Four newly elected members of the Lok Sabha took oath as MPs on the first day of the Monsoon Session that began on Monday. Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Ghanshyam Singh Lodi (Rampur, Uttar Pradesh) Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ (Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh), TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha (Asansol, West Bengal) and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) MP Simranjit Singh Mann took oath as Lok Sabha MPs. While three MPs took oath on the floor of the House, Mann, who was elected from the Sangrur constituency in Punjab, was administered oath in the Speaker’s chamber.
Among 28 members who took oath as Rajya Sabha MPs were former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh, former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti and BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla.
The other newly-elected MPs who took oath included A Rao Meena, Vijay Sai Reddy, Kheeru Mahto, Shambhala Saran Patel, Ranjeet Ranjan, Maharashtra Majhi, Aditya Prasad, Praful Patel, Imran Pratapgarhi, Sanjay Raut, Sasmit Patra, Sandeep Kumar Pathak and Vikramjeet Singh Sahani. Randeep Singh Surjewal, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, R Girl Rajan, S Kalyan Sundaram, KRN Rajesh Kumar, Javed Ali Khan and V Vijendra Prasad.
Renowned Asian Games gold medalist athlete PT Usha (from Kerala) and legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja (from Tamil Nadu) were not able to take oath in the Rajya Sabha today due to some unsaid reasons.
Polling to elect the 15th President of India marked the opening day of the Monsoon Session. The voting by MPs and MLAs across all state assemblies began at 10 AM and is scheduled to continue till 5 PM today.
The session began in the Lower House with Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla paying tribute to former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, whereas Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaih Naidu made an obituary reference to Shinzo Abe, ex-UAE president Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, among others.
The central government has lined up several bills in this Monsoon Session. A total of 32 bills are slated to be presented in Parliament of which 24 are new and others are pending legislations. The list of new bills includes the Development of Enterprises and Services Hub (DESH) Bill 2022, the Multi State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, among others.
Among the pending bills waiting for a go ahead are the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021, the Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019, and the National Anti Doping Bill, 2021. These bills, which have already been introduced and referred to the standing committee, will also be up for consideration and passing.
Addressing the media ahead of the commencement of the Parliament session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested all members to take part in constructive discussions. In his statement, he said, “Parliament functions and takes best decisions with everyone’s ‘prayaas’ (efforts),” and urged parliamentarians to make full use of this session. The prime minister also said that there should be dialogue in Parliament with an open mind.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge questioned how the government is hoping to pass 32 bills in just 14 days of Monsoon session. “What is the government trying to do?” he asked, adding that the Opposition plans to question the government on issues like ‘Agnipath’, price rise, misuse of central agencies like CBI and others.