Parliament Monsoon Session 2021 Live Updates: Centre plans passage of slew of bills; Opposition to corner it over various issues

2021 Parliament Monsoon Session 2021 Live Coverage: The monsoon session of Parliament is beginning today. The government has readied a big legislative agenda for the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday even as the opposition is raring to corner the ruling dispensation over a host of issues, including handling of the second wave of COVID-19, rise in fuel prices and farmers’ stir. During the session, the issue of an international media consortium report would find echo in the two Houses. It claimed that over 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of business persons and activists, could have been targeted for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to government agencies. The opposition would use it to target the government as some of the members have decided to gives notices of adjournment motion to discuss the matter on the floor of the House.

The government, however, dismissed allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part, saying it “has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever”. Asserting that “India is a robust democracy that is committed to ensuring the right to privacy to all its citizens as a fundamental right”, it dismissed the media report as an attempt to play “the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday told an all-party meeting that the government was ready for a healthy and meaningful discussion on issues in Parliament, according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi. An official statement later said Modi told floor leaders that according to country’s traditions of healthy democracy, issues concerning people should be raised in an amicable manner and the government should be given an opportunity to respond to these discussions.

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