| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Rajya Sabha suspends eight Opposition MPs The Rajya Sabha on Monday suspended eight Opposition members for the remainder of the monsoon session. The members include Trinamool Congress's Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, AAP's Sanjay Singh, Congress MPs Rajeev Satav, Syed Naseer Hussain and Ripun Bora, and CPI(M) members K.K. Ragesh and Elamaram Kareem. Earlier in the day, Rajya Sabha Chairperson M. Venkaiah Naidu did not permit a motion of no-confidence against Deputy Chairman Harivansh, on the grounds that such a motion required a 14-day notice period. The Rajya Sabha was adjourned without taking up business as Opposition members protested the suspension of the eight MPs. The members were suspended after the Parliamentary Affairs Minister raised a motion for the same, citing their unruly behaviour against the Deputy Chairman during the voting on farm Bills on Sunday. Two of the three agriculture-related legislations piloted by the Narendra Modi government, aimed at liberalising the farm sector, were passed by the Rajya Sabha by voice vote on Sunday amid a din as Opposition parties protested strongly at being denied a division (individual voting on the Bill) as the Bills were passed. The Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Samajwadi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party and the two Left parties had opposed the Bills, asking the government to send them to a Parliament panel for further scrutiny. The suspended Opposition MPs announced that they will do an all-night dharna outside Parliament. Opposition parties to petition President against farm Bills The Opposition parties on Monday met before the Parliament session was convened and decided to petition the President under Article 111 of the Constitution, urging him not to give assent to the two farm Bills passed in the Rajya Sabha. Article 111 of the Constitution deals with Presidential assent for a Bill. "After serious deliberations this morning, we came to the conclusion that the passage of the two Bills was flawed and the only recourse with us is to petition the President not to give assent to these Bills," a senior Opposition leader said. The Opposition parties have argued that the Bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha after 1 p.m., which was the scheduled time for the session to end. They further claimed that the time of the House was extended without taking the sense of the House and therefore the extension was invalid. "It is a fact that when members demanded a vote on the statutory resolution, they were in their seats and there was no reason to deny them the vote," the leader added. Their petition to the President is likely to become the basis of a legal challenge to the passage of these two Bills. Prime Minister continues to talk up the Bills Prime Minister Narendra Modi today continued to talk up the two new Bills that were passed, calling them "historic". He also said the earlier agriculture laws had shackled the farmers of the country and middlemen were taking advantage of those archaic laws. But now, through the reforms, new freedom was given to the farmers of the country, who "will have more options to sell their produce anywhere" in the country. "They [farmers] can sell their produce either in local mandis [markets] or beyond," said Modi. Making an oblique reference to the protest by Opposition parties against the new farm Bills passed, Modi said, "Some people are protesting against these reform Bills because their control over farmers has slipped away." The prime minister again asserted that there would be no change on Minimum Support Price (MSP). "These people [those opposing the farm bills] are also misleading farmers on MSP, but I want to make it clear that MSP will continue to function like before," Modi said. Meanwhile, the Centre on Monday approved a hike in the MSP of rabi crops. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in the Lok Sabha that the CCEA has approved increasing the MSP of six rabi crops, with wheat MSP rising by ₹50 per quintal to ₹1,975 per quintal. India, China begin military talks to end Ladakh stand-off  An Army convoy carrying military material on its way to Ladakh amid border tension with China, on September 20, 2020. India cannot meet China half way in the disengagement process as the country has to maintain troops for the protection of territory, an official source said, as the sixth round of Corps Commander-level talks began on Monday. The talks began around 9.30 am on the Chinese side at Moldo, a defence source said. According to official sources, India's agenda at the talks is to get China to agree to withdraw from all friction points, with a timeline for de-induction of mechanised and motorised divisions, the withdrawal of Chinese forces from Depsang to Pangong Tso, and free and unhindered access to all patrol points for Indian forces. India is also demanding strict adherence to laid-down protocols on troop strength on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). "Not just disengagement but also de-induction," the official added. In a first, two women officers to operate helicopters from warship  Sub Lt. Kumudini and Sub Lt. Riti, the first women airborne tacticians who will operate from deck of warships. They passed out of Indian Navy's Observer Course, at Southern Naval Command, Kochi on Monday. Sub Lt. Kumudini Tyagi and Sub Lt. Riti Singh would be the first women airborne tacticians in India who will operate from the deck of warships. They passed out of Indian Navy's Observer Course, at Southern Naval Command, Kochi on Monday. They will operate naval helicopters, an area where male officers reigned. Both are engineering graduates in computer science and were commissioned into the Navy in 2018. Sub Lt. Singh, who hails from Hyderabad, is the third generation from her family to serve in the armed forces. Her grandfather was in the Army and her father in the Navy. "It was my dream to adorn the white uniform," she said. For Sub Lt. Tyagi, who hails from Ghaziabad, the Navy was all about the water, till she joined the force. "I was motivated to join the naval aviation wing after hearing about the death of woman officer Lt. Kiran Shekhawat in 2015 in an accident involving a naval aircraft. Navy personnel work on the land, air and water, and that was a challenge I wanted to take up," she said. Two other women officers, Sub Lt. Afnan Sheikh and Sub Lt. Kreeshma R., also graduated on Monday. They would operate the fixed wing aircraft of the Navy, a domain where women already operate. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 55,53,850 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 88,962. In Brief: A Delhi court on Monday dismissed an application filed by former JNU student leader Umar Khalid, seeking permission to meet his family during his police custody. Khalid was arrested on September 13 under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, in a case related to the communal violence in north-east Delhi in February. He is in police custody till September 24. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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