The Catch Up: 20 December

It’s the 20th of December and here are the headlines.

Two MPs from Kerala, Thomas Chazhikadan and AM Arif were suspended from the Lok Sabha today, taking the total number of suspensions in both houses to 143. Meanwhile, the National Democratic Alliance MPs in Rajya Sabha stood up and took part in the House proceeding today to express their support to Chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar after TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee mimicked him outside the Parliament yesterday.

In similar news, the vice-president said he would not tolerate any insult to Parliament and the post of vice-president. He said, quote, "You can insult Jagdeep Dhankar all you want but not the Vice President of India," Unquote. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also called Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar expressing great pain over the "abject theatrics" of some MPs in the Parliament complex yesterday. 

Covid-19 cases are on the rise in India, with the country recording 614 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, prompting the Union Health Minister to direct states to monitor emerging strains. This is the highest number of new cases detected since the 21st of May. As per the latest Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am today, India now has 2,311 active cases. Three new deaths have been reported from Kerala, taking the overall death toll to date to 5.33 lakh and the Covid case tally to 4.50 crore.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today along with nine Trinamool Congress MPs. After the meeting she, said that the PM assured her that a joint meeting of government officials would be held to look into their demands on releasing central funds for the state for various projects. Banerjee has accused the Centre of blocking funds to various central schemes and had even written to PM Modi on the issue.

For the first time since the allegations of an Indian official and an Indian national being involved in an alleged plot to assassinate Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil came to light, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that if an Indian citizen has done anything good or bad, the government is "ready to look into it". While this is the first time PM Modi has spoken on the issue, he also sought to clear the air that the incident would not have an adverse impact on Indo-US ties, saying he does not think it apt to link a few incidents with diplomatic ties.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.