Ghulam Nabi Azad says 'Fear of COVID-19 among MPs' ahead of Monsoon parliamentary session

Ahead of the Parliament's monsoon session, veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said that there was 'fear among MPs' as Parliament commences amid pandemic. Azad- who is the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha - said that main issues like COVID, India-China faceoff, GDP, Education policy need to be discussed in the session. Centre has called a meeting of leaders from both Houses on Tuesday, to speak on the Indo-China matter.

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Azad: 'Fear among MPs due to COVID'

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COVID ready Parliament

MPs are getting themselves tested for COVID-19 at least 72 hours before the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, with several testing positive. The parliament has taken COVID-specific precautions like- four large display screens, 6 small screens in 4 galleries of the House, audio consoles in galleries, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, special cables connecting two Houses for transmission of audio-visual signals, polycarbonate sheet separating the Official Gallery from the chamber of the House. With Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla insisting on full-physical sessions, both the Rajya Sabha chamber and galleries and Lok Sabha chamber will be used for seating the members during the monsoon session.

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Azad sacked as General secy

In the recent Congres rejig, party president Sonia Gandhi reconstituted multiple committees including the Congress Working Committee - sacking Azad as AICC general secretary. While several of the 23 signatories of the dissenting letter -  Azad, Anand Sharma and Jitin Prasada had retained their place in the CWC, the party also constituted a 5-member committee to assist party chief in organizational and operational matters. The committee which was one of the dissenters' demand, comprises of loyalists AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal and one signatory - Mukul Wasnik. Meanwhile, in a clear indication of Rahul Gandhi and his loyalists readying to take over party reins, the Central Election Authority has been reconstituted with Madhusudan Mistry, Rajesh Mishra, Krishna Byre Gowda, S Jothimani and Arvinder Singh Lovely.

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Reacting to the rejig, ex-Congressman Sanjay Jha tweeted, "Last night the deck chairs on the Titanic were rearranged". Reports state that the 23 dissenters have been disappointed by the rejig as Rahul Gandhi loyalists have been rewarded, while most dissenters have been sidelined. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal has reportedly claimed that nomination has replaced election within Congress. The 23 dissenters who sought 'structural changes', have mostly been excluded from the Congress' parliamentary panel for both houses.