Sumitra Mahajan urges MPs to resolve to not enter Well of the House in 2019

New Year resolution

On Monday, the last day of 2018, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan urged all members of the House to resolve to not enter the Well of the House and work in accordance with the rules in 2019. Amid sloganeering by Congress and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members, Mahajan requested MPs of both parties to go to their respective seats for her sake, following which the MPs from both parties sat down. "Today is the last day of the year...it should be the last day when you enter the Well of the House...," Mahajan said. She also indicated that there was a rule which prohibited members from entering the Well of the House and they should comply with it. While Mahajan was making these remarks, members listened to her patiently. Later, Mahajan announced that January 1 will be a holiday and the House would assemble on Wednesday. The Rajya Sabha also decided that the New Year's Day will be a holiday.
 
Reel versus real
 
For actor-turned-politicians, as Congress leader Raj Babbar discovered on Monday, their reel life personas can continue to chase them into their political lives. As the Narendra Modi government prepared to introduce the triple talaq Bill in the Rajya Sabha (RS) on Monday afternoon, RS member Amar Singh asked his friend Babbar to support the Bill. Singh is an independent MP who, in the last couple of years, has gravitated towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Singh requested Babbar to recall the hit Hindi film Nikaah, which had dealt with the travesty of instant triple talaq. Babbar, along with actors Salma Agha and Deepak Parashar, had played the lead roles in the 1982 film, directed by B R Chopra. Babbar told Singh that his party opposed the Bill as it criminalised instant triple talaq.
 
Dos and don'ts
 
The reception at Shastri Bhawan in the Capital, which houses the offices of several Union ministries, has recently put in writing the dos and don'ts for visitors. Irked by people who want entry passes to be issued by the receptionists and tired of telling them that merely a previous visit does not qualify one to get a pass every time they come, the reception has put it out in writing that the passes will not be issued without the authority concerned informing the front desk.