Parliament

Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a Bill to set up the Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University in Telangana. The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by voice vote after the House rejected several amendments proposed by Opposition members.

The university is being established in pursuance of the commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The report of the Ethics Committee which recommended the expulsion of TMC MP Mahua Moitra in a ‘cash-for-query’ case is likely to be tabled in Lok Sabha on Friday, parliamentary sources said.

The report was earlier listed in the agenda of the lower house for December 4 but was not tabled. Various Opposition members have insisted that there should be a discussion on the recommendations before a decision is taken on Moitra.

“If the report is tabled, we would insist on a full-fledged discussion as the draft was adopted in two-and-a-half minutes,” BSP MP Danish Ali told reporters on Thursday.

BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri expressed regret on Thursday for making offensive statements against BSP politician Danish Ali. He expressed egret during a meeting of the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee which heard both the leaders separately.

Bidhuri mentioned in his committee deposition that Union minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh expressed regret in the House for remarks he made on September 21 during the discussion over the accomplishments of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, according to sources. With Bidhuri expressing regret, the committee would likely bring closure to the matter and send its report to the Speaker, sources added.

Bidhuri had used some objectionable comments to target Ali, who was accused by several BJP leaders of using derogatory words for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provoke the South Delhi MP.

BJP MP Dharambir Singh from Haryana on Thursday termed live-in relationships as a “dangerous disease” that must be eradicated from society and urged the government to implement a law prohibiting them.

Singh raised the issue in the Lok Sabha during ‘zero hour,’ stating divorce rates in love marriages were high and that the consent of the bride and groom’s parents should be made mandatory for such engagements. India has a long tradition of arranged marriages, with a significant portion of society prioritizing them. These marriages are based on the consent of the bride and groom and are influenced by social, individual, and family factors, according to Singh.

“Divorce rate is about 1.1 per cent in India as compared with America which has a rate of about 40 per cent. It has been observed that the rate of divorce in arranged marriages is very less. However, there is a lot of increase in divorce rate recently and the main reason for it is love marriages,” the MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh said. Singh stated that a “new disease” has emerged and this social evil is called “live-in relationship”. Under this, two persons, man or woman, live together without marriage, the BJP MP said.

“Such relationships are very common in western countries but this evil is fast spreading in our society also and the consequences are horrible. Recently, the case of Shraddha (Walkar) and Aftab (Poonawala) had come to light in which both were in a live-in relationship,” Singh said.

Om Birla, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, announced on Thursday that he has accepted the resignations of nine Lok Sabha members, including cabinet ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel.

These resignations came from BJP members who had recently emerged victorious in the Assembly elections. In addition to the two ministers, the resigning Lok Sabha members include Rakesh Singh, Udya Pratap Singh, and Riti Pathak from Madhya Pradesh; Diya Kumari and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Rajasthan; and Gomati Sai and Arun Sao from Chhattisgarh.

Rajya Sabha member Kirodi Lal Meena has tendered his resignation as well.