Making a passionate plea to lawmakers to avoid disruption of Parliament and state assemblies, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday called for "collective thinking" by political parties on the issue. He also asked them to ponder whether there was any need to amend existing rules to ensure smooth functioning of the House.
Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga does not share the view that India's vote against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council was a "letdown" as she feels that there must have been "justifiable reasons" for the decision.
India on Thursday underlined the need for Sri Lanka to devolve powers to Tamil-dominated provinces envisaged under a key constitutional amendment in a "very visible manner" to fulfill the political aspirations of the minority ethnic community.
Keen to see the decades-old ethnic crisis resolved, India on Tuesday told Sri Lanka that the "most important" issue before it was to come out with a political solution that fulfills the aspirations of the minority Tamils.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna arrived in Colombo on Monday on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka during which he will meet the country's top leadership and tour the war-ravaged northern areas.
The chief ministers deviated from their prepared speech copies and went all out to woo the NRIs and PIOs as they explained the development initiatives being taken by their respective governments in achieving inclusive growth.
Poongothai first successfully contested from this constituency in 2006, two years after her father Aruna, a Law Minister in the 1996-2001 DMK government, was killed allegedly by his rivals in his native place. When he was killed, Aladi Aruna was not with the DMK.
The Srirangam assembly seat, a traditional stronghold of the AIADMK that has elected the party nominees six times since 1977, is witnessing an interesting contest between Jayalalithaa, a two-time chief minister, and a political novice N Anand, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam nominee.
As the Dalai Lama announced his intention to retire from active politics, the Tibetan government-in-exile today said the spiritual leader's decision could undermine its legitimacy and indicated that the transition process cannot take place immediately.
Human resources minister Datuk S Subramaniam said there are around 1,50,000 Indians living in Malaysia 'illegally' and both the Malaysian and Indian governments are taking steps to reduce the number.
Nearly 40,000 Indian nationals have gone "missing" in Malaysia after the expiry of their tourist visas, Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammad Najib Tun Razak said on Monday, indicating that he may take up the issue with New Delhi during his forthcoming visit to India.
He made every fighter of his guerrilla outfit wear a cyanide capsule, to be swallowed when they were facing arrest, but Vellupillai Prabhakaran himself did not carry one when he was killed by the Sri Lankan troops, in the last phase of the 30-year-old bloody civil war."Prabhakaran did not have a cyanide capsule on him. We did not find any such thing. Many other LTTE cadres had capsules with them, but not Prabhakaran," top defence sources said.
While suggesting reorganisation of the CBI, Natchiappan said, "We recommend the implementation of the constitutional provision for institutionalising and reorganising the CBI as Central Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation and the Constitution already has a provision for it." But till the time a law is enacted for reconstituting or creating a federal crime agency, there should be a mechanism to hand over investigation of terror attack cases to CBI, in case it is needed.
The 'political war' in the television studios is expected to intensify in Tamil Nadu, where almost all television channels are identified with some political parties, with actor- politician Vijayakanth planning to launch a 24-hour entertainment venture to air his party's views.
Lankan MP M K Sivajilingam of Pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, said the Sri Lankan government's move to devolve powers to region is a 'joke played by them (Lankan government) on minority Tamils' who have 'not been able to lead a peaceful life in their own nation'.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances