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BJP junks time-honoured Parliamentary principle, keeps chairmanship of key Parliamentary committees

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Narendra Modi

In an unprecedented break with Parliamentary principle and tradition, the ruling BJP has kept the chairmanship of most of the parliamentary panels that scrutinise the functioning of key ministries of the government and submit reports on relevant issues or bills after scrutinising them.

It has left to the opposition just the Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by party president Amit Shah.

The files on the appointments were cleared by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday, Sep 13. The Lok Sabha Secretariat updated the details of parliament’s standing committees for the newly constituted 17th Lok Sabha late night on Friday night.

BJP leaders have replaced Opposition MPs as the chairperson of the Parliamentary standing committees on finance and external affairs, PTI reported. The two crucial panels were led by Congress MPs in the previous Lok Sabha.

BJP MP Jayant Sinha will be the chairperson of the standing committee on finance, Jual Oram will head the committee on defence and PP Choudhary will lead the external affairs committee. In the 16th Lok Sabha, the finance panel was headed by Congress MP Veerappa Moily and external affairs by Shashi Tharoor.

Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh will head two Rajya Sabha panels: home affairs, and science and technology. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be a member of the defence panel, according to the statement.

In a reshuffle, Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien was not retained as the chairman of the travel, tourism and culture committee. Trinamool’s Lok Sabha floor leader Sudip Bandopadhyay will be the chairman of the panel on consumer affairs, the statement said.

The opposition parties have been given the chairmanship of Science and Technology and Environment, Health, Information Technology, Food and Consumer Affairs, Labour and Chemicals &Fertilizers.

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav is heading the committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. BJP’s Rakesh Singh is chairing the committee on Coal and Steel, Ramesh Bidhuri (Petroleum &Natural Gas), Rama Devi (Social Justice and Empowerment), Satynarayan Jatiya (HRD), K Keshava Rao (Industry) Jagadambika Pal (Urban Development) and Sanjay Jaiswal (Water Resources).

V Vijayasai Reddy of the YSRCP, considered to be friendly to the BJP at the centre, is appointed to chair the panel on Commerce, BJD’s Bhartruhari Mehtab is heading the committee on Labour, ally JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan will chair the Energy panel, Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav heads the Rural Development panel.

DMK MP M Kanimozhi will chair the committee that scrutinises the Chemicals and Fertiliser ministry. Shashi Tharoor who had headed the panel on external affairs committee in the 16th Lok Sabha is now been given the chairmanship of Information Technology panel.

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav chairs the panel on Health and Family Welfare.

The chairmanship of panels on Railways and Agriculture, apparently much sought after committees, has been given to former ministers and senior BJP leaders Radha Mohan Singh and PC Gaddigoudar. The post for the panel on Transport, Tourism and Culture is gone to Rajya Sabha member TG Venkatesh who has joined the BJP from TDP recently. TMC’s Derek O’Brien was heading it. In the newly constituted panels, TMC’s Lok Sabha MP Sudhip Bandhyopadhyay has been chosen to head the standing committee on Food Consumer Affairs and PDS.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who was a member of the panel on external affairs, has now been moved to the parliamentary panel on defence, which is headed by Jual Oram.

Standing committees are allocated by Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman on the recommendation of the government.

Congress criticises move

With the latest move, the Congress, which has 52 lawmakers in the current Lok Sabha, will be left with just one panel to lead in the Lower House — the panel on information technology. The Congress had chaired two committees in the previous Lok Sabha, when it had 44 members in the Lower House.

The Congress party has already expressed its disappointment over the move.

The Congress’ floor leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said: “We have been informed that we will get the chairmanship of just one panel… I had shot a protest letter to parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi. I told him that functioning of Parliament means there should be some checks and balance. It is also the right of the parties to head the panels.”

Chowdhury said that in the best interest of parliamentary democracy, the Congress must be given its due. “I also reminded him that when we had 44 MPs, we headed two panels and now we are a 52-member team but you want to give us just one panel to head. This is injustice,” said Chowdhury.

Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, who headed the foreign affairs panel in the last Lok Sabha, hit out at the BJP, calling the decision “one more blow to our soft power, image and international reputation as a mature democracy”. Tharoor said this is the first time the foreign ministry panel was not given to the main Opposition party.

Tharoor also took a jibe at the Modi government, saying a BJP MP will now hold the BJP government accountable instead. “It’s official: Government has decided to end the tradition of the leading Opposition party chairing the External Affairs Committee. Apparently a BJP MP will now hold the BJP Govt accountable instead,” he said in a tweet.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the former Union minister had said in the entire history of Parliamentary Standing Committees, the Committee on External Affairs has always been headed by an Opposition Lok Sabha MP.

“Our tradition is foreign policy bipartisanship: our political differences stop at the nation’s borders. Dismaying,” he had said, tagging a media report that claimed that the government may deny the Congress chairmanship of the standing committees of finance and external affairs it held in the last Lok Sabha.

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Tax terrorism has to stop, says Congress after Income Tax Department issues fresh Rs 1,700 crore notice

The Congress has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.

