Porbander Member of Legislative Assembly Arjun Bhai Modhwadia was on Tuesday appointed the new president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee after his predecessor Siddharth Patel resigned from the post.The appointment of Modhwadia, a former Congress legislature party chief, comes after prolonged deliberations by the party leadership to finalise the candidate for the post, who will command the party in the state ruled by BJP Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The Gujarat government on Thursday swung into damage-control mode after Chief Minister Narendra Modi reportedly referred to Maoists as 'our own people' at a function in Aligarh. Modi also suggested that a dialogue should be held to end the violence perpetrated by the Left-wing extremists, which is in sharp contrast to his party's rhetoric of taking strong action against the Maoists.Modi reportedly exhorted the Maoists to give up violence and resolve issues through talks.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's novel scheme of grading each ministry's performance and giving a 'zero' to those ministries who have failed to achieve even 60 per cent of their targets has understandably not gone down well with the ministers in his Cabinet.In early December, 59 ministers, along with their secretaries, were summoned to the Prime Minister's Office and made to sign a document of promise to deliver on their targets.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai's off-the-cuff statement on Friday -- about Hyderabad being the capital of Telangana after its formation -- has triggered a political thunderstorm in New Delhi.Member of Parliament from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema, who have strongly protested against the Centre's decision to create Telangana and have been meeting the party's top brass to plead their case, were left aghast by Pillai's statement."Who is GK Pillai to say this," said a Cong MP.
Nearly 58 years after the United Nations adopted a convention on refugees, India is finally shaping its own legal framework to define the status and rights to be granted to refugees.The Home Ministry is currently chalking out the draft of the Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Protection) Bill and it will be presented before the Union Cabinet early in November. Once it is cleared by the Cabinet, it will be introduced in the winter or Budget session of the Parliament.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha member Su Thirunavukkarasar has decided to resign from the party and the upper House of the Parliament as he is all set to rejoin the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.Su Thirunavukkarasar said that he would take a final decision on the matter after he talked to senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Rajnath Singh. The 60-year old leader unsuccessfully contested from Ramanathapuram in the Parliamentary polls