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Jethmalani Jr. said that he has been nominated to Rajya Sabha

Mahesh Jethmalani

Noted lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said that he has been nominated to Rajya Sabha, the upper house in parliament. He told PTI, “I have been intimated about my nomination to Rajya Sabha.”

His father Ram Jethmalani, was a renowned lawyer who fought several high-profile cases, was also a Rajya Sabha member.

Nomination of Mahesh Jethmalani came days after two seats in the nominated category became vacant. In March this year, Swapan Dasgupta resigned from the upper house after the BJP fielded him as a candidate in the West Bengal assembly elections and Raghunath Mohapatra succumbed to Covid-19 earlier this month.

On advice of the Centre, the President can nominate 12 members to Rajya Sabha.

The nominated members for the upper house are drawn from fields such as literature, science, sports, art, and social service.

Also Read: Suspension of Question hour- A closer look into a parliamentary practice allowing representatives of citizens to ask questions

What does constitution say on nomination

Article 80 of the Indian Constitution provides that the upper house or the Rajya Sabha shall consist of 250 members. Out of the total strength, 12 members shall be nominated by the President from amongst persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service. The house shall not more have than 238 representatives of the States and of the Union Territories. Fourth Schedule of Indian Constitution describes the allocation of seats in Rajya Sabha.

By adopting the principle of nomination in Rajya Sabha, the Indian Constitution has ensured that the nation must also receive services of the most distinguished persons of the country who have earned distinction in their field of activity.  The State through nomination not only recognizes their merit and confers honour on them, but also enables them to enrich the debates by their expertise and knowledge that they have in different areas.

The feature of nomination of members to Rajya Sabha, present in Indian constitution, was borrowed from constitution of Ireland.

(With inputs from PTI)

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A law to regulate online hate speech demanded for in Rajya Sabha by RJD MP Manoj Jha

M-Jha

On Thursday, Manoj Jha, a member of Rajya Sabha from the RJD party formally asked for a law to regulate online hate speech and to upgrade information disclosure regarding paid content.

He raised the issue in the pre-noon session in the Upper House of the parliament and said that the online sphere used to spread hate speech is growing to new heights.

Jha also highlighted that even the new channels are broadcasting TRP-centric news without checking the facts being discussed over the News Videos. He outlined among other requirements for the legislation, that the law should intend to detect, monitor, and safeguard against the coordinated inauthentic behaviour, the misuse of online account bots, for the spread of hate speech.

Adding a note of caution, MP Jha further said that the law should be brought after discussion with the various stakeholders in order to get a balance between the censorship of the harmful content & maintenance of freedom of speech & expression.

Also Read: Non issue News taking Central Stage- a Combination of Propaganda and Bandwagon effect

The RJD MP, who often participates in debates on various issues over national channels like the Rajya Sabha TV,  pitched for including internet education in the school curriculum so that the basic knowledge that the children get can be impacted. He also said that the law should put a framework where the impacts of the online media dishing out hate speech on the sensitive-children can be monitored & necessary actions can be taken to counter and flag such contents.

Countering Hate-speech

In parallel development to counter the hate speech and their impacts on the society, various researchers are investigating how “Deep Learning” can be used to train a model to detect hate-speech in cyberspace. Tools like Recurrent neural networks and Convolutional neural networks are being investigated and researched upon to counter the issue of hate-speech.

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As GOI says it is ready for talks, reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks in the Rajya Sabha by the Prime Minister will be under focus

farmer protests

On Monday, the reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks in the Rajya Sabha by the Prime Minister will be keenly watched for possible cues of the course of action of the GOI in the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

His reply in the Lok Sabha on the contentious farm-laws is likely to take place on Tuesday.

Sources linked with BJP stated, “The plank of the international conspiracy against the country gives the BJP enough talking points in the election-bound states. That may play out in the reply to the motion of thanks by the PM.”  The comment came in the backdrop of the huge Twitter storm created by the concerns shown by international celebrities over the farmers’ protests.

While the government has said that it is open to discussions, the farmers’ unions have asserted that the talks could resume only when the cases filed by the police for the Republic Day violence are withdrawn.

Also See: An overview of farmers’ protests- role of Charan Singh

At the same time, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in his intervention during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks in the Rajya Sabha dropped enough hints of the government not yielding to the demands of the repeal of the laws. Many observers in the intelligentsia and the non-BJP parties have stated that this betrays the profound ignorance of the GOI to the plights and the resultant anger among the farming community.

