In what is being seen as a strong put down which could undermine the authority of the country's Union home minister, the Congress has put P Chidambaram on the mat for the use of the words 'saffron terrorism.'
In the last Cabinet meeting held a few days ago, there was a virtual face off between Union Human Research and Development Minister Kapil Sibal and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister C P Joshi, with Joshi objecting to the setting up of an education tribunal being installed by Sibal.
The United Progressive Alliance government says it will table the civil nuclear liability bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, but before that it hopes to resolve the continuing differences with the opposition parties over the wordings of some key aspects of the bill.
Late on Friday evening, union ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde and Jairam Ramesh met in the office of the former and cancelled the Rs 3000 crore Loharibag Pala Hydroelectric power project which had been cleared by the group of Ministers headed by Pranab Mukherjee. 600 crore had already been spent on the project.
Particularly in the wake of allegations levelled in Parliament against the Congress and the government by its one-time friends and allies, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, that the CBI has agreed to give a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in return for the BJP support.
The government is going all out to get the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill passed in Parliament, even if it means making changes to the
With the Congress party endorsing his line of action and Chidambaram stating that the Ministry of External Affairs had already begun preparing the required papers for this, it again looks as though Arjun Singh is once again setting the agenda.
Even as Suresh Kalmadi continues to be in the eye of a storm and battles charges of corruption, sources say the government and his party are looking at two options in a bid to save the Commonwealth Games and protect the government from further bad publicity on issues of corruption.
The Centre may be searching for a solution to the rising violence in Jammu and Kashmir, but on Thursday the young politicians of the country came up with an emotional response to the crisis by appealing to the angry youth of the Valley for restraint.
In spite of the recent spate of exposes in the media detailing alleged corruption and scams in the preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the Centre has decided to release additional funds for the Games.The Opposition will get yet another chance to attack the government and the Suresh Kalmadi led Commonwealth Games Organising Committee when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presents the supplementary demand for grants in Lok Sabha.
Instead, the AICC made it clear that it was neither their brief nor their intention to defend Suresh Kalmadi since he is the chairman of the organising committee by virtue of heading the Indian Olympic Association and not because he is a Congress MP. The AICC spokesman agreed that the expenditure being incurred on the games was excessive and said it is for Kalmadi to do the explanation.
Government sources say that Obama is likely to address the joint session on November 9 and the government may advance the winter session by a week or so, to ensure full attendance since the winter session is only convened after mid-November.
Congress sources have disclosed that Sonia is probably away from the country, visiting her ailing mother, Paola Maino.
There are strong indications that the United Progressive Alliance government's policy of divide and rule may be working with the Rajya Sabha likely to witness a debate on price rise without the voting component while the Lok Sabha may also begin functioning in the next day or so, by taking up some other issue for discussion, and leaving out the price rise issue to be resolved later.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided not to press the Amit Shah and Gujarat issue in Parliament but instead focus on moving an adjournment motion on price rise to put the government in a spot. The move on price rise would have the support of the Left parties as well as a number of other parties, who would not be inclined to support the BJP on the issue of Amit Shah.
The National Advisory Council, headed by United Progressive Alliance Chairman Sonia Gandhi, will also meet on Thursday to look at the Food Security Bill, a crucial component of the second UPA government's promise to provide cheap and plentiful food to the poor.
In a move meant to score political points and to garner some of the credit for resolving the Bhopal issue, the Congress leadership is learnt to have asked the prime minister to ensure that the compensation given to the victims of the Bhopal Gas tragedy is "adequate".
The Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, after three-day long deliberations, submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. The GoM was constituted by Dr Singh to make recommendations on relief, rehabilitation and remediation issues and legal options in the wake of the recent trial court judgment in the case.Sources in the Congress say that the GoM has given a clean chit to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Senior Congress leader and former sports minister Mani Shanker Aiyer has slammed the current United Progressive Alliance government under Dr Manmohan Singh for the huge amount of 'wasteful expenditure' being incurred on the Commonwealth games, saying that if a part of this money had been spent on the Bhopal Gas victims it would have brought the affected 'some relief'.
According to the sources in the government, in a major U-turn, the Union law ministry has submitted a note to the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram on the Bhopal gas tragedy, where it has, reportedly, recommended that the government of India should undertake the cleanup operation of the site of Union Carbide.
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