In what may be his last address to Bharatiya Janata Party MPs as Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Lal Krishna Advani on Tuesday expressed happiness over the display of the opposition unity in Parliament on every issue during the current winter session.
The meeting, which will take place almost a month after incumbent CIC Wajahat Habibullah resigned, is being looked forward to by RTI activists who have been demanding transparency in the selection process and pressing for the appointment of a non-bureaucrat to the post.
The chairmen of the standing committees have a special status. They can summon any senior officer and convene a meeting at his or her will in any part of the country. The chairman can also take the committee to any state with prior intimation to have an on-the-spot study.
The Congress, which is in minority in Rajya Sabha, is expecting a major crisis during the next Parliament session as it proposes to get government bills passed.
Much before the honeymoon ended with the public, the Manmohan Singh government delivered a shock in the form of the fuel price hike -- an act of confident UPA -- to compensate the losses of 2010 Union budget.
In her letter, the President has said that repeated incidents of ragging of the past few months in educational institutions indicates that 'the perverse practice of ragging has not only become rampant in our educational institutions but acquired hideous proportions costing the sanity and life of some of the students. What is more worrisome is the persistent spread of this scourge both across a range of educational institutions as also across the country'.
The 70-year-old leader attended a meeting of the floor leaders of NDA allies in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament chamber of Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday.
Senior IAS officials are protesting against the posting of a junior officer of Indian Information Service of the 1982 batch to hold the post of Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau.
The government is also likely to appoint another election commissioner along with Chawla's elevation. This would mean till April 21, 2009 the Election Commission might have four members.
With a clear eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections, the United Progressive Alliance government on Thursday showered a bonanza of projects and schemes that are impossible to be completed during its remaining life span of another 100 days, with many projects set to be achieved only by 2012 when the 11th Plan ends.
An unperturbed Election Commissioner Navin Chawla on Monday attended the office and declared to join the Lok Sabha poll preparation drill that begins from Tuesday with a day-long meeting of the Election Commission with the political parties. Leaders of seven national and 40 recognised state parties have been invited to Nirvachan Sadan on Tuesday to elicit their views on the elections, the dates for which will be finalised only after two other meetings slated this week.
Strange that the Law Ministry acted as the legal adviser to Chawla who sought its opinion on the explanation sought by CEC N Gopalaswami and now its minister claims that the CEC has no powers to recommend an election commissioner's removal unless asked for by the President, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted. The Congress was, however, quick to rubbish the BJP charge of the nexus between Bhardwaj and Chawla.
"The prime minister doesn't get elected in an investors' conference." This was the terse official reaction of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday to the top industrialists viewing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prospective prime minister.
The grenade will help them to smoke out terrorists from their hiding without any bloodshed and save hostages. The 'chilli smoke grenade' will irritate eyes, skin and respiratory traits, inflicting an immediate breathing difficulty and swelling of eyes to force the persons to come out in the open.
He has sought to send a clear message that the incident is not just a matter of concern for India but a global challenge that needed to be tackled by his International Criminal Police Organisation -- the world's largest international police organisation comprising 186 nations as its members better known by its telegraphic address Interpol.
The conference will review the progress of measures decided in a similar exercise held a year ago on December 20, 2007. The 2007 conference stressed on improving ground-level intelligence gathering and filling up of police vacancies.
The Bhartiya Janata Party is missing its most vocal face, Sushma Swaraj, during the current session of Parliament as she is down with infection since the past three weeks and has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will interact with ambassadors and high commissioners stationed in Delhi and discuss with them the problem of the repeated terror attacks planned and executed by their masters sitting in neighbouring countries.
Chadiambaram was responding in the Rajya Sabha to charges levelled by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley who, quoting media reports, said that even though the home minister contemplated much more sterner laws, his efforts were shot down by other colleagues in the Cabinet when clearing them for presentation in Parliament.
The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, an 89-year old largest such Islamic body in the country that issued a 'fatwa' signed by 6,000 Muslim clerics in Hyderabad ten days ago against terrorism, on Monday moved the Supreme Court for release of a large number of Muslim youths held in connections with blasts in Malegaon in 2001, 2006 and 2008.