The GOI has also been castigated by many for demeaning the farmers as terrorists and Khalistanis, supported by loud-mouthed people like Kangana Ranaut acting as mouth-piece for the government.

The Lok Sabha is yet to see discussion on the motion of thanks due to the unrelenting protests by the Opposition, particularly the Congress, which has been insisting on a separate discussion on the farmers’ protests.

On Sunday, Tomar said that the ongoing farmers’ protests against the Centre’s three new farm laws are limited to a certain area and expressed hope to break the deadlock over the issue soon.

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Protests against Farm Laws: Rajya Sabha adjourned four times today

parliament

In the midst of agitation & sloganeering by opposition members on the three new farm-laws, Rajya Sabha was adjourned four times today.

A walkout from the Rajya Sabha was staged by opposition parties including Congress, Left, TMC, & DMK after their demand for business suspension of the day to take up a discussion on the agitation by farmers of more than two-months-old was denied by the Chairman- Vice President.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union, which has been leading the farmers’ movement has vowed to raise awareness across the country on the new contentious farm laws. ANI quoted Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of BKU as saying, “We are going to different parts of the country like Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, & will launch a campaign to raise the public awareness on the farm-laws. Each state has its own set of problems. We will proceed accordingly, and raise awareness about the government policies among the tribals, employees, & downtrodden.”

Farmers  additionally have declared a countrywide ‘chakka jam‘ on February 6 when they would obstruct national and state highways for three hours in dissent against the Internet ban in territories close to their protest-sites, purportedly carried out to contain and suppress the movement.

Also See: Overview of the Farmers’ unions in the protests

When the Upper House- Rajya Sabha met at 10:30 am, the sloganeering continued and the Deputy Chairman, who was in the Chair, tried to persuade members to allow the House to function.

However, as the opposition members did not yield, he adjourned the proceedings till 11:30 am. At the time of adjournment, ports, shipping, and waterways minister Mansukh Mandaviya was speaking on The Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020. Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that opposition members themselves were demanding Question Hour and the government agreed.

“Question Hour is going on, whether they (protesting members) want Question Hour or not, let them place it on record,” he said, as opposition members were raising slogans. Opposition parties including the Congress, Left, TMC and DMK had given a notice under rule 267 that calls for setting aside of the business of the day to take up a discussion on the issue pressed.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu had, however, disallowed the motion saying that the members were free to raise the issue during the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address.

Also See: An overview of Farmers’ protests-role of Charan Singh

When the House met for the day, Mr. Naidu said that he has received notice under rule 267 from various members but the issue can be raised during the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President’s address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament.

The President, he said, had referred to the farmer’s agitation in his address made at the start of the Budget session of Parliament last week.

While the Lok Sabha was scheduled to start a discussion on the motion on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha will do so on Wednesday(tomorrow). The upper House as of now is adjourned till 9 am tomorrow.

(Source: ANI, PTI)

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TMC to GOI: No question of redrafting three farm laws, repeal them

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O' Brien

The Trinamool Congress, in the context of the farmers’ protests, urged the government to repeal the new contentious agrarian laws in the upcoming budget session of Parliament and said that there is no question of short cuts or rewriting the three farm laws.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien alleged that the three laws were bulldozed through the Parliament’s monsoon session and remarked that he was among the eight Rajya Sabha MPs who were suspended over protesting against the passage of these bills. “All of you know TMC’s stand on the three farm laws and Mamata Banerjee’s commitment on the issue of land and farmers. In the upcoming session of the Parliament, the government must introduce a Bill and turn it into an Act to repeal the three farm laws. There is no question of taking any shortcuts or rewriting the present bills,” Brien said.

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Afraid of being regarded as ‘anti-Dalit’, BJP sacrifices one Rajya Sabha seat for BSP candidate- step confuses BSP and SP

Apart from the phase-2 of Bihar election, the country witnessed polls for Rajya Sabha seats held on Monday, November 2 and 56 other assembly seats across 11 states in the country on Tuesday, November 3.

In this background, BJP had won 9 out of 11 Rajya Sabha seats. In subsequent developments, BJP however let go of a Rajya Sabha seat to give it to Ramji Lal Gautam, Bahujan Samaj Party’s national coordinator.

