A third batch of 67 Indians arrived in Mumbai from Libya early on Monday morning. So far, over 550 Indians have returned from strife-torn Libya on special Air India flights, but thousands continue to remain stranded.
India lost a total of 17 citizens engaged in projects in Afghanistan, but it would not scale down its activities there, the government told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
With the Kerala Youth Congress elections round the corner, the bitter rivalry between state party president Ramesh Chennithala and leader of Opposition and former chief minister Oomen Chandy has come to the fore. According to sources, Thiruvananthapuram's beleaguered Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor has extended his support to Chandy, who has stood by the former minister of state for external affairs though the present IPL crisis.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned home on Saturday after a week-long trip to the United States and Brazil. Asked on the controversy regarding Shashi Tharoor, the PM said, "In politics, ups and downs keep happening."
Trouble for beleaguered minister of state for external affairs, Shashi Tharoor grew on Friday with opposition paralysing Parliament demanding his removal and his own ministerial colleague Farooq Abdullah favouring his stepping down to protect the "honour" of the government.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor's security has been tightened following an SMS death threat received by him from Mumbai.The SMS was reportedly sent by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's associate Chhota Shakeel.In the SMS, Tharoor was asked to apologise to Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi over the Kochi IPL team standoff.Tharoor has reportedly written to the home ministry about the death threat, following which his security has been tightened.
Kerala Cricket Association secretary T C Mathew says the public spat between the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and Minister of State for External Affairs Sashi Tharoor is the result of forces trying to sabotage the Kochi IPL team.
Akbar's lawyer said that he had resigned from the post of minister of state for external affairs due to these allegations and this showed the extent of damage caused to his reputation.
"Our foreign policy debates in Parliament and the media seem obsessed with Pakistan or with ephemera, or worse ephemera about Pakistan," he said, during the annual convocation of Mangalore University while underlining the need for improving study of international affairs.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Monday expressed appreciation over Indian Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar informing the Indian government about reports of corruption. However, he remained mum over the Centre's delay in taking action against officials who had allegedly accepted bribes from US companies. The government would initiate action against corrupt officials at the earliest, he added.
Supporters of the proposal voiced their grievances at the gathering on how their properties were allegedly taken over by government, mafia and illegal occupants.
In an hour-long meeting held on Tuesday evening, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardan Dwivedi reportedly warned Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor that his various controversial statements were proving to be an embarrassment for both the party and the government. Sources in the party say that Tharoor defended himself on the use of the word 'interlocutor' in the context of India seeking Saudi Arabia's help.
The Bhartiya Janata Party on Tuesday stoutly protested at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging Saudi Arabia to persuade Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, dubbing it as a major departure in foreign policy tenet of never involving third parties in the bilateral issues.
The details provided by Singh did not include expenditure on hotline facilities during his foreign visits in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Welcoming the ban on terrorist organisations in Pakistan, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said India expects Islamabad to fulfill its commitment to take action against perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including Hafeez Saeed.
"Government is aware that China is developing infrastructure in border regions opposite India in the Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions," Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told Rajya Sabha.
Member of parliament from Thiruvananthapuram and former Union Minister of state for external affairs Dr Shashi Tharoor has said that getting an entry into the UN Security Council is a significant achievement for India.
The government on Thursday said documents related to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley's visa were yet to be traced while those of his associate Tahawwur Rana had been found, contradicting claims by Indian Consulate in Chicago that no papers had gone missing.
Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh on Tuesday said his 'disgust' and 'duty' tweets have been 'misinterpreted' and attending the Pakistan Day celebrations on Monday night was a 'protocol'.
The Centre on Thursday said that the Indian woman diplomat arrested on charge of spying for Pakistan did not have access to highly classified material and investigations in the matter are continuing.
Former Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor arrived in Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the first time after his resignation from the post.
Shashi Tharoor on Saturday said he was looking forward to a 'thorough inquiry' into the Indian Premier League imbroglio, which cost him his position as Minister of State for External Affairs.
Rediff.com takes a look at some recent high-profile resignations by politicians who went blue in the face proclaiming their innocence.
It is final. Shashi Tharoor is quitting the government. At last, the minister of state for external affairs is bowing out under the pressure from the Congress party.
Under severe push from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee combine, the Congress core committee decided to show Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor the door on Sunday evening.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, who is embroiled in a row over the ownership of Indian Premier League's Kochi franchise, on Sunday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apparently to explain his position on the issue.
Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentary party chief L K Advani on Saturday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Shashi Tharoor in the wake of the minister of state for external affairs getting embroiled in the Kochi IPL team ownership controversy. "The prime minister must drop Shashi Tharoor from the council of ministers because of gross impropriety unbecoming of the office he is occupying," Advani said.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi's powers are set to be curtailed considerably as the move to clip his wings gained momentum at an informal BCCI meeting in Dharamshala where the Board's top brass discussed the Kochi franchise ownership row.
Making it amply clear that IPL chairman Lalit Modi will have to face some tough questions at the upcoming BCCI Working Committee meeting, JKCA president Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said there are some "issues" that need to be sorted out.
A top six-page secret Intelligence Bureau report on the Shashi Tharoor controversy has advised the Centre to arrive at a political decision, pressing the Minister of State for External Affairs to resign, sources have said.
K Karunakaran, the former chief minister of Kerala, who was hospitalised in a critical condition has now started meeting and talking to people, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor who met the veteran leader told media persons on Saturday.
Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, in a statement in the Parliament on Friday, rejected the Opposition's demands for his resignation by asserting that the allegations against him on the Indian Premier League issue were 'baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated'.
Both Houses of Parliament had to be adjourned on Friday during Question Hour after Opposition parties created an uproar demanding that Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor submit his resignation over the Kochi IPL ownership controversy.
Shashi Tharoor on Friday rejected the Opposition's demands for his resignation as minister of state for external affairs by asserting that the allegations against him on the IPL issue were 'baseless, ill-founded and ill-motivated'. "The real motive behind the public controversy that has been created around me is to make the Kochi team unviable and to assign this IPL franchise to elsewhere than Kerala," he said in a statement tabled in the Lok Sabha.
Sources say that there are serious reservations over the style of functioning of Lalit Modi who appears to have become "more and more high handed and autocratic" with each passing day and one option being considered is to appoint a full time paid professional IPL commissioner to run the league with Modi being made the chairman with much less powers.
The second phase of the Budget session of Parliament commenced on Thursday with all the attention turning on Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
Rejecting speculation that Shashi Tharoor was asked to step down during his meeting with senior Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, sources close to the Minister of State for External Affairs said on Wednesday night that things were "okay" on the issue.
The Shashi Tharoor-Lalit Modi stand-off over the Kochi IPL team reached the Supreme Court on Tuesday with a petition seeking a CBI probe into the Union Minister's alleged proxy stakes in the Rs 1533-crore franchise, won by a consortium, Rendezvous Sports World. Alternatively, the petition urged the apex court to constitute a special investigation team to probe the allegations.
The Congress rejected as absurd the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand that Union Minister Shashi Tharoor be sacked over the IPL controversy and said it was up to the cricket board to decide on allegations of impropriety over his role in the Kochi IPL team.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded the sacking of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor in the wake of controversy over Indian Premeir League's Kochi team ownership.
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