Pak envoy

Responding to complaints by Islamabad, New Delhi assured last week that “India makes all efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for diplomats to work in”.

It added the Indian officials had also faced “harassment” last year in Pakistan but they chose to deal with it through “quiet and persistent diplomacy”.

Indian officials, on condition of anonymity, have pointed to a series of incidents allegedly indicating harassment of Indian diplomats in Islamabad — forcibly stopping high commission vehicles, hampering the work of a residential project, threatening a contractor who maintains the Indian chancery building.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on March 11 that a demarche was issued to the Indian high commission in Islamabad and the external affairs ministry in Delhi in which Pakistan threatened to pull out the families of diplomats from India.

“It is becoming difficult for the Pakistani diplomats posted in India to keep their families with them due to increase in harassment incidents,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying. also TDP president, to announce in the state assembly that his party could support the no-confidence motion “if required”. The TDP has 16 MPs in Lok Sabha.

Naidu held a teleconference meeting with his MPs on Thursday and will hold a meeting of the party’s core group in Amravati on Friday. TDP sources indicated that BJP’s biggest ally from the southern state may decide to pull out of the NDA to build further pressure on Modi government.

Meanwhile, pandemonium continued in Lok Sabha on Thursday with opposition members tearing up papers as relentless protests disrupted proceedings for the ninth day, amid which the government managed to get two bills passed without debate amid the din.

NDA members stormed the Well as soon as the House met and continued with their protests.

The government pushed two bills - The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, for passage amid this din and the House passed them with a voice vote without debate.

With continuous protests by different parties making the prospect of any discussion improbable, the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings for the passage of bills.

Opposition members were seen tearing papers and throwing them around in protest as the second bill was passed before the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill proposes to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of a business contract and to reduce discretion of courts in such matters. however, refused to officially confirm the potential alliance with the BSP. “No one can say anything about the future,” he said.

Yadav took pains to explain that he held no ill-feelings against anybody outside the saffron grouping. When mediapersons drew his attention to reports that the Congress had campaigned against his party in the bypolls, he insisted that “success will come only to those who forget old things”.

“Phulpur mein phul murjha gaya (the lotus has wilted in Phulpur),” Yadav said. “I thank the people of Phulpur, and hope that it will help temper the BJP’s language of arrogance.”

Although the Samajwadi Party emerged victorious in the bypolls, Yadav’s suspicions regarding electronic voting machines was still far from quelled. “The entire anger of voters could not come out through these machines,” he said, adding that the ballot paper system was the way to go.

He then went on to congratulate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel and Pravin Nishad, who won from Phulpur and Gorakhpur respectively.