BJP made this carefully planned move to not be called an ‘anti-Dalit’ party and be reflected as a Dalit supporter. It has been regarded as a potential move to woo the voters who form the support base of BSP in their favour. It comes at the point when in the state of UP, a lot of furor was generated as the fallout of the mishandling of the Hathras gangrape case involving a dalit girl. This strategic plan of BJP has already shown the beginning of results as the BSP chief, Mayawati recently declared that BJP will not be targeted as the opposition in any of the future assembly polls. Her party had earlier emphasized that BJP is their ideological opposition, and Mayawati had asserted that she would rather take sanyaas rather than join BJP. But, after BJP sacrificed its Rajya Sabha seat for BSP member, the BSP-Chief has decided not to consider BJP as the potential opposition but the Samajwadi Party as its main opposition party.

Soon after the Rajya Sabha poll results were announced, Mayawati made a statement that her party will be voting in favour of BJP to defeat the candidates of SP. In the Rajya Sabha polls, one member of BSP, Gautam had been elected unopposed along with 9 other members in Uttar Pradesh.  The unopposed elected member Gautam’s selection was quite unexpected as it had the support of just 9 MLAs. On the other hand, BJP that did not contest for any candidate already had 22 votes in favour and could have easily won the seat. However, this move of giving away the RS seat gained a lot of support from some members of  BSP and some other Dalit supporting parties and people.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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BJP vs Congress: BJP led NDA crosses 100 in Rajya Sabha seats with Congress falling to the lowest ever tally of 38

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on November 2, won 9 seats out of the 11 seats that it contested in Rajya Sabha, along with Janata Dal (United). This alliance made a total of 92 seats in the Upper House of the Parliament. Amidst the initial tally, Congress is looking at a major fall in the number, which is going to be less than 40 this year.

The BJP has set a target to acquire 123 seats in the Rajya Sabha, the crucial halfway mark in the upper house in the parliament. In the current stage, it seems an achievable one with the support of other parties such as JD(U), Republican Party of India, and AIADMK. With the coalition of such parties, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) might easily acquire over 110 seats in the Upper House.

In addition to this, BJP is also looking forward to the one vacant Rajya Sabha seat in Karnataka followed by the unfortunate death of MP Ashok Gasti, a member of BJP. Bypoll for this Karnataka RS seat has been scheduled on December 1. BJP’s overall tally would touch 93 in the winter session, with this additional seat which the party is confident of winning.

In addition to these major parties, the NDA has always had the support of other regional parties like the YSR Congress Party having 6 members, and the Biju Janata Dal that has 9 of its members in the Upper House. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti also has its 7 MPs in the upper house, which makes a total of 22 MPs from all these three parties.

However, the number of NDA members in RS has declined after Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal left the alliance. Also, after the demise of LJP leader and founder, Ram Vilas Paswan, one more seat is vacant in Bihar. Eight BJP members in Uttar Pradesh including Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party leader, and Hardeep Singh Puri , Union Minister,  and one member in Uttarakhand have been elected unopposed on November 2.

As for the Congress, out of its current 40 MPs, 2 members including Raj Babbar and PL Punia are retiring on November 25. This will take the party’s total number of members effective then onwards to 38, which would be the lowest number it has ever seen. The term of the newly elected members to the upper house will be from November 25, 2020 to November 24, 2026.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness.

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Punjab farmers organise ‘rail roko’ agitation in protest against farm bills from today

In protest against the Centre’s farm bills, farmers in Punjab will organize a three-day ‘rail roko’ movement from today onwards.

After being cleared in the Lok Sabha, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 were passed by voice vote in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday with scarce opposition. Presently the government anticipates to get signature of the President on the bills to become laws.

Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti secretary general Sarwan Singh Pandher said last week that it has been decided that they would organize a ‘rail roko’ movement against agricultural bills from 24 to 26 September in the state. Farmers of the state, along with farmers from Haryana and parties across the country, have been in opposition of the bills since they were introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Another Ranchers’ association has called for a state-wide ‘bandh’ on September 25th.
The dissenters stress that the bills will destroy the current Minimum Support Prince (MSP) framework and leave the ranchers helpless before big corporate lobby sharks. In any case, the administration asserts that the MSP framework will proceed unaltered and the new bills will bring about higher benefits for the ranchers.