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Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the Congress’ financial woes worsened once again with the Income Tax Department issuing a fresh Rs 1,700 crore notice. The tax department issued the notice due to discrepancies in tax returns. 

The fresh notice is for assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21 and includes penalty and interest. This comes a day after the Delhi High Court dismissed the party’s petition challenging the tax notices. 

The opposition party is already facing a funds crunch after Income Tax authorities imposed a penalty of Rs 200 crore and froze its funds. Furthermore, the party has not received any relief from the High Court in the case and is likely to approach the Supreme Court. The Congress has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.

Addressing a press conference, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that the notices are being sent to cripple the party financially. Calling the action as tax terrorism, Jairam Ramesh said that this attack on Congress has to stop.

Earlier in February, the Income Tax department had found fault in the party’s tax returns and demanded Rs 200 crore. Subsequently, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) had asked the party to pay the dues and froze their accounts. The Congress stated the tax tribunal’s order freezing its funds was an attack on democracy as the order came just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

AICC general secretary K C Venugopal stated that this is a deliberate attempt by the Narendra Modi-led to bankrupt the Congress ahead of elections. He mentioned that the timing of the penalty notice, following the Delhi High Court’s dismissal of Congress petitions challenging tax reassessment proceedings, reeks of political vendetta.

He underlined that while political parties are typically exempt from taxes, this penalty is allegedly due to delayed filing of returns. He asserted that it is a blatant move by the Modi government to cripple the Congress financially, especially during the elections. He further asserted that in response to the notice, the Congress plans to stage a nationwide protest, condemning BJP’s exploitation of central agencies to target opposition parties. 

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Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Tejashwi Yadav mourns demise of Mukhtar Ansari, demand probe

Akhilesh Yadav mentioned that such doubtful cases should be investigated under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge.

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Mukhtar Ansari, gangster turned politician, who has been in jail since 2005, died due to cardiac arrest on Thursday. After Ansari’s death, his family alleged that the politician had been poisoned in the jail.  

Expressing sorrow, several opposition leaders demanded a probe into the death of Mukhtar Ansari. Notably, the gangster turned politician submitted an application in Barabanki court, alleging he was given some poisonous substance along with his food. He claimed that on March 19, his nerves and limbs started paining after he consumed the food.

Former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav wrote on X that a few days ago Mukhtar Ansari complained that he had been poisoned in jail, yet it was not taken seriously. He added that prima facie the move does not seem justifiable and humane. He stated that constitutional institutions should take suo motu cognizance of such strange cases and incidents.

Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Samajwadi Party Chief, Akhilesh Yadav said that the state is going through the worst phase of government anarchy. He added that it is the responsibility and duty of the government to protect someone’s life in every situation and at every place. 

The former Chief Minister added that the death of a hostage or prisoner while being confined in the police station, in a fight inside the jail, on falling ill inside the prison, while being taken to court, while being taken to hospital or during treatment in hospital will erode public confidence in the judicial process. He mentioned that such doubtful cases should be investigated under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge. He claimed that the way the government bypasses the judicial process and adopts other methods is completely illegal. 

Taking to social media platform X, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati said that the persistent apprehensions and serious allegations made by Mukhtar Ansari’s family regarding his death in jail require a high-level investigation so that the facts in his death can be revealed. 

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said that the people of Ghazipur lost their favourite son and brother. He added that Mukhtar Ansari had made serious allegations against the administration that he was poisoned, but the government did not pay any attention to his treatment.

Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput stated that custodial deaths and firing in jail has become very common in Uttar Pradesh. He added that high level investigation should be conducted.

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Uttar Pradesh on high alert after gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari death, probe ordered on poisoned in jail charge

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Prashant Kumar said that as a precautionary measure, Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed across the state.

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Several towns in Uttar Pradesh are on high alert and security has been strengthened after jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest. His family alleged that the gangster, who has been in jail since 2005, was poisoned. 

The jailed gangster was hurried to a hospital after he fell unconscious at district jail on Thursday night. After a few hours, he was declared dead by the doctors at the Rani Durgavati Medical College. 

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Prashant Kumar said that as a precautionary measure, Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed across the state. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has also been called in to assist the police. Reportedly, the CRPF units have already been deployed in Banda, Mau, Ghazipur, and Varanasi.

Additionally, the social media cell of the Uttar Pradesh Police is also on high alert to track unlawful elements that may try to spark a riot. Furthermore, a magisterial investigation into the death of Mukhtar Ansari will be carried out by a three member team, reports said.

A former five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat Muktar Ansari, had 60 criminal cases pending against him. The gangster turned politician was sentenced in eight cases since September 2022 by different courts of Uttar Pradesh and was lodged in the Banda jail.

Earlier, the former five-time MLA from Mau submitted an application in Barabanki court, alleging he was given some poisonous substance along with his food. He claimed that on March 19, his nerves and limbs started paining after he consumed the food.

Muktar Ansari was born into a family with deep roots in the independence struggle. His grandfather served as the Indian National Congress president in 1927. He was initially affiliated with the Bahujan Samaj Party before forming the Quami Ekta Dal (QED) after being expelled.

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