Modi slams Oppn amid its calls for Pegasus debate
NEW DELHI: The Congress and 14 other Opposition parties decided there would be no change in their stand on the Pegasus snooping issue and resolved to continue protesting during the remaining Monsoon Session of Parliament, two leaders said — a rare sign of unity in the country’s usually fractured Opposition, but also one that doesn’t bode well for the productivity of the House.
Later in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Opposition for insulting “democracy, constitution, Parliament and the people”, with its disruption of the House and asked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers to display restraint so that the dignity of Parliament is maintained, even as they tried everything in their powers to get it to function normally. His comments came during an address at the BJP’s parliamentary party meeting.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi invited Opposition leaders for a breakfast meeting on Tuesday to discuss a joint strategy on Pegasus and other issues, such as the contentious farm laws and spiraling fuel prices. “We decided that we will stick to our position on these issues. If the government wants to run this session, they have to agree to a debate on Pegasus,” said an
Opposition leader after the meeting.
The breakfast meeting went on for over an hour, and Gandhi, in his short speech, pointed out that opposition parties represent 60% of India and will continue to fight unitedly.
The meeting was attended by leaders from the Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Indian Union Muslim League, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Kerala Congress (M), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, National Conference, Trinamool Congress and Loktantrik Janata Dal.
The Aam Aadmi Party and Akali Dal were not invited for the meeting.
The parties decided they would try new ways to mark their protests every day.
“But the bottomline is that Parliament can’t function normally if the Pegasus issue is not discussed on the floor of the House,” said another leader.
After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi rode a cycle to Parliament to protest against the fuel price hike.
The opposition parties also reiterated their commitment to work jointly this session.
A senior Congress leader said, “After news of the Pegasus issue broke, party president Sonia Gandhi told Congress leaders not to act in isolation but to jointly work with other opposition parties.”
Briefing media on the PM’s speech at the BJP MP meet, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said Modi expressed anger at the conduct of some Opposition members and said it was an insult to democracy.
The conduct of the opposition is an “insult” to Parliament and the Constitution, they have an “undemocratic” attitude and are not keen on meaningful debates Joshi said, quoting the PM.
The Prime Minister is also learnt to have criticised a tweet by TMC’s Derek O’Brien on how the bills have been passed in Parliament without referring to the MP’s name.
O’Brien tweeted on Monday: “#MASTERSTROKE #Parliament. In the first 10 days, ModiShah rushed through and passed 12 Bills at an average time of UNDER SEVEN MINUTES per Bill…Passing legislation or making papri chaat!” , referring to a popular street food.
Union minister V Muraleedharan said the PM referred to the tweet as “derogatory” and an “insult of parliamentary procedure and esteem of elected representatives.”
The PM has been flagging the issue of disruptions in Parliament for the past two weeks and underlining the need to expose the Opposition’s “attempts to derail the session”.
On Tuesday, he reiterated that BJP MPs should not give in to provocation, and remain present in the house for parliamentary business. The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that many Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers that were potentially targeted by Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software, Pegasus, with a forensic analysis of 10 of the targets proving they were hacked or that attempts were made to do so.
The controversy has stalled the monsoon session with the Opposition pressing its demand for a discussion. On August 5, the Supreme Court will hear a clutch of petitions seeking a special investigation into the Pegasus scandal. Meanwhile, defence minister Rajnath Singh reached out to two senior Opposition leaders on Monday even as the government and the Opposition stuck to their respective positions with chances of the Parliament’s normal functioning fast slipping away.
CBSE tests or exams throughout the year. Schools were also asked to ensure that the marks awarded by them are in consonance with past performance of the school in Class 10 board exams.
Over 2.1 million regular candidates had registered for the Class 10 exam this year.
“The result of 16,639 students is till under process. No merit list will be declared this year and no merit certificates will be issued to students,” said CBSE examination controller Sanyam Bharwdaj.
The number of candidates scoring above 95% has increased from 41,804 last year to 57,824 this time. Similarly, the number of students scoring between 90% and 95% has increased from 184,358 to 200,962.
The number of Children with Special Needs scoring above 95% is 53 while 224 students in the category have scored above 90%. In the CBSE-affiliated schools abroad, 99.92% students have cleared Class 10.
Kendriya Vidalayas and the schools under the Central Tibetan Schools Administration have achieved a 100% pass percentage as against 99.23% and 93.67% respectively last year.
The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas have improved their pass percentage from 98.66 to 99.99 this year. The pass percentage of government and government-aided schools has increased by over 15% and 18% respectively.
The pass percentage of private schools has also increased by over 6% since last year.
A total of 17,636 candidates have been placed under compartment as against over 150,000 students last year.
“The compartment examination will be conducted between August 16 and September 15. The exact dates will be announced in some time,” Bhardwaj said.
The Trivandrum region has achieved the highest pass percentage of 99.99% followed by Bengaluru (99.96%), Chennai (99.94%), Pune (99.92%), Ajmer (99.88%), Panchkula (99.77%), Patna (99.66%), Bhubaneswar (99.62%), Bhopal (99.47%), Chandigarh (99.46%), Dehradun (99.23%), Prayagraj (99.19%) and Noida (98.78%).