Oppn protests G RAM G during Prez Murmu address; govt condemns, demands apology
New Delhi (PTI): Opposition members on Wednesday protested against the VB-G RAM G Act during President Droupadi Murmu's address to the joint sitting of Parliament drawing strong condemnation from the government with Union minister J P Nadda demanding that they apologise for their conduct.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju alleged that the opposition members embarrassed the country with their conduct and also insulted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr B R Ambedkar, Birsa Munda, Bhupen Hazarika, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay by raising slogans during the president's address which paid tributes to them, remembering their contributions.
"The way these people undermined the dignity of Parliament is highly condemnable. No amount of condemnation is enough. They should apologise to Parliament and the country," Nadda said.
Members of the Congress and its allies in the opposition briefly raised slogans against the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, demanding its rollback as soon as President Murmu began her address to the joint session of Parliament.
As the president referred to the VB-G RAM G Act and began speaking about provisions in her address, opposition members, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, rose from their seats and began protesting.
President Murmu paused for a moment during her address as the opposition began raising slogans, demanding the rollback of the VB-G RAM G Act.
Reacting sharply to the opposition protest, Nadda said, "The Budget session of Parliament began today with the address by President Droupadi Murmu. But, the way the leaders of the Congress and opposition parties habitually violated parliamentary decorum was utterly reprehensible and cannot be condemned enough."
"In her address, when the president was mentioning the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram and paying tributes to the immortal scholar Bankim Babu remembering his works, the anarchic Congress and the 'INDI Alliance' created a ruckus and started shouting slogans," the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha added in a video message.
Nadda also slammed the Trinamool Congress (TMC), saying it was "surprising" that the party members participated in the opposition uproar when the president was paying tributes to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, remembering his contributions.
Slamming the opposition, Rijiju told reporters in the Parliament House complex, "The country is ashamed of what the opposition members did during the president's address to the joint sitting of Parliament. The country will never forgive the Congress and its allies in the opposition for this."
In her address, the president was paying tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr B R Ambedkar Birsa Munda, Bhupen Hazarika, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and exhorting the country to take inspiration from them, the parliamentary affairs minister said.
But the opposition members resorted to raising slogans and insulting them, he charged.
"Just imagine if any responsible Member of Parliament (MP) can ever behave in such a manner," Rijiju said.
The country will never forgive the opposition parties for the kind of politics they indulged in during the president's address, he said.
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Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2026
New Delhi (PTI): Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella.
"On Earth As It Is Beneath" by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a "brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse", is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.
The annual prize worth GBP 50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection "Heart Lamp". Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of GBP 5,000 -- also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.
"What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, uncompromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives.
"The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin," the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.
The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.
The list, announced on Tuesday, is dominated by women, with five of the six authors and four of the six translators being female. The authors and translators represent eight countries -- Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States.
"With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising," said author Natasha Brown, chair of this year’s judging panel.
The other books include "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran" by Shida Bazyar and translated from German by Ruth Martin; "She Who Remains" by Rene Karabash and translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel; "The Director" by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin; "Taiwan Travelogue" by Yáng Shuāng-zi and translated from Taiwanese by Lin King; and "The Witch" by Marie Ndiaye and translated from French by Jordan Stump.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on May 19 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a single work of fiction -- either a novel or a collection of short stories -- written in another language, translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
According to the organisers, the 2025 winner "Heart Lamp" –- the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada –- rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher, And Other Stories, immediately reprinting 40,000 copies.
