The Budget Session of the Parliament of India resumes on Thursday. In today’s agenda are discussions on Demands for Grants for various ministries, and on pending Bills. There is also expected to be a discussion on the Delhi violence.
Lok Sabha is scheduled to discuss and vote on Demand for Grants under control of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha is scheduled to discuss the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020, the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2019, the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2019, and the National Commission for Homoeopathy Bill, 2019.
Here are the latest updates:
6.05 pm | Rajya Sabha
Addressing Congress leader Kapil Sibal, Bhupendra Yadav (BJP), says, “You should have read the CAA and educated the people. Your opposition to the CAA has misled the people.”
“Delhi undergone pain, but government has applied the balm. I want to congratulate the government,” he says.
6 pm | Lok Sabha
Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP) congratulates PM Modi and Railway Minster for increasing the budget for Railways which ‘enables the common man’ to commute to their work hassle-free. The increased direction of funds towards Railways has made it safer, he says. He also asks the railway authorities be made accountable for their responsibilities.
Dr. Gaddam Ranjith Reddy (TRS) says since there is no provision for new lines in Telangana, the Railway Ministry should extend of line from Lingampally to Vikarabad which he says will “ease the congestion” in Hyderabad. He also asked the Ministry to get Konark Express and Graeeb Rath to stop at Vikarabad.
The Speaker, Meenakshi Lekhi, along with the parliamentarians come to a consensus that the Session on Demands for Grants under the control of the Ministry of Railways for 2020-21 will be extended.
5.50 pm | Rajya Sabha
Vaiko (MDMK) says his heart goes out to the bereaved members of the families in Delhi. “The only silver lining was Hindus and Muslims coming forward to protect each other. The undercurrent of this country has not died. I salute them,” he says.
“The Hindu carried several reports, but I could not bear to read them. We are the tallest democracy, we have to bow our head in shame when the U.N. Secretary General expresses his concern,” he adds.
“The villain is the CAA. The second villain is the NRC and the third notorious villain is NPR. Revoke CAA, NRC and NPR,” he concludes.
5.40 pm | Rajya Sabha
Vijay Goel (BJP) says he grew up in Chandni Chowk when the number of Hindus living there more. “Today, Muslims are more and Hindus less. Chandni Chowk is becoming Jafrabad. I won Chandni Chowk twice. I worked both for Hindus and Muslims,” he says.
Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD) says he would wish to apologise on behalf of his colleagues to the people of Delhi for the violence. “Can we guarantee the people of this country that there will be no violence like this again?” he asks. If poison continues to flow like this, there will be no elections, there will be nothing left, he says. “We are losing the plot,” he adds.
Referring to the protest in Shaheen Bagh, Mr. Jha adds, “What kind of narrative is being promoted that women are being used [for the protests]? This is an anti-woman mindset.”
Sanjay Singh (AAP) says Delhi was burning for three days. “Hindus were killed. Muslims were killded. Police were killed. But, the Home Minister did nothing.”
The Home Minister does not deserve to continue in his post, he adds. “The Home Minister was saying yesterday that Indians were killed in riots. Why didn’t you go to meet the families and compensate them?” he asks.
Talking about the transfer of Judge S. Muralidhar, Mr. Singh says the Judiciary is in danger.
Mr. Singh says the Delhi Chief Minister had written to the Home Minister to impose a curfew and send the Army. “You were silent because your people were involved. Who were the 300 people? U.P has the Yogi Sarkar. What action was taken against them?”
Abdul Sahab (IUML) says the Home Minister should send a team to Kerala to see how the State handles communalism. “This should not be happening in India. Stop such hate statements,” he says.
5.30 pm | Lok Sabha
Kapil Moreshwar Patil (BJP) says that Bhiwandi and Surat are textile hubs which will benefit from the bullet train that is being introduced between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. He also requested the Railway Ministry for construction of stations in a few places in Bhiwandi.
₹5,000 crore proposed for bullet train in 2020-21
E. T. Mohammed Basheer (IUML) says that there have been encouraging signs like introduction of more Tejas-like trains for tourism and Kisan trains. “We must realise the ground realities of India. Economic viability should be coupled with Social viability. PPP should not come at a cost of Public sector companies,” he adds.
Special focus should be given to cleaning the coaches in Kerala, he says.
5.00 pm | Lok Sabha
Dhaal Sinha Besan (BJP) says there needs to be rail connectivity from Nagpur to Jabalpur, Katangi to Seoni.
5.00 pm | Rajya Sabha
Anand Sharma (Cong): “It was expected that Parliament would discuss the riots and express condolences on the first day, it did not happen. For 3 days capital kept burning. Our culture doesn’t teach us this. It is a blot on our democracy and its our responsibility to clean it. You had face tech, despite technology and force such an incident took place. Investigation should be done how it happened then? Why wasn’t curfew imposed the first day, why no shoot at sight orders? Despite security arrangements for Trump this happened.
Mixing religion and politics is a lethal combination. When we step out of the house, our dharm granth is the Constitution of India. To say that those opposed to CAA were behind riots is not correct. 11 States are opposed to CAA. The delay in SC is hurting the country, it should be settled…Let there be no politics on it. SC should expedite the hearing on CAA. Humanity did not die in this violence. Hindu, muslims,sikhs saved each other. Muslims protected temples, Hindus protected mosques. Don’t give a certificate to police without investigation. We expected PM to be compassionate, PM took four days to tweet. He was silent till then. Didn’t condemn the violence in his tweets, would Trump have stopped him?Administration would have listened to him.
HM said people from outside came and that it was a conspiracy. This country doesn’t need private armies like Ram Sene, Hindu Sena or PFI. Take strict action. If it was a conspiracy then it was an intelligence failure, investigate that also. No blame game, time to provide relief.”
Every FIR should be scrutinized. A judicial commission should be constituted,SIT is not enough, Mr. Sharma says. “SC should oversee this. How will you win back the trust of people. sabka saath sabka viswas are empty words.”
4.30 pm | Rajya Sabha
Tiruchi Siva (DMK): “We don’t expect resignation from HM, he is not Lal Bahadur Shastri. We expect him to come to the Parliament. Anti CAA protests not only in Delhi but across the country. Muslims organise protest and they say leg us protect the sovereignty of the country.”
What are you going to do with Muslims excluded from Assam NRC? Are you going to quarantine them? Why no clarification from HM on NRC and NPR, so many States opposed to it. Why no action against goli maaro hate speeches. A speech triggered a carnage in the country. Silence has become the source of chaos. HM says police has done a good job, the police did not give protection. They were mute spectators.
Ambulances were not allowed to move. Displaced people living are in relatives’ houses. What has the govt done? The Indian economy is sinking. Women workforce shrunk from 37% to 18%. HM should have given a suo motu statement.”
Swapan Dasgupta (BJP): “CAA was passed with due process on Dec 11. On Dec 13, first protest happen in Kolkata. It spread on 14 to Murshidabad district, railway properties were targeted. Efforts to cut off chicken neck from rest of India.
And from there we saw Shaheen Bagh,