Parliament snippets: Jibes at PM’s 56-inch chest

After achhe din (good days), Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s self-proclaimed chhappan inch ki chhaati (56 inch chest) is another favourite dartboard for the Opposition. The discussion on the Coal Bill saw frequent references to chhappan inch ...’’. While Rajesh Ranjan (RJD) taunted the BJP with it and was countered, Congress senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge had the last word. After quoting from a Supreme Court ruling to show that the UPA and the NDA under Atal Behari Vajpayee had followed the same policy vis-à-vis coal block allocation, he said: “Mr. Modi does have a 56-inch chest, but he is not large-hearted.”

MPs take their pick

Members of Parliament are displaying different preferences over selection of a village under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna to reach development programmes in each constituency. Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh, for instance, chose Khairimal in Motihari in Bihar that has the highest population of Scheduled Castes. On the other hand, Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a village in Haryana with the highest number of women. After he got a reply saying Chuchakwas in Jhajjar had the most women, he adopted it.

BJD takes potshots at Modi govt.

Tathagata Satpathy (BJD) used the debate on the Coal Bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday to take pot shots at some favourites of the government — from industrialist Adani to the Bhagavad Gita. Referring to a coal block allotted in Odisha to Mahaguj — a company jointly owned by the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments —- he said: “The coal extraction and washing for Mahaguj has been given to a not-so-well-known company, called Adani,” only to be interrupted by the ruling party MPs. Later, expressing fears of the U.S. insisting on climate protection measures that may affect the coal industry in India, he referred to the Bhagavad Gita. He said it was always recognised in India as one of “our great scriptures’’ but it became a “super-star” only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted a copy to U.S. President Barack Obama. In that context, he wondered whether India’s coal policy would become a hostage to the recently announced U.S. policy on reducing carbon emissions. Will it also be “gifted” to Mr. Obama and “thereby gain international stature?”