Left, Right & Centre

There is concern over breakthrough COVID-19 infections in Kerala. Some reports indicate that over 40,000 may have been infected despite at least one vaccine dose. The information is still sketchy on whether this is a new mutant, but reinfections reflect a frightening concern.

Much of the monsoon session of parliament has been wasted this time as the deadlock between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration and the opposition over the Pegasus snooping scandal and other issues showed no signs of a thaw. The opposition has threatened us and are violent, says the BJP, adding a marshal was assaulted. The government has drowned out our voices, says the opposition, as this session of parliament came to a disastrous close with opposition protests outside the house. The government has demanded an apology and says the opposition was determined to shut down this session of parliament.

The parliament session may be over, but the opposition versus the government has only intensified. As the opposition protested today against the early end to the session and alleged manhandling of MPs, a special press conference was held by eight Union Ministers countering accusations made by the opposition. In an interview to NDTV, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien asked eight questions to the ministers ranging from the Pegasus snooping scandal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's limited participation in parliament proceedings.

The official Twitter handle of the Congress has been locked, said the party in an Instagram post. This, amid a growing controversy over the social media platform's alleged selective action against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and five others for posting photographs that show Mr Gandhi interacting with the family of a nine-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped and killed in Delhi last week. The Congress on Thursday questioned why no action had been taken against the BJP's chief of information technology by Twitter for seemingly the same violation.

Since parliament convened on July 19, the opposition has been demanding a discussion and an independent inquiry led by a Supreme Court judge - serving or retired - into reports that an Israeli spyware, Pegasus, sold only to governments was used to hack phones of opposition leaders, judges, activists and even ministers. The government has dismissed these demands. Congress's Rajya Sabha MP, Abhishek Singhvi, tells NDTV, "We needed a simple statement from the government in the parliament saying that they did not deal with Pegasus, but the government did not say anything. Therefore, we said that we will not allow anything unless the government agrees for a discussion on Pegasus in parliament."

Asking industry to increase its appetite for risks, PM Modi said his government had demonstrated that tough decisions were now possible. He also described the contentious new farm laws as historic despite eight months of continuous protests by farmers. On the show tonight, we discuss the PM's speech with industry leaders CII president T V Narendran and CII President-designate Sanjiv Bajaj.

NDTV speaks to India's Golden star Neeraj Chopra about his historic Olympic win and how he prepared for the Games and coped with performance pressure. "I won't let the success go to my head, my next target is the World Championship," said the Olympic gold medallist.

The government tells Indian nationals in Afghanistan that it is time to evacuate. Diplomats and others are being evacuated from Mazar-e-Sharif with the fall of the northern Afghanistan city now imminent. Is the collapse of Afghanistan around the corner?

With scathing remarks, the Supreme Court fined parties over candidates with criminal records and said it is mandatory for parties to publish criminal antecedents of candidates within 48 hours of selection. In another case, the Supreme Court stopped state governments from withdrawing cases against MPs and MLAs without the approval of a high court.

According to reports, fully vaccinated Indian travellers to the UAE will not have their Indian vaccines recognised in the UAE, and there is no clarity on what happens to them.