Monday, July 22nd, 2019

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly met on a Sunday for the first time in its history, and used the weekend sittings to approve the state Budget, among other business. Sunday’s session in Bhopal followed a marathon sitting on Saturday that went on until 11 at night, and a Friday session that ran well past 9pm. A non-stop weekend On Saturday the House sat continuously for 12 hours, taking up Question Hour, Zero Hour, calling attention motions and government business without even stopping for lunch. The Business Advisory Committee decided to holdRead More

The Narendra Modi government presented a report card on Monday marking 50 days of its second term, saying it was already delivering on its promise of rapid development. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, who released it, said “speed, skill and scale” had been on display and that reforms, welfare and justice were moving faster than in the first term. The government’s claims The BJP won 303 seats and Modi took the oath on May 30; it was the first time since 1971 that a sitting government had returned withRead More

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday blamed the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party for the Sonbhadra killings, in which 10 people died last week. During a visit to Umbha village in the district, he claimed that the main accused, the village head, was an active SP member and that his brother worked for the BSP. The chief minister’s claims Adityanath said both men had been arrested and described the incident as the result of a political conspiracy and lawlessness. He said those shedding “crocodile tears”Read More

On Sunday, senior Congress leader Natwar Singh became the newest party figure to back Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as Congress president, as the party grappled with a leadership vacuum after Rahul Gandhi’s resignation. He warned that the party would break apart if someone from outside the Gandhi family took charge. Praise for the Sonbhadra visit Singh praised Priyanka for her visit to Sonbhadra, where 10 people were shot dead last week. “It was amazing. She stayed there and achieved what she wanted to,” he told the news agency ANI. On FridayRead More

Karnataka Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar set a 6pm deadline for the floor test on Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s confidence motion and summoned the rebel MLAs to appear before him the following day over a plea seeking their disqualification, as the Congress-JD(S) coalition struggled to survive. The stand-off Kumaraswamy had appealed to the rebels to return to the House and “expose” the BJP, but the legislators, lodged in a Mumbai hotel, said they would not attend and denied that they were being held against their will. Rebel JD(S) legislator K GopalaiahRead More