Full marks to Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia for trying hard to convince Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to defer passage of the IIIT Bill in the Lok Sabha. Reason: Discussion on the Bill was delaying the start of the all-too important debate on the agrarian situation in the country for which Opposition leaders Scindia and Bhartruhari Mahtab had given notice under Rule 193.
Kharge went to the extent of saying that Javadekar was well known to be “accomodative” and expressed the hope that the minister would agree to postpone the ongoing discussion on the IIIT Bill to another day and allow the lower house to begin discussion on the agrarian situation.
However, Javadekar did not relent and in turn requested the Congress leaders to be patient for half-an-hour before going ahead with the discussion on the agrarian situation.
Indian trade officials were quite exasperated after a recent meeting in New Delhi with their counterparts from the US as the guest delegation apparently did not have any patience with India’s complaints on work visas.
“All they talked about during the interaction was the growing trade deficit with India and how it could be bridged,” one harried official recounted.
India’s argument that the trade deficit was legitimate and the result of a conscious decision taken by the US to move away from labour-intensive agricultural and manufacturing activities to the sophisticated services sector fell on deaf ears.
“The officials seemed to have taken on the personality traits of their president, Donald Trump. They just wanted to put forth their views without listening to counters,” the official added. Hope the Indian team is better prepared to deal with inflexibility the next time round!
Tell-all Sarraf
Outgoing ONGC chairman, Dinesh Sarraf, was caught on a slippery wicket when journalists hounded him on his company buying the Government’s stake in HPCL. Sarraf was first cornered for giving a 30-minute interview during which he excruciatingly repeated the same thing over and over again.
Sensing the opportunity for a backhanded comment, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan too said that he wasn’t left with anything to say since Sarraf had disclosed all available information a day earlier. Sarraf was grilled further and accused of speaking only to selective journalists.
As Pradhan quipped, “ Gaali dijiye, boycott kijiye inka ” (curse him, boycott him).
Nonchalant about security
In what could be a case of security breach, a senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP was seen getting pictures clicked on his mobile phone while posing with Science & Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan inside the Lok Sabha, a few minutes after the House was adjourned on Wednesday afternoon.
When some BJP members pointed out that this was not allowed, the TRS member laughed and said he would “erase the background”. Incidentally, AAP member Bhagwant Mann had been suspended from attending proceedings during the Winter Session after a House panel found him guilty of security breach for live-streaming his trip to Parliament House.
Ready to clarify
GST is one issue that the Government doesn’t mind issuing clarifications about any time of the day. So, whether it’s extending the time limit for filing intimation for composition levy, or extending the period of applying for cancellation of registration for taxpayers who “were provisionally migrated by virtue of existing laws but who are no longer required to be registered under GST”, the Government’s clarifications keep coming, thick and fast. That can only be good news.