There are about 50 Indians, including embassy staff, in Iraq, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said.
He said Pakistan to take cue from the approach that India and China have adopted to resolve their differences.
We have sent a clear message that Pakistan cannot capture Jammu and Kashmir by cross-border terrorism, the external affairs minister said.
Vajpayee had travelled to Lahore in a bus from India in 1999 and started a peace initiative with Pakistan in 2004.
The former finance minister also objected to the filing of a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against The Wire, which carried a story on Jay Shah's business.
The external affairs minister said cross-border terrorism had to end to make the dialogue process meaningful.
According to Yashwant Sinha, a national-level pre-poll alliance of all opposition parties should be formed or a nationwide pre-poll alliance of regional parties should be made to defeat the BJP in the general elections.
The external affairs minister, however, rejected the possibility of summit level talks soon.
The fiscal deficit totalled Rs 83,394 crore (Rs 833.94 billion) at the end of November, representing 61.5 per cent of the Budget estimate of Rs 1,35,524 crore (Rs 1.355.24 billion), according to data released on Tuesday.
'Challenges will come but we will stay the course. No big step can be taken if one is afraid of criticism. We will not flinch from criticism,' says Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.
Yashwant Sinha explains where the Modi government has gone wrong in its handling of the economy.
A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph said that it was not their job to go into the issue of pricing of the fighter planes.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
A fresh political war of words erupted on Tuesday over the Rafale issue as the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Congress leadership of corruption citing claims of a French media report on 'commissions' being paid during the United Progressive Alliance rule and said the Indian National Congress should be renamed 'I Need Commission' party.
While a DFI will help banks derisk their loan portfolios, creation of a bad bank will clean up their balance sheets.
Expressing concern over the situation in Afghanistan, a group of eminent persons, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday urged the government to continue engaging with the Taliban and not allow any political party to use the developments in that country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
'The first clear cut call for 'engagement with all stake holders including separatists' came, not from the political class but the men in uniform,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished observer on Kashmir.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sihna on Wednesday moved a breach of privilege notice against Defence Minister A K Antony, accusing him of misleading Parliament on the killing of five Indian jawans along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
A meeting of opposition leaders from many anti-Bharatiya Janata Party parties, most of them regional forces, hosted by the veteran leader and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday is being seen by political pundits as a beginning of an exercise by them to join forces to put up a more cohesive challenge to the saffron party.
This will be the first time since the presentation of independent India's first budget on November 26, 1947, that the documents containing income and expenditure statement of the Union government along with finance bill, detailing new tax and other measures for the new financial year, will not be physically printed.
'We are seeing an era where only what Modi wishes is going to happen.' 'A clear message has now been sent to others that if this fate could befall on Nitin Gadkari, then just think what could happen to lesser mortals.'
With the role of the venerable elder thrust on him in UP, Mr Singh has had to attune himself to the politics at the Centre, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Taking a jibe at Yashwant Sinha, the finance minister said that he doesn't have luxury of being former finance minister.
Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.
The Opposition unity to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have run into rough weather as the Trinamool Congress and the Congress are at daggers drawn over the recent instances of 'poaching' by the Mamata Banerjee-led camp, with the grand old party finding itself in a tight spot.
The Opposition on Monday demanded immediate release of all political detainees in Jammu and Kashmir, especially three former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday welcomed the appointment of noted economist Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor but advised him not to compromise on the autonomy of the institution or get cowed down by the government.
"We are little perplexed that the two cases are listed on two different dates when the order was that these matters will be heard together," the bench said.
Against the backdrop of unhappiness among some senior leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party in the wake of controversy over denial of ticket to Jaswant Singh, party leader Yashwant Sinha on Friday said things could have been done more "gracefully" and "smoothly" to look "more natural".
'They should have offered a ticket for his constituency to Advaniji's daughter Pratibha or son Jayant. But, of course, that is too much to expect.'
Amid rumblings in the Bharatiya Janata Party over Bihar poll rout and attack on its leadership by party veterans, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday strongly defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah, saying they cannot be held responsible for the defeat.
The finance minister could well be on her way to setting a record of achieving the biggest single-year reduction in the government's fiscal deficit, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Amid tight security, 62.60 per cent of 56,18,267 voters exercised their franchise in 17 to decide the fate of 309 candidates.
