Kolkata: Nobel laureate and eminent economist Amartya Sen said the Lokpal Bill presented in Parliament recently was not 'well thought out'. "I personally do not think the Lokpal Bill, as it came out, is well thought out," Sen told a gathering here last night on the occasion of screening of 'Amartya Sen: A Life Reexamined', a documentary on him. Sen said the challenge lay in how to integrate the democratic...
07:09 PM, Jan 03, 2012
New Delhi: Lok Sabha was adjourned abruptly on Wednesday after uproar created by the BJP, which wanted voting on two bills - Judicial Accountability and 114th Constitution Amendment Bill. The sudden adjournment of the House left the debate on the two crucial bills incomplete. The much-delayed Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill 2010, which is an amended version of the one introduced last year, provides for a mechanism to investigate complaints...
08:26 PM, Dec 28, 2011
New Delhi: With the Constitution Amendment Bill on Lokpal failing in Lok Sabha, the BJP on Tuesday night demanded resignation of the UPA Government on moral grounds. "Government should resign on moral grounds. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has no moral right to continue in office," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha told reporters after the embarrassing development for the Government. He noted that the Government could not muster even simple majority of...
01:13 AM, Dec 28, 2011
New Delhi: Government suffered a major embarrassment in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday night when the House defeated the Bill giving the Lokpal a constitutional status. The Bill, which was an idea of Rahul Gandhi to give constitutional status to Lokpal, failed to muster the required two-third majority of those present and voting in all the three clauses. The House witnessed high drama as voting on the three clauses showed...
11:51 PM, Dec 27, 2011
New Delhi: Terming it as a "backdoor provision" to appease the minorities, the VHP on Thursday slammed the government's proposal to grant quota to minorities in Lokpal. "Constitution does not allow religion-based reservations. To woo Muslims and capture their vote bank through such an anti-constitutional move is strongly opposed by VHP," the organisation's international working president Pravin Togadia said. He said such reservation through "backdoor provision" in the Lokpal Bill...
10:44 PM, Dec 22, 2011
New Delhi: Law Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday defended Government's move to give Constitutional status to proposed Lokpal, saying it gives special guarantee of authority and integrity to an institution. He also said Rahul Gandhi's aspiration and determination is that Lokpal should be no less than the Constitutional institutions of the country like the Supreme Court. "Those who don't want Constitutional status must explain to the government and to people...
05:46 PM, Dec 09, 2011
New Delhi: Government on Wednesday said mercy petitions of 20 death row convicts, including Afzal Guru, are under various stages of consideration and that the Constitution does not specify any time limit within which a decision should be taken. "The cases of the mercy petitions were examined and submitted/resubmitted to the President's Secretariat expeditiously. 13 mercy petition cases have been decided by the President since November 2009," Minister of State...
05:20 PM, Nov 30, 2011
New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel scrutinising the Lokpal Bill on Thursday reached consensus that the Lokpal be a constitutional body but failed to agree on inclusion of Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal. The draft report on the Lokpal to be ready by Monday and the panel may circulate the draft report of the recommendations to the members in the next few days. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel...
09:19 PM, Nov 24, 2011
New Delhi: The proposed Lokpal will have the status of a Constitutional authority for which purpose the Constitution will be amended, Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid disclosed on Tuesday night. "We are working on a very strong Lokpal Bill. A Lokpal Bill that will come with a Constitutional amendment. That amendment will give the Lokpal the status of a Constitutional authority," he told in an interview. The Lokpal will be...
09:21 PM, Oct 11, 2011
New Delhi: Appealing to the nation to vote for persons with high political and moral integrity, Anna Hazare on Tuesday also asked people not to vote for the Congress if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed in the Winter Session of Parliament. Hazare warned the Congress that he will go on fast again if the bill is not passed, saying that the Constitution has given the citizens of the...
07:43 AM, Oct 05, 2011
While there are people who support Anna Hazare, there are others who feel an indefinite fast is not the right way to protest. ...
08:53 PM, Aug 16, 2011
Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal commented on Saturday on Anna Hazare's fast saying where to protest and for how long is not given in Constitution. ...
10:12 PM, Aug 13, 2011
new Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the constitution bench to re-look into implementation of the 27 per cent OBC quota in universities. There is no clarity from the Supreme Court - a constitution bench will hear the matter of OBC quota on Monday. Delhi University colleges have been confused over how to implement the quota - should they slash 10 per cent off from the cut off or...
09:48 AM, Jul 01, 2011
Rabat: Moroccan King Mohammed VI announced a series of constitutional reforms in a speech on Friday night that he said will turn the North African country into a constitutional monarchy, though pro-democracy activists remain skeptical. Under the new constitution, the king will remain the supreme commander of the army and a new article formalized him as the highest religious authority in the country. The speech marked the culmination of a...
07:08 AM, Jun 18, 2011
Cairo: The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said the government would prevail over rebels trying to oust his father and a new constitution was ready for when the insurgency was defeated, Al Arabiya TV reported on Wednesday. The Dubai-based satellite channel said Saif al-Islam, speaking on Libyan state television, accused the Benghazi-based rebel national council as being motivated by "power and oil wealth". "Libya will not go back to...
12:16 AM, Apr 21, 2011
Ahemdabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has a knack to embarrass the Congress. This time he took a jibe at the Prime Minister on the Occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti for being absent from Assam on polling day. Narendra Modi said, "Ambedkar gave us our constitution and on his birth anniversary, I have to say this with great regret that PM Manmohan singh, who is a registered voter from Assam has...
08:17 AM, Apr 15, 2011
New Delhi: Orissa will hereafter be called 'Odisha' and the Oriya language will be known as 'Odia' with Parliament giving approval to amendment of the Constitution and also passing the related bill. The Rajya Sabha passed the Orissa (the Alteration of Name) Bill and adopted the Constitution (113th) Amendment Bill after a brief debate with members from all parties hailing the move as "historic" for people of the state. Supported...
04:24 PM, Mar 24, 2011
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha to facilitate implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST), an indirect tax regime that would subsume levies like excise, service tax and sales tax. The Bill, introduced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee seeks to amend the constitution with a view to confer simultaneous powers on centre and states to levy taxes on goods and...
12:31 PM, Mar 22, 2011
Cairo: An Egyptian committee tasked with amending the country's constitution has proposed to limit the Presidential term and the use of emergency laws, two of the key demands of the pro-democracy uprising that ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak from office. The eight-member committee said it presented its report, which includes suggested amendments to eleven articles of the constitution, to the Supreme Military Council. By virtue of the amendments the presidential...
02:59 PM, Feb 27, 2011
Cairo: In a major move to dismantle the vestiges of the Mubarak era, Egypt's military today dissolved the parliament and suspended the country's constitution, accepting the major demands of the protesters. The Supreme Military Council, that took over the reins of the administration after Hosni Mubarak bowed out under public pressure ending his 30-year reign, said it would stay in power for six months or until the elections are held...
08:23 PM, Feb 13, 2011
