The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Constitution (126th Amendment) Act, 2019. It amends provisions related to reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Earlier in the day, the Centre accused the Congress of instigating violence in the North East after the passage of the amendments to the Citizenship Act. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised the matter of violence, saying the entire region was in flames. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi castigated him and said the Congress was instigating violence in the region and the government condemned it.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The Rajya Sabha had passed the amendments on Wednesday evening, two days after the Lok Sabha had approved them.

Here are the day’s updates:


8.30 pm: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha says she will honour the GST commitments made to states.

8.20 pm: Lok Sabha is adjourned till Friday.

7.20 pm: Lok Sabha passes the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2019. Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal says that the path to a new India is through this bill.

6.40 pm: Rajya Sabha passes the Constitution (126th Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to extend the reservations granted to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

4.30 pm: Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu says the informal group of MPs constituted to study issues related to pornographic content on internet and social media platforms will be converted into an ad-hoc committee. “On the December 5, 2019, I had announced in the House the constitution of an informal group...The group has held several meetings,” he adds. “However, Jairam Ramesh, the coordinator of the informal group, met me and explained certain logistics problems being faced by the group being an informal one. I have considered the matter and decided to form an ad-hoc committee with the same composition.”

3.40 pm: Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri says in Lok Sabha that government has decided to sell its entire 100% stake in Air India under the proposed disinvestment process, PTI reports.

3.30 pm: Sanjay Dhotre says that more than 3.13 lakh cyber security incidents were reported in India this year till October.

3.20 pm: A committee of experts has been constituted to study and recommend policies on non-personal data, reports PTI. Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre informs Rajya Sabha that it was decided that a committee of experts will be constituted under the chairmanship of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan “to deliberate on a data governance framework and recommend measures”.

2.20 pm: Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu talks about Wednesday’s passage of the amendments to the Citizenship Act. “Yesterday, in a historic manner, we discussed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill for eight hours,” he says. “Everyone was given an opportunity to share their views, suggestions and criticisms. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also clarified everyone’s doubts.”

Also read: Congress mocks Modi’s assurances to Assam, says they can’t read tweet due to internet shutdown

1.20 pm: Lok Sabha has been adjourned till 2.15 pm.

1.15 pm: Union Power Minister RK Singh says in Lok Sabha that there is no power crisis in the country, reports PTI. “States meet their demand from their own generating sources and share from central generating stations,” he says during Question Hour. “The maximum peak demand experienced during the current year was around 183 Giga Watt whereas the installed generation capacity in the country is around 365 GW which is double our peak demand.”

12.35 pm: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi says the Congress is instigating violence in the North East. Congress members walk out of the proceedings.

12.30 pm: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduces a bill in the Lok Sabha to amend Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The proposed amendments aim to remove certain difficulties being faced during the insolvency resolution process, according to The Indian Express.

12.20 pm: Members in the Lok Sabha are raising concerns about the protests in the North East against the changes to the Citizenship Act. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury says, “The Army has been deployed already. The Kashmir phenomenon has been replicated in the North East region. Both the areas are of strategic importance. Even the foreign minister in Bangladesh has disagreed with India’s claims.”

Opposition leaders say the “entire North East is burning”.

11.25 am: Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh and Congress MP Ripun Bora give suspension notice in the Rajya Sabha under Rule 267 to discuss the situation in the North East amid ongoing protests against changes to the Citizenship Act, ANI reports.

Congress MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, K Suresh, Gaurav Gogoi, Manicka Tagore and Abdul Khaleque have given adjournment motion notice in the Lok Sabha over the same matter.

11.15 am: Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien gives a zero hour notice in the Rajya Sabha to discuss an advisory by the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry to private TV channels. The advisory, issued on Wednesday, had asked the channels to desist from broadcasting content that could incite violence or cause law and order problems.