (OBCs), with focus on the most and extremely backward castes, which were previously supporting the BSP. 

    With the rival Samajwadi Party making attempts to stitch a larger pre-poll alliance with smaller parties that have distinct caste identities, the BJP is trying hard to play catch-up, knowing full well that multiple caste groups in UP have the numbers to change the electoral outcome. 

  • Winter Session of Parliament from November 29

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Winter Session of Parliament will commence on November 29 and it is likely to conclude on December 23, an official communication from Parliament said.

    “The Seventh Session of Seventeenth Lok Sabha will commence on Monday, the 29th November, 2021. Subject to exigencies of Government Business, the Session is likely to conclude on Thursday, December 23, 2021,” the Lok Sabha Secretariat said in a statement.

    The Rajya Sabha also issued a similar order.

    “The President has summoned the Rajya Sabha to meet on Monday, November 29, 2021, at New Delhi. Subject to exigencies of business, the Session is scheduled to conclude on Thursday, December 23, 2021,” the communication said.