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Sri Lanka's Parliament passes no-confidence vote against PM Rajapaksa

Agencies
November 14, 2018

Colombo, Nov 14: In a major setback to President Maithripala Sirisena, the Sri Lankan Parliament on Wednesday passed a no-confidence motion against the government headed by his controversially-appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Parliament on Wednesday met for the first time since October 26, when President Sirisena sacked prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and suspended the Parliament plunging the island nation into a crisis.

Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced that a majority of the 225-member assembly supported the no-confidence motion against Rajapaksa, who was appointed by President Sirisena as prime minister on October 26 in place of Wickremesinghe.

"According to the voice, I recognise that the government has no majority," Jayasuriya announced in the House as Rajapaksa supporters protested.

He gave the ruling after the no-confidence motion was taken for a vote. The Speaker calculated the votes based on the voices he heard as Rajapaksa supporters disrupted the proceedings.

Jayasuriya later adjourned the House until 10 am Thursday.

Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa later told reporters that the Government clearly lost the floor test.

He said Prime Minister Rajapaksa must now step down as he does not have majority support in Parliament.

The unexpected session on Wednesday morning comes a day after the Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned President Sirisena's controversial decision to dissolve Parliament and halted the preparations for snap polls on January 5.

In its ruling, the apex court had said Sirisena's dissolution of Parliament will be suspended until December 7 and it will consider all the petitions filed on the President's decision next month before giving a final ruling.

After the court verdict, Speaker Jayasuriya summoned Parliament's session for Wednesday morning.

Sirisena dissolved Parliament after it became clear that he lacked support from lawmakers to instal Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister following his sacking of Wickremesinghe as premier.

While sacking prime minister Wickremesinghe, president Sirisena had also suspended Parliament till November 16. He, however, advanced the convening of the House to November 14 amid international and domestic pressure against the move.

Major political parties, including the United National Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and an election commission member Ratnajeevan Hoole, on Monday dragged Sirisena to the Supreme Court, challenging his decision by filing fundamental rights petitions against the move, which they said violated the Constitution.

Sirisena dissolved Parliament last week, almost 20 months before its term was to end, and ordered snap election on January 5, plunging the country's into an unprecedented political and constitutional crises.

Wickremesinghe has maintained that his sacking by Sirisena was unconstitutional and illegal and he was still the prime minister.

Wickremesinghe had demanded that Parliament be convened to hold a vote among the lawmakers to decide who enjoyed majority support in Parliament to be the Prime Minister.

As pressure grew and both sides claimed they had the numbers, the President dissolved Parliament and called for elections.

Rajapaksa needed the support of minimum 113 parliamentarians in the 225-member House to prove his majority.

Sirisena on Sunday stoutly defended his move to dissolve Parliament, saying it was taken to prevent clashes among rival lawmakers. He said there were reports that politicians would clash during the floor test, which was due on November 14.

Rajapaksa, 72, who ruled Lanka for a nearly decades from 2005, was unexpectedly defeated by his deputy Sirisena in the presidential election held in January 2015 with the support from Wickremesinghe's UNP.

However, the power-sharing arrangement between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe became increasingly tenuous on several policy matters, especially on issues like the economy and security. And subsequently, Sirisena abruptly ousted Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa.

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News Network
March 3,2020

Chennai, Mar 3: The Madras High Court has ruled that if a working woman gives birth to a child in the second delivery after twins in the first, she is not entitled to maternity benefits as it should be treated as third child.

"As per existing rules, a woman can avail such benefits only for her first two deliveries. Even otherwise it is debatable as to whether the delivery is not a second delivery but a third one, in as much as ordinarily when twins are born they are delivered one after another, and their age and their inter-se elderly status is also determined by virtue of the gap of time between their arrivals, which amounts to two deliveries and not one simultaneous act," the court said.

The first bench, comprising Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad stated this while allowing the appeal from Ministry of Home Affairs.

It set aside the order June 18 2019 order of a single Judge, who extended 180 days of maternity leave and other benefits to a woman member of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) under the rules governing the Tamil Nadu government servants.

