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Journalism of Courage
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla can be strict with the Treasury benches, ruling party MPs and the Opposition alike. On Tuesday, during the Question Hour when BJP’s Anurag Thakur mentioned “irregularities” in the utilisation of MGNREGA funds, Birla intervened, saying, “If you have evidence of any state committing irregularities, talk about that. Why are you saying many states?” He also expressed displeasure over the way MoS (Home) Bandi Sanjay Kumar tabled the papers mentioned against his name. “Can someone give him the papers? Don’t do this. Parliamentary Affairs Minister, please take care of such things,” Birla said. He also cautioned MoS (Parliamentary Affairs) Arjun Ram Meghwal, who rose to table the papers for two, saying, “Please ask your ministers to be present in the House… else, you will be answerable to everyone.”
Top leaders of the Uttar Pradesh Congress were caught off guard Tuesday after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s Wednesday visit to Sambhal was confirmed in the afternoon. The state Congress leaders had to make travel arrangements to reach Delhi. While UP Congress president Ajay Rai took an evening flight for Delhi, several others started an overnight road journey to reach the AICC headquarters at 7am on Wednesday and accompany the two leaders to Sambhal.
Union Steel Minister H D Kumaraswamy had some tough moments in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday when Congress MP from Maharashtra’s Bhandara-Gondiya, Prashant Yadavrao Padole, raised a question in Hindi. The Minister struggled with the mic system to get the English translation. “May I request the Hon. Member to repeat the question? I cannot understand Hindi properly,” he said. Amid all this, one Opposition member was heard saying: “Is it (question) out of syllabus?” Speaker Om Birla asked the Congress MP to repeat the question and by the time, the Minister managed to get his translation.