PM has guaranteed the ranchers on various events that the “exceptionally noteworthy” bills will profit them as they will remove the force from the hands of go-betweens and allow them to sell their products where they see more benefit. But this is perceived as a false promise by the ranchers and farmers.

After presentation of the bills in the Upper House, Opposition members including Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh entered the well of the Rajya Sabha while the meeting was in progress. They demanded that the bills need to be given for re-examination to a select panel with opposition member at its helm.

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Congress slams the decision of Rajya Sabha Chairman of adjoining the Covid-19 debate with the Health Minister’s statement clarifications

Today the Upper House of the Parliament is set to have its first debate on the Covid-19 pandemic in response to the continuous criticism it has been receiving from the opposition parties. The government will be focusing upon its successful response to the pandemic in terms of recovery rate and low mortality rate for Covid-19 in comparison to other countries.

The chairman of Rajya Sabha, Venkaiah Naidu, has decided to adjoin the Covid-19 debate with the Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan’s clarifications on his statement. This move has come under a furor from opposition parties especially the Congress.
On September 15th, 2020, India accounted for 91,136 new cases of Covid-19 making the total number of active cases cross 5 million. The number of cases has been increasing rapidly for the past few months disproving the prediction by NITI Aayog, signifying that at present, the rate of transmission of this virus is very high in India. It also accounts for the worst-ever daily infection rate in the world.

India is the second-worst hit country by the Covid-19 pandemic followed by Brazil. USA remains the worst-hit country with 6.69 million cases. In this context, Congress aims at raising the questions of a rapidly contracting economy of the country which has contracted by 23.9% in the first quarter of this financial year. The party also seeks a full-grown separate discussion on the loss of livelihoods for millions hit by the pandemic.

Jairam Ramesh, the Congress Chief whip, said in a letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman that if the parties cannot have a full-fledged discussion on the Covid-19 situation without being circumscribed by the minister’s statement then there was no point of having the Rajya Sabha session. He also added that the decision of combining the debate discussion with the health minister’s statement clarification runs contrary to the assurance given by junior minister for parliamentary affairs, V Muraleedharan to him, that the two will be taken up separately.

He also demanded a 4-hour debate for a proper discussion on the Covid-19 pandemic, stating in his letter referring the Business Advisory Committee meeting held on September 13, where it was mentioned that it is very important to have a discussion on the prevailing public health situation.

Some bills have been listed to be passed onto the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, including the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, and the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Bill.

While in the lower house of the Parliament, the Lok Sabha has listed 3 debatable bills for passage, which includes Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, and the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill.

Opposition parties including Congress in Haryana and Punjab have raised their objections to these bills in view of the farmers’ protests going on against these new laws.

Congress made a statement last week stating that if the ordinance becomes law, all key financial intermediaries will come under the control of the Central Government, which will mean more centralization. Congress Party representatives stated that the party stands for decentralization and for empowering states. This statement was made regarding the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill and other ordinances.

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TMC Launches tri-weekly Video Campaign ahead of Bengal Elections

Rajya Sabha member and TMC’s national spokesperson Derek O’Brien via twitter wrote about the video campaign that are going to launched tri weekly on Social Media. It will appear every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

While BJP is intensifying its activities looking at forthcoming election in Bengla. Trinamool congress too launched a new tri-weekly video campaign to highlight the state government’s performance.

The information was given by Derek O’Brien on Twitter, who is the host of the campaign. The first video claims that unemployment rate in Bengal during the Covid-19 pandemic is low in comparison with figures in BJP-ruled states.

Called Shoja Banglay Bolchi (straight talk in Bengali) the campaign features a series of short data-based videos replete with graphics and background score.

In the 41-second video O’Brien says, “According to the report of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, unemployment rate in Bengal in June was 6.5% whereas it was 11% nationally.”

“I am talking straight. Just think about it. Stay safe. Stay well,” O’Brien says at the end.

The video also talked about the unemployement scenario in Bengal claiming that it was 6.5% in June lower as compared to other states like Uttar Pradesh(9.6% ), Karnataka,(9.2%) in in Madhya Pradesh(8.2% ) and Haryana (33%).

However, Bengal BJP leadership called the campaign a useless exercise and said it comes at a time when people can see the Mamata Banerjee government making futile attempts to combat the Covid-19 crisis.