Union Minister Anurag Thakur hit out at Gandhi over his claims of being under surveillance by intelligence agencies and accused him of maligning India on foreign soil.
As reports of political parties swiftly switching loyalties -- to quench their thirst for power -- swirl over Maharashtra, Rediff.com speaks to different players involved in the game of thrones.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents an inseiders view of the Congress plenary held at Burari.
Haasan, addressing office bearers in Chennai, said he has been invited by Rahul Gandhi to participate in the Yatra.
This is a challenge India's political establishment will have to face unitedly, without looking for electoral benefit, warns Vir Sanghvi.
Among those killed were eight from TMC, and one worker each of the BJP, the CPI-M, the Congress and the ISF.
In his hunger for power, the prime minister has forgotten raj dharma, the Congress alleged.
Referring to his grandmother and the former PM, he said she took '32 bullets for the country' but her name was not even mentioned at a government event in New Delhi on the anniversary of the victory over Pakistan.
Earlier, when reporters asked Nath about his party's strategy for the elections in the central Indian state, he had said the party had not started talks of alliance with anyone.
He has also convened the first meeting of the extended CWC on July 22 to chalk out the party's future strategy.
A video showing the incident involving school teacher, Tripta Tyagi, and the Class 2 boy in Muzaffarnagar has gone viral on social media eliciting strong words from several political parties.
Yuri Alemao, Altone D'costa and advocate Carlos Alvares Ferreira, the three Congress MLAs who didn't join the eight of their former party men in jumping ship speak up about their decisions and their motivations to stay with the 137-year-old Congress.
The Supreme Court adjourned to Tuesday the hearing on a plea of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking extension of six months to complete a probe into allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group. The hearing on the market regulator's plea and PILs could not take place on Monday due to paucity of time and on account of scheduled hearing of certain matters before a special bench at 3 pm. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala on May 12 had said it would consider granting three more months to Sebi for concluding its probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation and lapses in regulatory disclosure.
The productivity of the Budget session was abysmal. The Lok Sabha functioned for 33% of its scheduled time (46 hours); the Rajya Sabha 24% (32 hours).
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also decided to convene a 'Chintan Shivir', a brainstorming session from May 13-15 in Udaipur.
'Some in the Congress believe the party should, somewhat brazenly, claim the cause of fighting corruption as its own. But the Congress's idea of fighting corruption is nothing but tinkering with laws, it lacks the stomach to take on the corrupt,' feels T V R Shenoy.
According to Raj Bhavan, Governor Uikey expressed during the meeting that she had already made to all the sections of the society to solve the problem through peaceful dialogue amicably.
The Congress vice president said the Indian Army works for the country and there was no need for any political leader to make comments against the army chief.
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday approved a bill to raise the foreign investment limit in the insurance sector to 74 per cent, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying while control will go to foreign companies, the majority of directors and key management persons will be resident Indians who will be covered by law of the land.
The order says that Wankhede belongs to Mahar caste, which is a Scheduled Caste (SC).
Congress Member of Parliament Mohammad Azharduddin on Friday courted arrest, along with his supporters in Moradabad, to protest against the ransacking of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's residence in Lucknow. Azharuddin, after offering Friday's namaz at the Jama Masjid in Moradabad today afternoon, took out a march along with his supporters from Jama Masjid despite prohibitory orders.
Adani group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group. The group has maintained it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirodi Lal Meena moved for leave to introduce the bill to provide for the constitution of the national inspection and investigation committee for preparation of a Uniform Civil Code and its implementation throughout India and for matters connected therewith during the private member's business.
'Modi should not feel shy of proclaiming as the meaning of secularism regard for all religions in proportion to their numbers in tune with the spirit of democracy and adopting it as State policy,' says B S Raghavan.
'These three wrestlers (Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik) are indirectly or directly part of the Congress.'
Congress MPs staged a protest in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament complex demanding an apology from the government for Irani's confrontation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.
Azharuddin, who had been banned from cricket in 2000 for his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal that had rocked the game internationally, had met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Moily and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Srinivas last month and expressed his desire to join the party
Guru Nair, the vice-chairman of the cultural cell of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, has written to both the President and Prime Minister, questioning the legality of the auction.
Such a course would require a Constitutional Amendment, requiring a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament. Even assuming that the INDIA combine comes to power at the Centre next year, a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha could way off the mark for them, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ahead of his September visit, as many as 83 United States lawmakers have signed a letter asking House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint session of the Congress.
Justice Pathak would weigh the evidence and Parliament would then debate it.
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
The nation on Saturday remembered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 31st death anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and other leaders paying tributes at her memorial in New Delhi.
'I have issued an order for the formation of an inquiry committee to probe into the land allotted to the National Herald in Press Complex Bhopal, where commercial buildings have come up by violating the rules,' Madhya Pradesh Urban Administration Minister Bhupendra Singh tweeted on Friday.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday landed in a fresh controversy for reportedly dubbing travel by economy class as "cattle class", a remark which has been strongly disapproved by the Congress.
A key United States Congressional committee has called for a public hearing on the rights and freedoms of religious minorities in India to be held early next month.
After publication and broadcast of the news, the district administration constituted a committee of revenue and health officials for an inquiry into the news report, the FIR said.
Photographs of Bihar Education and IT Minister Ashok Kumar Choudhary is arguing that the pictures that are circulating online are old and that he is against superstition.
'It is violation of the Model Code of Conduct.' 'It is a penal offence under the IPC to exert undue influence on voters.' 'Under the election law, it is a corrupt practice.'
The meeting of the Congress Parliamentary strategy group was held at the residence of party President Sonia Gandhi.
