Sonia wanted to know what happened to the institution of Lok Pal, the anti-graft watchdog that was proposed to be set up.
Even as Narendra Modi began his hectic day of campaigning in poll-bound Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was the first to fire a salvo on Thursday when he dared the prime minister to break his silence on reservation for Dalits and Other Backward Classes.
Opposition leaders asked all secular forces to field a joint candidate for presidential elections and have common minimum programme to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party, reports Archis Mohan.
'Modi's popularity is a myth.' 'The Modi government has fulfilled zero promises.' 'They have not done anything.'
She could not believe how much India had changed since the last time she experienced it first hand.
'The BJP is no longer the BJP. It has become the Bharatiya Janata Poaching Party.' 'They talk of black money and here they are ready to pay Rs 100 crore to MLAs.'
There are several books that Aakar Patel wishes were being written but aren't. Fortunately, there's plenty coming up this year that he's eagerly awaiting.
Addressing a joint rally in Kanpur with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh, Rahul urged voters to ensure that the outcome of Bihar election is repeated, where the Bharatiya Janata Party was trounced by a coalition led by Nitish Kumar.
The generational shift in the Bharatiya Janata Party was complete on Tuesday with its founders Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi being dropped from the Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body, which has the stamp of Prime Minister Narendra Modi all over now.
For 70 years the country has been looted, give me 70 months I will clean it up, he said.
In a politically-significant move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reconstituted a government committee on commemoration of the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru which will be headed by him, replacing his predecessor Manmohan Singh.
The war of words between Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Arun Jaitley, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, refuses to die.
'After his road shows, the people of Varanasi are debating what forced the prime minister to move around in the narrow lanes of Varanasi.' 'If he had taken out one road show, no one would have objected.' 'But what was the need to do it thrice?'
Author and senior journalist M J Akbar joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of party president Rajnath Singh.
The Modi mask is one item in the publicity materials market that is selling briskly this year. The mask has Modi smiling enigmatically, his close-cropped grey beard and trademark spectacles in place.
The Reserve Bank of India has diluted norms for outsourcing firms in India to draw foreign exchange for buying equipments for new overseas call centres, enabling them to start their foreign journey on a sound note.
'There is no food to eat and water to drink and people are migrating in hordes.' 'Chief Minister Fadnavis must shift his base to Marathwada in such times.' 'If you do not help during a drought, then when will you help?'
In an interview, Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister, speaks of the formation of a new Congress under the tutelage of Rahul Gandhi in which older leaders would play an advisory role.
Replying to a debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address which was adopted by the House later amid walkout by Congress, he replied point-by-point to the issues raised by the Opposition, including surgical strikes and allocations for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, agriculture sector and for Scheduled Castes. Opposition had moved 190 amendments to the Motion which were negated.
Her book is less of a Hindutva-loving diatribe against the Dynasty than its detractors suggest, but it is still hard to agree with much of what she writes, says Vir Sanghvi on Tavleen Singh's latest book.
The Congress has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of former IPL chairman Lalit Modi's deportation during his ongoing visit to UK and to ensure that the "fugitive" and "black money exporter" is brought back.
Kishen Reddy, chief of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP says that there is a lot that the party will gain from Modi's visit. In this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Reddy says that the people do not look at Modi as a BJP leader, but as the next prime minister.
Successor Anandiben Patel isn't having an easy time, with a protest movement by her own community and new challenges in keeping the mandate
'We are passing through a very historical moment. The UP election next year and the Lok Sabha election of 2019 will decide the course of India.' 'Maybe the unlettered will save India again because they have inherited a different India and a different idea of India,' says eminent social scientist Achyut Yagnik.
It is some consolation that the BJP top brass which had kept the Sena on the ice has now said that it would be happy to have the former partner in the government. What it did not say openly is that it would be on the BJP's terms, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
At least a dozen officers from Gujarat are handling key assignments in various important central positions
Have Amethi and Rae Bareli got rough treatment in the last one year? Has Varanasi become cleaner? Business Standard's Manavi Kapur finds out
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's spin doctors are on an overdrive these days to project him as a "tough talking" leader following a spate of critical media reports about his sudden silence on key issues, says rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
'His politics is pure power politics. It's defined by the struggle that he has gone through.' 'Like Indira Gandhi, he is always suspicious about the people who surround him, he is lonely as he does not trust anyone. And he will not allow anyone to challenge his superiority, be it individual or institutions,' says Ashutosh.
'We are a national party that wants to remind people about Bharatiya sanskruti, which, at the moment, is being remote-controlled by an Italian lady and her agents,' says former Union minister O Rajagopal, the BJP candidate from Thiruvananthapuram who will challenge Shashi Tharoor.
'Chetan Bhagat is not great literature. Is that like you write third rate books and people can't do much better than to read those third rate books. Is it really an achievement?'
'Nitish Kumar's government will be at stake. The JD-U is working with a very thin majority, which is a borrowed majority. With just two seats Nitish Kumar has no moral right to stay on,' says Professor Prabhat Ghosh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's forward march has slowed down. Can Arvind Kejriwal eclipse Narendra Modi in the upcoming general election? Modi, feels Praful Bidwai, may have peaked too soon and Arvind Kajriwal's politics may find new takers.
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