The fourth edition of Lokmat Parliamentary Awards 2022 is currently underway in New Delhi Along with this, Lokmat National Conclave has also been organized. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri was present on the occasion. During this, the Union Minister highlighted the shortcomings of the Congress rule while counting the achievements of the government. He said that earlier there was such a government which used special section 356 in our constitution to dismiss the state governments. That government used it on 100 occasions. Continuing his point, he further said that the grandmother of this gentleman used Article 356 50 times. We are in power, has Modi ji ever used 356 since May 2014? I am asking you a factual question. Do any of you think we should use 356. The proud Punjabi in me says once in a while that 356 should be used, but no, it doesn't happen.
Continuing his point, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in democracy. He is the only Prime Minister who served for many years as a successful Chief Minister of a state before taking over as Prime Minister and saw the transformation to bring it back from devastation and make it a successful state. The Lokmat Parliamentary Awards are given to outstanding Parliamentarians — four each from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha — for their contribution in eight different categories. The awards were conceived in 2017 to recognise and encourage positive work done by parliamentarians every year and were conferred during 2017-2019 to winners by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. The awardees are selected by a distinguished jury headed by NCP president Sharad Pawar. Past winners include former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, Jaya Bachchan, Supriya Sule, Nishikant Dubey, Hema Malini, Bharti Pawar, Sushmita Dev, Meenakshi Lekhi and Rajni Patil.