The just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament will probably go down in parliamentary history as one of its most unproductive, causing the nation a loss of crores of rupees and seeing virtually no legislative business being transacted.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a u-turn after suggesting the scrapping of the Rajya Sabha and said he held both Houses of Parliament in high esteem.

China on Monday said its relations with India were “very fragile” and needed special care and guidance to avoid a war of words. The statement, whi-ch came from the Chinese envoy in New Delhi, comes ahead of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India.

The media on Monday virtually was caught in the crossfire in the Supreme Court on the top court one side, which pointed out certain “distortions” in the court proceedings in 2G scam case, and industrialist Rattan Tata supporting some “self restraints” by the media organisations in reporting such sensitive issues.

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the copy of the complaint from the government against corporate lobbyist Niira Radia referred to in the affidavit of the income tax department alleging that she was an “agent” of foreign intelligence agency and was indulging in “anti-national” activities.

The CBI is now preparing to question former telecom minister A. Raja and Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) chairman Suresh Kalmadi in connection with its probe into the 2G spectrum scam and alleged irregularities in awarding of several contracts related to the Games, respectively.

Two media organisations — Outlook and Open — facing Supreme Court notices on Rattan Tata’s petition on the publication of the transcript of Radia tapes, on Monday defended the “freedom of press” during the top court hearing, saying media has a right to report on any matter in the public interest against bad governance and corruption.

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expressed its resolve to take its fight over the Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) to the streets, the facade of unity among the “secular” Opposition has been torn asunder with Mr H.D. Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular) making it clear that his party is not in favour of stalling Parliament over the 2G

The ghost of Ayodhya has once again tripped BJP’s hope to expand the NDA fold by roping in former alliance partners after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat dropped enough hints that the Sangh Parivar may toughen its stand on the disputed land issue. Former NDA partners including AIADMK, BJD, INLD, who had shown their willingness to JD(U) chief and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav of sharing the NDA platform to protest against UPA on corruption issue, have now backed out after the RSS chief’s

Going on the offensive, the Centre on Monday made a stinging attack on the Opposition for the washout of the Winter Session, virtually singling out BJP for paralysing Parliament saying it did “not have the courage” to move a no confidence motion.