PARLIAMENT DIARY
ALL PARTIES AGREE TO SUSPEND QUESTION HOUR FOR SPECIAL DEBATE
The Lok Sabha has set a rare precedent for the special Quit India session. In the past three years, Lok Sabha never had the occasion to suspend Question Hour of the day to take up any other urgent issue as demanded by the Opposition. But on Wednesday, in a rare gesture, all parties in the Lok Sabha agreed to suspend the Question Hour for a special debate on the Quit India Movement of 1945. In the business advisory committee meeting, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had told the leaders that she was personally very interested about a special debate on August 9. All the leaders readily agreed. And on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha session started with a special mention by the Speaker and a speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
EX-PRESIDENT PRANAB TO RELEASE BOOK BY NETAJI’S GREAT GRANDSON
After retirement from the post of President, Pranab Mukherjee has not attended any function. On Wednesday, he will be speaking for the first time, while releasing a book written by Harvard scholar turned TMC MP Proferssor Sugata Bose, great grandson of Subhas Chandra Bose. Recently, Mr Bose has gone to meet the former President with a request to release the book. When Mr Mukherjee learnt that the subject of the book is on the concept of nationhood, he readily agreed to release the book and also agreed to give a lecture on the subject. Congress MP Sashi Tharoor has also taken much interest when he heard that “Pranabda”’ would give a key note lecture.
CPM MP DEMANDS TAGORE STATUE AT AMRITSAR’S JALLIANWALA BAGH
CPM MP Ritabrata Banerjee created a stir in the Upper House when he demanded that a statue of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore be built at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial. He argued that after the massacre in Jallianwala, Tagore took no time in denouncing his Knighthood, which was conferred on him by the colonial master. In the letter of denouncement of the award, Tagore had written that “time has come when the badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation,” he quoted.