New Delhi: Are we delivering pizzas or passing legislation, TMC MP Derek O'Brien wondered on Wednesday, continuing his attack on the government over the speed with which bills have been passed this Parliament session.

On Tuesday, the Trinamool Congress MP had said the way the bills were being passed amounted to a "mockery of Parliament" and was the government's way of "smothering" the Opposition. 

"Parliament is supposed to scrutinize Bills. This chart explains the bulldozing this Session. Are we delivering pizzas or passing legislation?" he tweeted on Wednesday. 

O'Brien also attached a chart purportedly showing the contrast in numbers -- during 2004-2009, 60 per cent of the total bills by Parliament were scrutinised, during 2009-2014, this went up to 71 per cent, from 2014-2019 the number came down to 26 per cent. In the present Lok Sabha, of the 18 bills passed, only one underwent scrutiny, bringing the number down to 5 per cent, he claimed.

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Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.

Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”

He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.

His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.

Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.

He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.

“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.