Ignoring the dissenting voices of some key allies, the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) decided on Wednesday to spike the controversial ordinance that seeks to protect convicted parliamentarians and state legislators from immediate disqualification.

The Union cabinet, which met in the evening a day after the return of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from a US visit, decided unanimously to withdraw the ordinance that it had approved on 24 September, a step that Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi publicly rubbished three days later as “complete nonsense.” Read More

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Jyothi Shankaran

    Jyothi’s last role was as Senior Editor with the business news channel Bloomberg TV India. He also worked as News Editor at business-standard.com, the online version of the business newspaper Business Standard. Jyothi is a chemical engineer from the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar.