India’s lawmakers take oath

AFP | New Delhi, India

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

India’s newly elected lawmakers took the oath of office yesterday, but without two vocal government critics unable to take their seats because they are jailed on national security charges. One is the Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh, a firebrand preacher arrested last year after a monthlong police manhunt in Punjab state.

The other is Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a former state legislator in Kashmir, known popularly as Engineer Rashid. Rashid, arrested on charges of “terror funding” and money laundering in 2019, is awaiting his latest bail hearing on July 1, his lawyer Ubaid Shams told AFP.

Modi, 73, on Monday appealed to an emboldened opposition for “consensus” following an election setback that forced him into a coalition government for the first time in a decade. Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi was appointed to lead India’s opposition in parliament, a key post that has been vacant for a decade.

Congress party general secretary K. C. Venugopal said Gandhi would be “a bold voice for the common people of India” and ensure the government “is held firmly accountable at all times”, he told reporters in a statement. Veteran BJP lawmaker Om Birla, the speaker in the previous parliament, has also been nominated for the post again.

While Birla is expected to easily win the vote today, the opposition Congress party also nominated a lawmaker for the post, Kodikunnil Suresh.