The issue pertains to an appeal moved by the ministry, which contended that the leave claim is by a member of CISF to whom the maternity rules of Tamil Nadu would not apply.

She would be covered by the maternity benefits as provided under the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, the ministry said.

When the appeal came up for hearing, the bench said it found that a second delivery, which, in the present case, resulted in a third child, cannot be interpreted so as to add to the mathematical precision that is defined in the rules.

The admissibility of benefits would be limited if the claimant has not more than two children, the bench said "This fact therefore changes the entire nature of the relief which is sought for by the woman petitioner, which aspect has been completely overlooked by the single judge", the bench said.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had "unconstitutionally" merged six MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the Congress in Rajasthan, he did the same in his earlier tenure too, for which we wanted to teach him and his party a lesson, said BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday.

The BSP chief added that her party could have gone to courts earlier but decided to wait for the "right opportunity".

"In Rajasthan, after elections results, BSP gave unconditional support of all its 6 MLAs to Congress. Unfortunately, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, out of his malicious intent and to damage BSP, merged them with Congress unconstitutionally. He did the same even during his earlier tenure," Mayawati said here.

"BSP could have gone to the court earlier too but we were looking for the time to teach Congress party and CM Ashok Gehlot a lesson. Now we have decided to go to the Court. We will not let this matter alone. We will go even to the Supreme Court," she added.

The BSP chief further reiterated that the party has asked the six MLAs to vote against the Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot if a trust vote takes place on the floor of the Rajasthan Assembly, failing which "their party membership will be cancelled".
She further said that the merger of BSP MLAs with Congress was immoral and went against the mandate given by voters in Rajasthan.
"Ulta-chor kotwal ko daante (the thief accuses the cop of wrongs) they (Congress) themselves indulge in wrongdoing and then accuse us," she further said.
On Sunday, the BSP issued a whip to six MLAs, asking them to vote against Congress in case of a no-confidence motion or any proceedings to be held during the Rajasthan Assembly session.

National General Secretary of BSP Satish Chandra Mishra, while speaking to news agecncy said, "Notices have been issued to the six MLAs separately as well as collectively, pointing out that since BSP is a National Party, there cannot be any merger at the state level at the instance of six MLAs unless there is a merger of BSP at the national level. If they violate it, they will be disqualified.

Notices have been issued to all six MLAs- - R Gudha, Lakhan Singh, Deep Chand, JS Awana, Sandeep Kumar and Wajib Ali, who are elected to the Rajasthan Assembly."
However, later on Monday, Lakhan Singh, hit back saying he and the five others had already joined the Congress.

"We six MLAs have already joined the Congress. BSP remembered us after nine months. They have issued this whip, after a message from the BJP. On this basis they are going to court", said Karauli MLA Lakhan Singh.

Rajasthan government is in turmoil after simmering differences between Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and Gehlot came out in the open. Pilot was removed as the Deputy Chief Minister and the state unit chief of Congress.

The Congress has accused the BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. The BJP has rejected the allegations.

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News Network
June 19,2020

Kolkata, Jun 19: The nationwide clamour for boycott of Chinese goods is getting louder amid the Ladakh face-off, with traders urging the Centre to direct e-commerce firms to restrict the sale of items from the Dragonland, which imports products worth USD 74 billion to India annually.

Of the total import from China, retail traders sell goods worth around USD 17 billion, mostly comprising toys, household items, mobiles, electric and electronic goods and cosmetics among other things, which could possibly be replaced by Indian products, a national trading body said.

"We, at 'Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal', are advising our members to clear their stocks of Chinese products and refrain from placing fresh orders. We are also requesting the government to restrict e-commerce companies from selling Chinese products," V K Bansal, the association's general secretary, told PTI.

Sushil Poddar, the president of the Confederation of West Bengal Traders Association, said its members have been told to shun trading in Chinese goods as much as possible.

Another national traders' body, The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), has decided to step up its movement against the boycott of Chinese goods, under its campaign 'Bhartiya Samaan-Hamara Abhimaan'.

It released a list of over 450 broad categories of commodities, comprising 3,000 Chinese products.

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