Former speaker of the Lok Sabha P A Sangma, who was the first one to announce his candidature for the President is watching the political developments very closely. According to sources, if he finds that former President A P J Abdul Kalam is backed by National Democratic Alliance, Sangma may prefer to join electoral fray as vice president.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said his party would support Vice President Hamid Ansari as the Presidential candidate.
A lowdown on what's happening in the Malayalam film industry.
President Arroyo with President Kalam in Manila.
The Home Ministry sat over Afzal Guru's mercy petition and did not send its recommendation to President A P J Abdul Kalam till his last day in office, it has been disclosed. Putting a lid on speculative reports that Kalam had deliberately kept the petition pending, P M Nair, who was Secretary to the President, said till July 25, 2007, Kalam's last day in office, no recommendation had come from the Home Ministry on the issue.
"This is not a new thing that Kalam saheb has said. He has said this before as well. Just because he has written this in his forthcoming book, Sonia Gandhi does not become an epitome of sacrifice. She is still the super-Prime Minister. She has a bigger secretariat (NAC) than the PM," BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told PTI.
Lauding A P J Abdul Kalam for withdrawing from the Presidential race, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday said it wanted the "conscience" of the other presidential hopeful, P A Sangma, to also awaken. "Kalam has pulled out after listening to his conscience. We thank his conscience for that. We hope that Purno Sangma's conscience too awakens. About those who are pretending to sleep, the less said the better," the editorial in party's mouthpiece Saamna said on Wednesday.
A remark made by a Samajwadi Party leader on the use of the Hindi word 'hamara' by Mamata Banerjee on Friday triggered speculation whether Mulayam Singh Yadav's party was still with Trinamool Congress in putting up A P J Abdul Kalam as a Presidential candidate.
'uslim elder leaders fought against the Britishers during the freedom struggle. After achieving independence, some of the Muslims left the country and settled in Pakistan. But, we wanted to continue in our country as Indians and we love our motherland'
A blast took place outside the Israeli Embassy in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi on Friday evening, a fire service official said.
Bharat Rashtra Samiti leader K Kavitha is expected to be produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court by the Enforcement Directorate in New Delhi on Saturday for obtaining her remand for custodial interrogation in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22, officials said.
With A P J Abdul Kalam deciding not to join the Presidential race, the Bharatiya Janata Party core group met in New Delhi on Monday night to discuss its strategy including support to P A Sangma and reluctance of allies like the Janata Dal-United to go for a contest against United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
With A P J Abdul Kalam deciding not to contest the Presidential poll, BJP appeared set to back P A Sangma's candidature and convince its dithering NDA allies like Janata Dal (United) and Shiv Sena to fall in line and give up plans of a consensus on Pranab Mukherjee.
The President said the focus must be on Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) and interlinking of rivers.
A minor IED blast took place near the Israeli embassy in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi on Friday evening.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday took her maiden sortie in a fighter aircraft at Tezpur air base in Assam.
India needs large number of talented youth with higher education for creating and imparting knowledge, former Indian president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam has said.
A brief class by his teacher on the Rameswaram seashore on how birds fly and the locomotive force behind their flight gave former President A P J Abdul Kalam his aim in life and helped him in understanding physics better.
President says he was overwhelmed by the number of wishes sent to him by rediff.com readers.
The CPI-M leader was fluent in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bangla, and also Malayalam. He was also well-versed in Hindu mythology, and often used those references in his speeches especially to attack the BJP.
"Whatever treaty or agreement we do, if it helps... well and good, but the thrust should be to be self-reliance in thorium fuel-based reactors," Kalam told PTI in an interview in London.
The President says he is overwhelmed by the affection rediff.com readers have showered on him.
In 2005, when Rediff.com met Arvind Thiagarajan, he was 25-year-old young inventor with a couple of patents to his credit. Today, he has more than 40 patents to his credit.
The NDA contended that Chawla's continuation as the election commissioner would put a question mark on the credibility of the Election Commission in the upcoming elections to five state assemblies.
Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Saturday decided to resign in the wake of his defeat in the presidential poll.
Experts speculated that they could be either meteorites entering the Earth's atmosphere or the pieces of rocket boosters which fall off after a satellite launch.
President A P J Abdul Kalam will deliver the first Dhirubhai Ambani Memorial Lecture, instituted in the memory of the late chairman of Reliance Group of Industries, in Mumbai on July 6.
The filmmaker will be honoured on February 2.
Many have faith in Lord Padmanabha, many have adored Sree Chithira Tirunal, but no one else has felt the divine presence more intensely, no one else has known Sree Chthira Tirunal more closely. The book, therefore, presents the most intimate portrait of Sree Chithira Tirunal and the divine hand that guided him
'In today's launch, the 'Pralay' missile was tested for heavier payload and different range to prove the precision and lethality of the weapon'
Shambhavi, who was invited by President A P J Abdul Kalam to Rashtrapati Bhavan as a 13 year old, remembers the meeting with awe and pays tribute to the man who inspired her.
'He was one of us. He was a perfect Indian. He breathed India, he wore India's core values. His faith was India. We will miss you sir.'
'Our education system keeps churning out graduates who remain unemployed whereas we have an unprecedented and robust job market which is crying out for skills. I think this is the fundamental problem. In my view, the remedy is to redesign education and its delivery to overcome skills shortages. We need to prepare our education system for the 21st century.'
Former president A P J Abdul Kalam has launched a fortnightly e-paper Billion Beats to 'highlight the stories of India's islands of success and to establish knowledge connectivity'.
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