In a move that surprised most of the media critics, the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party launched a stunning attack on the Pakistan government for its failure to provide protection to the players of the visiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore.
Former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi lashed out at former Pakistan captain-turned-politician Imran Khan following Tuesday's terror attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore, saying teams should stop visiting Pakistan to play cricket. Imran had accused India of double standards after it decided not to tour Pakistan last year on security grounds but continued with the home series against England despite the terror attacks in Mumbai.
The general elections are to be conducted over 5 phases betweeen 16 April and 13 May.
Outgoing Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed concern about the manner in which money was flaunted by some MPs during the Trust Vote on July 23rd last year to save the government.
India reminded Pakistan's Naval Chief Admiral Noman Bashir that Pakistan had already made a formal acknowledgement about the fact that the 10 attackers came to Mumbai from Karachi by vessels. "I am sure somebody (in Pakistan) will deny tomorrow what the Naval chief said. This is part of prevarication," Home Minister P Chidambaram told media-persons in New Delhi when asked to comment on Bashir's statement.
An hour before Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani was scheduled to address a press conference on Thursday evening, party leaders informed him that he could face a media boycott as some senior journalists were irked with him, for meeting only a select group of journalists for a news briefing the day before.The BJP quickly went into a damage control mode, with Shahnawaz Hussain and Rajiv Pratap Rudy acting as trouble shooters to appease the scribes.
Samajwadi Party Member of Parliament Jaya Prada is confident about winning the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls from her constituency Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.In the 2004 LS polls, she had won by over 78,000 votes, defeating candidates from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.The former actress claimed that she had attended the Parliament regularly during the last five years.
The Bhartiya Janata Party has denied any rift between L K Advani and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on any issue. When Advani was in Mumbai on Turesday, Thackery refused to meet the BJP leader saying that he was unwell and should not be disturbed. But the mouth piece of Shiv Sena, Saamna disclosed that it was the Sena chief who prevented sacking of Narendra Modi after the Godhra incident.
Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin formally joined the Congress party in New Delhi on Thursday. When queried if he will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election, he responded, "If the party thinks I am good enough (to contest elections) I will do so. As of now, I don't know anything." He added, "I have always been an admirer of Congress, which fought for India's independence. I want to give back something to the nation by joining politics."
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari has expressed concern about the agreement between Pakistan and Taliban about the implementation of Shariat laws in the Swat region. Tewari was speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Reacting to the Interim Budget 2009-10 on Monday, the Bhartiya Janata Party claimed that the United Progressive Alliance government had failed to live up to the promises it made to the nation under its common minimum programme.
Singhvi was speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry where the American ambassdor David Mulford, was presenting a more realistic picture of Indo-US relations.
Chidambaram took a dig at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Queried on the similarities Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on involvement of "internal elements" in Mumbai attacks and comments by Pakistani leadership, he said, "You should ask Narendra Modi whether he and Pakistan are in contact with each other." According to Chidambaram Modi's comments were uncalled for.
Sachin Pilot, Parliamentarian from Dausa, Rajasthan and a prominent member of the Congress' young brigade, draws inspiration from his father, late Rajesh Pilot, as well as party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul."Of course, the star campaigners in the coming Lok Sabha elections would be Sonia Gandhi, Rahulji and our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who has been making rapid progress after his heart surgery. Rahulji is one of the most acceptable politicians around,"he said
The ministry of civil aviation has initiated a probe into the incident. It would look into the records of conversations between the ATC and the pilots.
Addressing over 10,000 block level and district level presidents Congress president Sonia Gandhi blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party for the" grave damage done to our secular polity, our society aand our economy by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government."
The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani has asked the second rung leaders in the party to contest elections. Advani had wanted some of them like Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and Sushma Swaraj to take charge of the election campaign at national level.
Arun Jaitley, general secretary of Bhartiya Janata party and noted Supreme court advocate, said that the arguments given by union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj and several other constitutional experts were wrong in their assumption that since the government was the appointing authority, hence they too have the right to decide about the removal of a constitutional authority.
Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy has convened an all-party-meeting at 1000 hrs on Tuesday, to take note of the views of the political parties so that the commission can make a decision on the dates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Rajan Bhagat told rediff.com, "A team of Delhi Police worked through the night to complete the job and produced Jitendra Kumar before the court as it was his rowdy activity that caused a flutter." Two other passengers -- Samir Uppal and Harpreet -- were released by the police on Monday after questioning.