A day after the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address was passed in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak in the Rajya Sabha too. On Tuesday, Mr. Modi, in the Lok Sabha, called upon all parties to move forward together to fulfil the dream of a safe, modern and inclusive country, a call reflected, he said, in the positive mandate that his government received in the last election.

In legislative business, the SEZ Amendment Bill and the Aadhaar Bill will be taken up for discussion and passing in the lower House.

Here are the updates:

Deputy Chairman Harivansh is in the Chair.

Anand Sharma of the Congress congratulates the BJP on winning the elections. He says the government says one thing, and does another. He said that the President’s address did not give an accounting for the last five years.

Mr. Sharma asks why the issue of lynching was not mentioned in the President's address. 

He also talks about former Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru's achievements, both as part of the freedom struggle and during Independent India. 

K.G. Kenye of the Naga People’s Front is up next, and says unline the northwest, the northeast was not given due consideration during Partition. He mentions the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, and says that it is up to the Centre and the States to come together and work out modalities and issues.

Chair says the discussion will be completed before lunch, and Question Hour is cancelled.

V. Vijaysai Reddy of the YSR Congress begins his speech by congratulating his own party on their victory in the Assembly elections. Mr. Reddy brings up Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh. He asks, “How is it fair that Parliament is justified to bifurcate the State, but does not have the capacity to honour the word given before bifurcation?” On Polavaram, he says the State requests that it be completed in a time-bound manner.

He also says it is the right time to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha.

Kanta Kardam of the BJP rises to make her maiden speech. As Ms. Kardam reads out her speech, Chair tells her that the convention is to only refer to notes and speak looking at the Chair. She says no other government has worked on women empowerment.

On nuclear and atomic energy

Answering Santokh Singh Chaudhary's question on safety and effectiveness of nuclear and atomic energy, Dr. Jitendra Singh, MoS, Department of Atomic Energy says that following the "Safety first, production next" approach ensures utmost safety.

He says that atomic energy is the future and will be a clean source of energy.

Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal congratulates the government on its nuclear programmes and asks if work on nuclear fusion technology which uses Thorium-based reactors instead of the heavily imported Uranium-based reactors.

Dayanidhi Maran brings up the fear of the poeple of Tamil NAdu regarding nuclear plants coming up in the State and asks if it will be possible for the government to relocate the nuclear waste from the plant in Kudankulam to allay the fears.

"...It is stored deep down in the earth...the same procedure is followed in other parts of the world and in different reactors in the country," Singh resonds, calling the reports raising any security concerns as hearsay.

The BSP’s Vir Singh says that 19 crore youth in the country are unemployed. He also says that government schools are not functioning well, while private schools are performing better. He then moves on to reservation. He wants reservation in the private sector.

K.J. Alphons of the BJP, makes his maiden speech. He says he was Tourism Minister for 19 months, but never got to speak in the House.

He marks the anniversary of Kottayam becoming 100% literate. He then says that India is in the third position in the World Travel and Tourism Council Report 2018, and adds that the Prime Minister is the biggest brand ambassador for the country. He then targets the Opposition for not celebrating the government’s successes. “If we strike at the heart of the enemy, Balakot, shouldn’t you all stand up and say: Yes, Prime Minister, you have a backbone, and this is what India needs.”

On the withdrawal of GSP by the U.S.

Calling the withdrawal of GSP by the U.S. as a diplomatic setback more than a trade setback, M.K. Raghavan asks how the government proposes to address this.

"At no point in time will trade negotiations be allowed to take over national and sovereign interests...diplomatic and trade relations with the USA will only get better," Piyush Goyal, Minister, Commerce and Insdustry says.

Manish Tewari asks why despite multiple rounds of negotiations between the Prime Minister of India and the US President, the withdrawal of the GSP, which was festering since 2016 since President Trump took charge, could not be averted.

House is in session. Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu is in the Chair.

Papers are laid on the table. Chairman chides Members for talking amongst themselves when another Member speaks. “Someone asked if this is a school. If it were a school, it would’ve been better, because there action can be taken.”

Kirodi Lal Meena of the BJP begins speaking. He brings up mines allotment in tribal areas in Rajasthan. He quotes from a Supreme Court judgment from 1977 on allotting tribal land to mines. He says Adivasis are being discriminated against. He says that the reservation move by the Rajasthan State government is unconstitutional.

He wants August 9 to be celebrated as Adivasi Day throughout the country.

Meghalaya Congress Member Wansuk Syiem says that the government’s record in its last term has been patchy. She cites unemployment and demonetisation as examples. “Nothing has changed much in the development of the northeast. The only major airport serving the entire region is in Guwahati, and it needs urgent updation.”

While the President mentioned space programmes, nothing was said about telecommunication in the region, Ms. Syiem. She says the redeeming part of the President’s address was the many socioeconomic schemes. She supports the motion.

House convenes. Speaker Om Birla is in the Chair. Question Hour begins.

On the poor performance of BSNL and MTNL

Kalyan Banerjee asks how the government plans on  realising its "Digital India" claims without providing internet connectivity to everyone in all places.

He says, for net banking that the government is promoting, imrovement of 4G network and erecting more towers is necessary. He asks if the government is in a opsition to do these.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister, Communications says that net banking has so far depended on 2G and 3G network, so 4G is not a necessity for net banking to succeed.

List of business

Lok Sabha

- Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will move that The Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019 be taken up for consideration and passing.

- Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will move that The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 be taken up for consideration and passing.

Rajya Sabha

- Further discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address

- Short duration discussion on the challenges of water crisis in the country, by Sanjay Singh, Narain Dass Gupta, Ronald Sapa Tlau, Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya, Kahkashan Perween and Chunibhai Kanjibhai Gohel.

Help fulfil the dream of a safe, modern, inclusive nation: PM

Narendra Modi was speaking in the Lok Sabha, replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President for his address to both Houses of Parliament. Mr. Modi criticised what he termed the Congress’s “missed opportunities” in the past to establish true secularism. He said the mandate that his government received was a validation that it was moving in the right direction, a direction, he said, that valued both welfare and progress.

He extensively quoted from the speeches of Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia and Jawaharlal Nehru, and said his own government’s direction, including in the field of sanitation and water, emanated from their words.

Debate on President’s address: Dayanidhi Maran, Mahua Moitra hog prime time

Former Union Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) member Dayanidhi Maran used the debate to lead a scathing attack on the Tamil Nadu government, calling it the “most corrupt” and the ruling AIADMK a “slave of the BJP”.

Mr. Maran’s comment against the AIADMK that has only one MP drew sharp reactions from the Treasury benches. When BJP members Nishikant Dubey and Rajiv Pratap Rudy pointed out that rules did not allow to speak about issues outside the President’s Address, the DMK member retorted by saying that it was the duty of “the Master to take care of the slaves”.