oppn parties Adani Brings The Opposition Parties Together

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  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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oppn parties
Adani Brings The Opposition Parties Together

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-02-03 06:39:50

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

There has been a positive spin-off for Indian democracy in the troubles being faced by the Adani group and Gautam Adani. It has brought the opposition parties in India together like nothing has in recent past. A meeting was called by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday to work for Parliament floor coordination between the parties. 20 parties were invited and most chose to attend. Significantly, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Derek O'Brien, representatives of Trinamool Congress (TMC) also attended the meeting, the first time in four years that the TMC has sent its leaders to any such opposition meeting. TMC also decided to send two MPs, one each from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, to the joint opposition protest at Gandhi statue in the Parliamentary complex on Monday.

After the meeting, the opposition parties stalled parliamentary proceedings demanding a probe in the Adani controversy either by a joint parliamentary committee or a panel set up by the Supreme Court. Hence, both Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day without transacting any business. The opposition has also decided to make the Adani issue the sole issue after the Motion of Thanks to the President's address on Monday. They have decided that they will not provide the government an escape route by bringing up other issues and will force it to discuss the Adani issue.

This is a good decision taken by the opposition parties. Although parliamentary proceedings cannot be stalled indefinitely, the Adani controversy is very important and the people have the right to know what went wrong and whether the NDA government is guilty of providing undue favours to the Adani group. The nation also needs to know whether regulators did their work efficiently. Also, there are matters of corporate governance and accounting malpractices that need to be debated on and if necessary, laws need to be amended. These questions need to be raised by the opposition parties in Parliament and the government needs to provide the answers. The opposition parties will have to strike a balance in allowing important house work to go on and yet force the government to address their queries in the Adani group matter. They must stand united on this issue.