Delhi Confidential: Across Party Lines

The Congress is not very comfortable with the government’s idea of extending the ongoing Monsoon Session which is set to end on July 26. In informal exchanges with the government’s floor managers, Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Kodikkunnil Suresh, has tried to reason that MPs have to go back to their constituencies now. It has been a month since the session begun, but the Congress has not taken a final call as many of its leaders feel the party cannot be seen as standing in the way of passage of the government’s legislative agenda.

All In The Names

Lok Sabha witnessed heated exchanges when TMC leader Saugata Roy mentioned “Ambani and Adani” as “beneficiaries”of several budget proposals, drawing objections from BJP. Roy, who argued that they were names of companies, was backed by Congress MPs. Things took an uglier turn when BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, who was in the chair, asked Congress MP Manicka Tagore to sit down. Lekhi tried to calm down the agitated members, asking what school children in the visitors’ gallery would learn. “They will learn that the government is supporting Ambani and Adani,” said an opposition MP. The house went back to normalcy after BJD leader Bhartuhari Mahtab said the house had in the past taken the names of “Tatas and Birlas” too.