Modi govt's plan to extend Parliament session to derail plans of some MPs

The Narendra Modi government's plan to extend the Parliament session by at least a week threatens to derail the plans of some Members of Parliament. MPs, including those of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies, had planned either to go back to their constituencies or on vacation, and, in some cases, official tours abroad. Meetings had been fixed, and flights and hotels booked. All must be cancelled or postponed. Some Opposition MPs on Monday were heard trying to convince their respective party leaders that they be allowed to skip attending Parliament if the session was extended.

Life & times of a former PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release the biography of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar on Wednesday. The book, Chandra Shekhar: The Last Icon of Ideological Politics, has been written by former journalist and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh and research scholar Ravi Dutt Bajpai. Last week, Neeraj Shekhar, the son of the former prime minister, quit his Rajya Sabha seat to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. The book has several interesting anecdotes. As his health deteriorated in 2006, then PM Manmohan Singh asked Chandra Shekhar's political advisor H N Sharma to write a letter so that he be flown to the US for treatment. Chandra Shekhar tore up the letter. "It took a lot of persuasion by Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and (then vice-president) Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for him to make a trip to the US for his treatment around March-April 2006,” the book says.

Trinamool walkout

Trinamool Congress MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Derek O'Brien on Monday led party MPs to stage a walkout, alleging "subversion of rules" when some Opposition MPs could not table their suggestions for the Human Rights (amendment) Bill. The MPs blamed the pandemonium in the House for their inability to move the amendments. While TMC MPs walked out, the Congress and some others continued to sit in the House and participated in the discussion on the Bill. The TMC has now urged all Opposition MPs to put on record their dissatisfaction with the presiding officers of the two Houses. The Congress and other parties, however, are still considering whether they should support the Trinamool, which has upped the ante against the government with an eye on the West Bengal Assembly polls in 2021.