HRD Minister Javadekar responding to criticism of politicising the event said the UGC communication reflected "patriotism not politics", and it is not compulsory for the academic institutions to organise any such event.
A row erupted over the presence of Congress leader Kamal Nath at a Sikh religious event in Indore where kirtan singer Manpreet Singh Kanpuri apparently referred to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after Nath left the venue and slammed organisers.
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
If they will allow I will speak inside the parliament, the Wayanad MP said.
Launching a fresh attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Gujarat snooping row, Congress leader Manish Tewari on Monday asked why no private security officer was provided if the woman in question was being protected at her father's behest.
"Debate is just an excuse, the real target of the RSS-BJP is social justice," Priyanka Gandhi said.
The government said it is open to debating the JNU row in Parliament during the upcoming budget session starting February 23 with Modi saying that it will address the concerns raised by the opposition.
Tharoor put the blame for the logjam in Parliament on BJP and accused the saffron party of reducing the "temple of democracy to a rubber stamp for its agenda or worse, a notice board to announce its unilateral decisions".
A local leader of Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction confirmed they painted the buses.
Political analysts say the Congress's approach of taking the marginalised sections together has helped it in winning tribal-dominated seats, while the BJP will have to do a rethinking to win in Vyara, considering the social dynamics in this aAssembly segment.
Moitra was heard using an objectionable word to which the Chair objected and urged members to avoid cuss words.
The Congress accused the Centre of making a serious assault on the basic structure of the Constitution, saying the action subsumes the independence of the judiciary.
Tharoor said, "My own view on the Sengol controversy is that both sides have good arguments."
Though the run-up to the poll saw a high pitched campaign by the parties, the turnout of the voters on December 1 was an unimpressive 46.55 per cent (34.50 lakh) out of the total 74.67 lakh voters.
The Congress has distanced itself from Khurshid's remarks, saying it is his personal view.
Former Union minister C K Jaffer Shareif, in a letter to Mukherjee, expressed surprise over the move and said he like other secular people was 'stunned' to hear about his attending the RSS function.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has ruled Gujarat for 27 years, is trying to retain power in the state for the seventh term in a row.
As per reports, the new Social Science textbook for Class VIII in schools of Rajasthan has erased Nehru from the pages of history.
Mystery still surrounded the claim by Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani that Narendra Modi had sent two emissaries to him carrying a message with a Lok Janshakti Party leader whose named surfaced maintaining today he met him but not as an emissary.
Upping the ante in the escalating snooping row, the Congress on Wednesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party should change Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, as the saffron party rejected its demand for a probe into "illegal" police watch of a woman allegedly at the behest of his close aide Amit Shah.
The agenda for the meeting is 'Evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Communication (Department of Telecommunications) on the subject of 'Citizens' data security and privacy'.
Facebook -- which counts India among its largest markets with over 300 million users -- has been in the eye of a storm after a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report alleged that the social media platform's content policies favoured the ruling party in India. The report had accused Facebook of ignoring posts containing hate speech by BJP MLA Raja Singh. Since then, the ruling BJP and Congress have been trading barbs over the social media giant's alleged political bias.
Gandhi invoked Rule 357 which allows for "personal explanations" and also cited the example of Bharatiya Janata Party MP and then minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who invoked the Rule to give an explanation regarding comments made by Jyotiraditya Scindia in relation to him in Parliament
A new cabinet in the state will be in place in the next 48-72 hours.
Indications of a stormy start to the Budget session emerged at an all-party meeting with opposition accusing the government of "setting the agenda for disruption".
A major controversy erupted on Wednesday over MPs writing to US President Barack Obama seeking denial of visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with some MPs denying having signed it.
"It is shameful that Rahul Gandhi, instead of coming to Parliament and apologising for his undemocratic rant against India, today seeks to be absent from Parliament," she asserted.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Khera said he was not provided the reasons for his arrest or given a copy of the FIR in the matter.
Koshyari made the remarks after conferring D.Litt degrees on Gadkari, a senior BJP leader, and NCP president Sharad Pawar at an event held in Aurangabad.
Rahul Gandhi was defeated by BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019 elections.
The Congress chief also described Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 3-day trip to France as part of a 'huge cover-up' by the government.
Second-line AIADMK leaders and cadres alike say that by starting the talks first with the BJP and committing the party to an alliance without discussing seat-sharing, the leadership might have commenced the coalition discourse at the wrong end. According to them, even 20 seats for the BJP may be too many, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress alleged Chandra and the BJP were adopting 'delaying tactics'.
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.
BJP workers staged a protest in front of Nimta police station and burnt tyres on M B Road, even as the TMC claimed that its activists were not involved in any attack and she might have died due to age-related ailments.
Mayawati said the "chaiwala" prime minister has now turned "chowkidar" and this shows the "change" India witnessed under this government.
Opposition parties said it was a move to appease the party leader.
'Extinguishing the eternal flame at India Gate is nothing short of a crime'
