Parliment diary
NEW DELHI
Politics in time of R K Nagar
Even days of after the results, RK Nagar by-election remains as a hot topic of discussion in Parliament with AIADMK and DMK MPs ribbing each other and in turn getting it from others, including the MPs from the Left. If Alagiri’s remarks challenging Stalin’s leadership qualities were not enough, some of MPs claimed Dayanidhi Maran too has joined in, to do a ‘jugalbandi’. Apparently a Whatsapp message to that effect was doing the rounds. But V.Maitreyan appeared supremely confident of an AIADMK win in the next assembly.
He even broke into a song, while asking “Oh, who will defeat us?’’ TTV Dinakaran, he claimed, won’t be able to do anything to TN Government, except issuing empty threats. In defeat, the OPS-EPS faction seems to be sensing a distant victory. Only to be told by DMK’s Elangovan that his party may spring a surprise. (It was generally interpreted as a possible future alliance with BJP). Though the view is except for the party workers, no one, not even their sympathisers voted for DMK in RK Nagar.
Ban on Talaq-e-Biddat
As Lok Sabha took a step towards banning triple talaq through a legislation that made the Muslim man (husband) pronouncing such a summary divorce liable to criminal prosecution and up to three-year jail, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad held forth on the ‘historic’ moment. However, not many were present witness the making of the history.
The lower house was virtually half its strength as the bill was voted upon, the opposition Congress benches wore a deserted look. But the most notable absentees were, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Throwing a line towards the BJP, particularly Minister MJ Akbar who played a crucial role in the framing of the bill, a MP from a southern Indian state said, “the uniform civil code from the backdoor has become uniform criminal code’’!
Sibal’s solo play
Ace Supreme Court lawyer and former union minister Kapil Sibal may have got the Congress party into a flap during Gujarat polls, but he continues to be the party’s main legal eagle. The party depended on him to pore over the Triple Talaaq bill and firm a stand. The Congress is expected to move several amendments to the bill in Rajya Sabha, even while supporting it.
Twisting names
BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav moved a privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi for twisting Leader of the House, Rajya Sabha, FM Arun Jaitley’s name to suggest falsehood. The Congress chief tweeted a pun right after the two sides of the aisle had patched up on Thursday, to put up a united on Khulbhushan Jadhav’s family’s mistreatment in Pakistan.