Today in Politics: Parliament set for heated debate on Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor

Indian Express

5 hours ago

The first week of disruption in Parliament's Monsoon session is set to give way to a fiery debate on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor from Monday as the ruling NDA and the Opposition prepare to lock horns over the two issues steeped in national security and foreign policy imperatives.
The BJP-led NDA and Opposition parties are expected to field their top guns during the discussion in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Sources said Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be speaking on the issues amid indications that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may make an intervention to convey his government's 'robust' stand against terrorism.
Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, may lead the charge against the government along with Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, besides a host of other members.
The two sides have consented to a marathon 16-hour debate in each House, which invariably stretches longer in practice.
Besides its battery of ministers and leaders like Anurag Thakur, Sudhanshu Trivedi and Nishikant Dubey, the ruling NDA is expected to field its members from the seven multi-party delegations that had travelled to over 30 world capitals to present India's case after Operation Sindoor. They include Shrikant Shinde of the Shiv Sena, Sanjay Jha of the JD(U) and Harish Balayogi of the TDP, among others.
A big question mark is on whether Shashi Tharoor, who had led the delegation to the US among other countries, will be picked as a speaker by the Congress, as the seasoned Lok Sabha member's enthusiastic endorsement of the government's action following the terror attack has soured his ties with his party.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi is likely to take up the matter in which the EC has justified its ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it adds to the purity of the election by 'weeding out ineligible persons' from the electoral rolls.
The poll panel, while justifying its June 24 decision directing the SIR, has said all major political parties were 'involved' in the exercise and deployed more than 1.5 lakh booth-level agents to reach out to eligible voters, but are opposing it in the apex court.
'The entitlement to vote flows from Article 326 read with Sections 16 and 19 of the RP Act 1950 and Section 62 of the RP Act 1951, which contains certain qualifications with respect to citizenship, age, and ordinary residency. An ineligible person has no right to vote, and thus, cannot claim a violation of Articles 19 and 21 in this regard,' it said.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday Allahabad High Court judge Yashwant Varma's plea seeking invalidation of a report by an in-house inquiry panel which found him guilty of misconduct in the cash discovery row.
A Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih is likely to hear the matter.
Justice Varma has also sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, urging Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against him. In his petition, Justice Varma submitted that the inquiry 'reversed the burden of proof', requiring him to investigate and disprove the charges levelled against him.
Alleging that the panel's findings were based on a preconceived narrative, Justice Varma said the inquiry timelines were driven solely by the urge to conclude proceedings swiftly, even at the expense of 'procedural fairness'.
The petition contended that the inquiry panel drew adverse findings without affording him a full and fair hearing.
A meeting of the Telangana Cabinet will be held on Monday, where the expert panel report is expected to be a key agenda, official sources said.
Telangana Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Saturday said the state Cabinet would meet to discuss the Independent Expert Working Group's (IEWG) report on the caste survey and determine the next course of action.
The caste survey was held in two phases, employing over 1,03,889 enumerators and supervisors. The findings of the IEWG have not yet been made public.
– With PTI inputs