New Delhi:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over absenteeism among BJP MPs from Parliament. Singh asked party MPs to be present in large numbers when Home Minister Amit Shah tables the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, as he asserted that this draft legislation is as important as the move to abrogate Article 370, according to sources.
The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, in order to grant Indian nationality to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who come to India due to religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan even if they don’t possess proper documents.
Asking the BJP MPs to ensure their presence in Parliament as it is going to take up key bills in the coming days, he said the prime minister had time and again spoken against absenteeism among the parliamentarians but the issue persists.
Woman and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, in her address, highlighted the efforts of her ministry in fighting malnutrition among pregnant women and infants, and said it had organised a record 3.5 lakh events in a month in this regard.
BJP MP Pragya Thakur, whose praise for Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse had triggered a row last week, will not be able to attend the meeting as the party leadership has barred her from participating in the weekly gathering of its lawmakers during Parliament's sessions.
The BJP had also sacked her as a member of a consultative committee to the defence ministry for her comments. She later apologised in Lok Sabha.
