Parliament LIVE | Privilege motion against Sonia for remarks on President
The motion has been moved by BJP MPs who called Sonia’s comment “derogatory and slanderous”
The Parliament session on Monday (February 3) began on a stormy note with the Opposition protesting over the Maha Kumbh stampede.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, while speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address on January 31, called her speech a repeat of the government’s “laundry list” of this outlined last year.
Also read: Congress slams functioning of Waqf panel
Make in India has failed: Rahul
He said successive governments, be it the UPA or the present NDA, have not been able to tackle unemployment and give a clear-cut answer to youth about employment.
Rahul said while 'Make in India' was a good idea, the prime minister "pretty much failed".
He claimed the reason China is sitting inside the country is because 'Make in India' has failed and India is refusing to produce. "I am worried that India is going to give up this revolution to the Chinese once again," he said.
Hitting back, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju asked Rahul to substantiate his claims on the government's foreign policy.
Rahul’s claim that S Jaishankar went to the US to get an invite for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Donald Trump’s “coronation” was received with a rebuttal by the foreign minister who called it a deliberate “falsehood”.
Privilege motion against Sonia
Later in the day, a group of BJP MPs moved a notice for breach of Parliamentary Privilege, Ethics and Propriety motion against Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi for her remarks against President Droupadi Murmu. Sonia had called Murmu a “poor thing” while commenting on her addresses to Parliament on the opening day of the Budget session.
Also read: Sonia's 'poor thing' remark about President Murmu triggers row
Alleging use of “derogatory and slanderous words” to describe the President, the BJP MPs said such behaviour warrants “serious consideration and disciplinary action”.
Follow this space for more live updates
Live Updates
- 3 Feb 2025 10:24 AM GMT
#WATCH | Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "...He (Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi) specifically talked about the kinds of challenges that India needs to rise to if want to become a more developed nation, if we want to keep our youth employed. He talked about the importance of… pic.twitter.com/a2vHOymlAJ
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2025 - 3 Feb 2025 10:23 AM GMT
Draft bill seeking 100% FDI in insurance to be sent for Cabinet nod soon: DFS secretary
The finance ministry will soon send the draft bill seeking to increase FDI limit in the insurance sector to 100 per cent to the Union Cabinet for its approval, Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju said on Monday.
"Finance Minister has already given her approval and announced in the Budget. Now we will prepare a draft bill with the help of the law ministry," he said in an interaction with media in New Delhi.
Thereafter, the draft bill will be sent to the Cabinet for approval.
The intent of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) is to get the bill introduced during the current Budget session, he said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech proposed to raise the foreign investment limit to 100 per cent from existing 74 per cent in the insurance sector as part of new-generation financial sector reforms.
"This enhanced limit will be available for those companies which invest the entire premium in India. The current guardrails and conditionalities associated with foreign investment will be reviewed and simplified," she had said.
So far, the insurance sector has attracted Rs 82,000 crore through FDI.
To enhance the FDI limit, the government will have to bring amendments to the Insurance Act 1938, the Life Insurance Corporation Act 1956, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act 1999.
The bill will also simplify certain procedure and rules.
The Insurance Act 1938 serves as the principal Act to provide the legislative framework for insurance in India.
It provides the framework for the functioning of insurance businesses and regulates the relationship between an insurer, its policyholders, shareholders and the regulator -- Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).
The entry of more players in the sector would not only push penetration but also result in greater job creation across the country.
Currently, there are 25 life insurance companies and 34 non-life or general insurance firms in India. These include companies like Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd and ECGC Ltd.
The FDI limit in the insurance sector was last raised -- from 49 per cent to 74 per cent -- in 2021.
In 2015, the government had hiked the FDI cap in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
- 3 Feb 2025 10:03 AM GMT
Opposition bereft of ideas: BJP MP in Rajya Sabha
BJP leader Kiran Choudhry on Monday launched a scathing attack on Opposition parties, saying they are bereft of ideas and trying to build a false narrative against the Modi government, as the Rajya Sabha started a discussion on Motion of Thanks On The President’s Address.
Moving the motion in the Upper House, Choudhry said the Prime Minister has addressed all the important issues, which had been lying dormant for a long time because of policy paralysis and the indifferent attitude of the erstwhile Congress government.
“And it is heartening to know that Modi has put Bharat on the centre stage of the world community,” said the BJP MP from Haryana.
President Droupadi Murmu on Friday, the first day of the Budget Session, addressed both the Houses of Parliament assembled together in the Lok Sabha chamber and said the pace of work has tripled in the third term of her government, which has worked with strong determination to lift the economy out of the state of “policy paralysis”.
Launching a scathing attack on the Opposition, Choudhry said they are running a false narrative and trying to paint a wrong picture of the Narendra Modi government.
She said the Modi-led government has taken transformative steps to find holistic solutions to address all important issues.
“The opposition parties, who are bereft of all agenda, are trying to paint this government as anti-farmer, patriarchal, misogynist, majoritarian and despotic. This false propaganda is born out of their desperation for their plummeting political fortunes,” she said.
Choudhry said the false narrative of Opposition has been rejected by the people and cited the resounding victories of the BJP in recently concluded assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra.
