News Analysis India

Tag: Zero Hour

  • End Facebook’s ‘systematic interference’ in India’s democracy: Sonia Gandhi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday urged the government to put an end to the alleged “systematic interference” of Facebook and other social media giants in India’s electoral politics.

    Making a Zero Hour submission in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi referred to a report published in Al Jazeera and The Reporters’ Collective claiming that Facebook had offered BJP cheaper deals for election advertisements as compared to other political parties.

    “I urge the government to put an end to the systematic interference and influence of Facebook and other social media giants in the electoral politics of the world’s largest democracy. This is beyond partisan politics. We need to protect democracy and social harmony regardless of who is in power,” she said.

  • Expedite return of Kashmiri Pandits living in exile: Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi to Centre

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Friday asked the government to expedite the construction of transit accommodation units for Kashmiri Pandits and to facilitate their return to the valley.

    Raising the issue of the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, the Shiv Sena MP said they have been living in exile for 32 years and they continue to be denied the right to return home.

    In 2015, the government had promised to construct 6,000 transit accommodations for Kashmiri Pandits. Unfortunately, as per the department-related parliamentary standing committee of Home Affairs, the work has been progressing slowly, and only 15 per cent of the work has been completed till date, she said.

    “It is unfortunate that despite the government’s big promises, post the removal of Article 370, after allowing people from outside the state to buy land there, Kashmiri Pandits are denied their homes,” the Shiv Sena MP said.

    “…I urge the government to expedite the construction of transit accommodation units and to facilitate the return, rehabilitation, and empowerment of the Kashmiri Pandit community. They have been fighting a battle to go back home for the past 30 years. The government must ensure their safe return and a dignified life for them,” she said.

    In his Zero Hour mention, Binoy Viswam of the Communist Party of India expressed concerns over the privatization of public sector units and said it was creating fear among the people. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Kumar Jha made a case for states governments and Centre to strengthen the framework of national employment policy.

  • Navjot Singh Sidhu questions use of EVMs in polls, seeks voting through ballot papers

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Congress MLA and former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday questioned the use of EVMs in the elections and said voting should be held through ballot papers. Speaking for the first time in the ongoing Budget session in the Assembly, Sidhu during the Zero Hour said countries like the USA have disapproved polling through electronic voting machines (EVMs).

    The Amritsar MLA said these countries had reasoned that any technology could be “manipulated” but not ballot papers. Sidhu spoke after Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains raised the issue in the House.

    Bains said that according to Article 328 of the Constitution, a state Assembly is empowered to decide whether it wants election through an EVM or ballot paper. Citing an example, Bains said the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker had asked the state government to bring a Bill for reintroducing ballot papers as a mode of conducting elections.

    To this, Speaker Rana KP Singh said he will get the matter examined. Backing Bains, Sidhu told the Speaker, “You do not allow elections through EVMs in Punjab, not even a single seat can be won by the central government.”

    “It is not an issue of political parties. It is an issue of democracy,” said Sidhu demanding a resolution over it. Former cricketer-turned-politician also slammed the Union government, accusing it of “politicisation of institutions”. “The institutions have been turned into puppets,” he alleged.

    Leader of Opposition and AAP legislator Harpal Singh Cheema also demanded a resolution, stating that the elections should not be held through EVMs.