PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, other BJP leaders to fast against Parliament impasse today

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah along with top party leaders and union ministers will on Thursday observe a day-long fast against the complete washout of the recent Budget session of Parliament. The party leaders spread across the country will observe the fast. 

The Prime Minister has said that the fast is being observed to "expose" those handful of people who "throttled" democracy by stalling Parliament proceedings during the budget session. The BJP has held the opposition, led by the Congress party, responsible for the washout of the budget session. The session was the worst in terms of productivity in about a decade. 

As per the schedule prepared by the BJP for observing the fast across the country, Amit Shah will hold a sit-in at Hubli in poll-bound Karnataka; Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu will observe the fast in Delhi; Union Health Minister J P Nadda will be in Modi's constituency Varanasi, while Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will travel to Patna for it, reports said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to observe the fast in Chennai, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javdekar in Bengaluru, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel in Tamil Nadu and Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. Tourism Minister KJ Alphons will observe the fast in Kerala.

All the party MPs will also be sitting on a fast in their respective constituencies. 

Meanwhile, rubbishing social media messages that say that Modi will have lunch onboard during his tour programme today, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that the schedule being floated was made before the fast was announced. The Prime Minister will visit the Cancer Institute, Adyar in Chennai on Thursday.

"An older version of the tour program of Prime Minister Modi's delegation of 12th April (Defence Expo 2018) is being circulated on social media. This version was prepared before Prime Minister Modi's fast was announced. "The current tour program has no breakfast or lunch on board," says PMO Source. 

The Modi will also unveil the plaque inaugurating the diamond jubilee building, palliative care centre (Mahvir Ashray) at Sriperumbudur, Daycare center and nurses quarter at the Adyar Cancer Institute.