Dhankhar told the leaders that the issues they have can always be discussed and debated without disruptions and going to the Well of the House.Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar has reached out to leaders of various parties, both ruling and the opposition, to try and ensure that Parliament sessions are disruption free. On Monday, he hosted a dinner for floor leaders of parties which was attended by Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and leaders of Congress, YSRCP, AAP, BJD, TDP, RJD, AIADMK, DMK and JD(U). Dhankhar told the leaders that the issues they have can always be discussed and debated without disruptions and going to the Well of the House. Sources said Congress’s Shaktisinh Gohil — who represented the party since Mallikarjun Kharge was out of Delhi — said the onus is on the government to ensure smooth functioning of the House and statements to this effect made by Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj when the BJP was in the opposition. He said Jaitley and Swaraj used to say that the opposition has only one weapon to draw the attention of the government and urged the Chairman to impress upon the government to allow discussions and debates.
Outside Support
Shashi Tharoor has always drawn attention and admiration from the public especially the youth during his travels. But his candidacy — emphasising on the message for change — in the Congress presidential election seems to have increased it multifold. On Monday, when Tharoor boarded his flight from Hyderabad to Thiruvananthapuram, he got a surprise with the captain of the flight announcing that “we have a special guest on board”. There was loud applause and the requests for selfies continued. With the results of the presidential election uncertain and with its scales heavily tilted to his opponent Mallikarjun Kharge’s favour, the Thiruvananthapuram MP does not seem to be regretting his decision to contest!