The caste and Below Poverty Line census has been suspended in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, though it goes on nonstop in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur also have simultaneous elections.
Besides taking selected youth leaders to this institute for training, the Youth Congress also organises 5-day training camps in states to develop ideological clarity, communication skills and team spirit and guide them how to identify themselves with the locals and be the social activists more than just the political workers.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has quietly made way for Congress president Sonia Gandhi for a function slated to be held in Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday for Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, four-time Congress president, on his 150th birth anniversary. Dr Singh was supposed to be the chief guest at the event that marks year-long celebrations in memory of the distinguished leader from Uttar Pradesh. When Gandhi expressed her desire to attend, the event was postponed to Tues.
The retired armed forces personnel's long-pending demand for "one rank, one pension" got backing of a Rajya Sabha committee on petitions in a report tabled early this week, asserting that the financial liability of Rs 1,300 crores is not very big amount to deny the parity in pension.
The Bhartiya Janata Party's external affairs wing organised a demonstration at the Russian embassy in Delhi on Wednesday and handed over a memorandum addressed to President Dmitry Medvedev to the country's deputy ambassador, expressing outrage at a move in Tomsk to seek a ban on the Bhagvad Gita. The memorandum said the sentiments of millions of Hindus all over the world have been grievously hurt and hence the Russian government should ensure the dismissal of the case.
The Central Buraeu of Investigation on Tuesday claimed success in its evidence accepted by the district court of London for extradition of the 2006 War Room Leak accused Ravi Shankaran, a Navy commander who fled India since registration of the case in March 2006. It hopes to get him in India next month to stand trial in the case.
According to sources, the Election Commission has a tentative schedule to hold the Uttar Pradesh elections from February 16 or 17. The polling will be completed in six phases by around March 6, and the counting would be done along with all other states on March 10. Other states, including Punjab, will have one-day polls.
The Bhartiya Janata Party was in for shock and embarrassment on Friday when MPs of National Democratic Alliance ally Shiv Sena brought placards in both the Houses of Parliament and raised slogans for dismissal of its government in Karnataka.
Home Minister P Chidambaram's political rival Janata Party Chief Dr Subramanian Swamy on Friday shot a letter to the prime minister requesting him against inaugurating a hospital in linked to Chidambaram.
Bharatiya Janata Party member Prakash Javadekar seemed most upset with Friday's Rajya Sabha adjournment as his resolution on creation of a separate Telangana state was on top of the private members' business listed for the afternoon session.
The government is planning a special Parliament session in mid January next year for the Lokpal Bill as the Bharatiya Janata Party has a majority in the Rajya Sabha, sources told rediff.com.
First came the Supreme Court's stay on Tuesday on the municipal elections on December 18, directing the state election commission to notify the election dates on February 18 after the electoral rolls are revised. The Uttar Pradesh government had challenged the Allahabad high court order fixing the elections on December 18.
A core member of Team Anna and expert of food security, Devinder Sharma, told rediff.com that there is a debate going on within Team Anna whether the Gandhian should hold his proposed fast to press for a stringent Lokpal Bill from December 27 in Mumbai.
The National Food Security Bill was scuttled by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar who threw the spanner with a dissent note in his capacity as the Union agriculture minister.
Several Muslim members of Parliament on Monday complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the 12th Five-Year Plan had nothing concrete in it to uplift the Muslim community. They claimed that the plan made a mockery of the prime minister's vows of "inclusive" development.
Mining Minister Dinsha Patel, who piloted the Bill in the House, says the attempt is to let the mining projects not get scuttled by the locals.
Several officers in various government departments and ministries have used fake caste certificates for their appointments but hardly any of them have been punished, revealed a Cabinet minister on Monday. Responding to a question posed to the prime minister, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanaswami said that as many as 1,832 central government appointments across 52 departments and ministries were detected to have been made on fake caste cetificates.
Congress leader Jagdish Tytler termed as a 'total lie' the allegations of some 40 civil right activists that he was actively involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
'Many people asked me if you felt like charging more when I came to know that a great man like Bachchan is buying the plot. I said I honour my commitment. I can't cheat him. He is doing so much for Gujarat. How can we charge him more?'
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday blamed Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her Congress General Secretary son Rahul for the FDI decision. Jaitley said that the decision on FDI was taken without bothering that it will hurt the interests of farmers, small traders as well as consumers, and would in no way help the economy.
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