The real Parliament action will begin this week. There are several questions. On the face of it, the Congress party appears to be sober and focused, energised by the Grand Alliance's victory in Bihar and its success in Madhya Pradesh bypoll, it is out to prove a point that Narendra Modi and his government are not invincible. Others in Parliament, not necessarily supporters of the government but not supporters of the Congress either, are watching how the Congress conducts itself. The party has a choice: It can assert itself, inviting side-swipes by parties like the Samajwadi Party and the Biju Janata Dal, who will then covertly help the Bharatiya Janata Party contain the Congress; or it can be conciliatory and helpful (up to a point) towards the government to wash off the sins of the previous, largely wasted, Parliament session and take the entire opposition with it.
Which strategy will they adopt? Will it be a day-to-day decision? Or will they go into the session - like they did in the Monsoon session - determined to ensure it doesn't work? All these questions will be answered this week when question hour starts at 11 am.
US seeks out 'key players' before Paris summit
On the sidelines of the Paris summit, part of an effort to forge a strong global agreement on climate change, US President Barack Obama will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the opening day of the Paris climate change conference, the White House has announced. The US President will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of the two-week climate summit, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters.
He said the US "wants to send a clear signal" in meetings with China, India and France that it will be working with "key players" for a strong international agreement on climate change.
Obama's meeting with Modi will be their seventh since 2014. "We have been engaging with India throughout the year in determining how they can contribute constructively to a successful outcome in Paris," Rhodes said.
Modi and Obama have had talks in this regard during the US President's trip to India, the bilateral meeting in New York at the UN General Assembly and on the margins of the recent summits they attended.
Replying to a query, Rhodes said cooperation from major emitters like India and China is "key to the success of the Paris Summit on climate change".
"We need to have the broadest set of countries engaged in this if it's going to be successful. That was the lesson from Copenhagen, which is that if you restrict this to a certain form, you will likely be limited to the Kyoto countries or even a small number of countries. And it's not simply a question of the US coming to the table, it's a question of whether China, India and Brazil and other major emitters are a part of this framework," he said.
Local body elections begin in Uttar Pradesh
The process of electing 58,909 village heads and 700,000 gram panchayat members in Uttar Pradesh began on Saturday. "The election will be held in four phases - November 28, December 1, 5 and 9, and counting will be on December 12," State Election Commissioner S K Agarwal said in Lucknow. These elections are important because they are a precursor to the Assembly elections, due in 2017. In all, around 114 million voters will elect 58,909 village heads and 700,000 gram panchayat members, Agarwal said.
Delhi Assembly: Jan Lokpal top priority in session
The Delhi Assembly extended its winter session till December 4 and has already charted for itself a packed legislative agenda. Top priority, of course, is being given to the passage of the much in the news Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill, 2015, integral to the origins of the Aam Aadmi Party government itself. The Bill has drawn scathing criticism from former AAP members Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav,(also founding members of AAP), with the former describing it as a "jokepal". Also, on the legislative agenda are education Bills. Education minister Manish Sisodia has mooted amending the Right to Education Act for Delhi to scrap the existing no detention policy till class VIII. Also to be discussed is the Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which re- defines capitation fees and has drawn flak from several quarters for proposing 'draconian' provisions, apart from a Fee Regulation bill. With the Cabinet clearing the steep hike in the pay of Delhi MLAs, the bill ratifying this is likely to be introduced this week.
Other bills to be passed include the Minimum Wages (Delhi Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Delhi Working Journalists and Newspaper employees' Bill incorporating the Majithia wage board recommendations.
