Rasheed Kidwai, associate editor of The Telegraph newspaper who is the author of Sonia: A biography and 24 Akbar Road, made an exclusive appearance on Rediff Chat on Monday where he fielded wide-ranging questions about the Presidential poll. Here is the transcript from the chat..
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over eight hours by the Enforcement Directorate for the second consecutive day in the National Herald money-laundering probe and was again summoned on Wednesday, even as the opposition party continued its protests and sparred with the BJP, accusing it of conspiring to defame the Gandhi family through the ''false'' case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has asked former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik to answer certain queries in connection with an alleged insurance scam in the Union Territory, officials said on Friday.
Sources said the issue was discussed at the core committee meeting held last week where it was decided that Rahul would hoist the flag if he is back in New Delhi before the August 15. Sonia is expected to return after another 2 weeks at a conservative estimate.
Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday said it was not the party but the "mela" at its headquarters that he had described as a "circus" and hoped that it has not lost its capacity to laugh at itself.
The Congress is quietly dropping an All India Congress Committee session planned in New Delhi on December 28, to kick off the year-long celebrations of the party completing 125 years.
A senior Congress politician and a minister close to the Prime Minister's Office told the media, "Yes, we do feel we have been saved (bachgaye)," and added, "Now we have time. We read these elections differently. The people of this country believe that India should have a united response against terrorism. We can't do anything without the opposition's support."
An exclusive extract from 24, Akbar Road, a new book to be released by Hachette Books India in August, reveals how Rahul Gandhi has introduced a dynamic brand of leadership in the Congress party.
Interestingly, this is not being done surreptitiously or secretly but is a decision taken by senior AICC general secretaries who feel there is nothing wrong with the practice. This though is a first of its kind move by the AICC leaders.
'The consecration of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya has demoralised them.' 'And, now it is reflecting in their individual reactions as they are losing hope to take on the BJP in 2024.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent one of his officials to the 20, Akbar Road residence of the Speaker on Friday morning to convey his birthday wishes to Chatterjee. The official presented a bouquet to him on behalf of Dr Singh.
It was a perfect setting for a birthday -- a cake, balloons, flowers and crackers but the birthday boy was missing.
'If you compare the record of the BJP and NDA government they have a pathetic record of tackling terrorism, still they kept on talking about the recent incidents. They had no other issue to talk about because their performance in the Karnataka government was pathetic so they kept talking about national issues in the assembly elections.'
It was Rahul Gandhi's day out in Mumbai as he hopped out on to a local train and mingled with the people of Mumbai. Rahul's little detour send turned out to be a nightmare for Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who set alarm bells ringing all the way to Delhi and forced Sonia Gandhi out of the Congress Working Committee meeting, being held at 24 Akbar Road.
The new allegations take the total number of his accusers to 12.
The Congress cannot do without the Gandhi-Nehru family, and they ensure the unity of the party. The Congress experimented with a Narasimha Rao and went back to the family. Sonia Gandhi neither faces a threat to her leadership nor a prospect of a split, which her mother-in-law had to contend with. But she will have to show a resoluteness she displayed in early 2004 if the party is to revitalise
'It must be rendering Modi, Amit Shah and Adityanath speechless that the Indian diplomat who lifted the Azhar trophy at the UN in New York is also a Muslim. 'Yes, this is the wonder that was India,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy "three-days mission" to Delhi from Sunday is a politically sensitive one. His stay in Delhi for three days inidcates that he has serious business with the All India Congress Committee.
The meeting of the Congress' top decision-making body has been convened after demands from some quarters within the party to discuss important issues, including some defections in the recent past.
Gandhi said Modi had "claimed that he wants to be a 'chowkidar' (watchman of the country) but he actually proved to be a 'chowkidar' of Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi and has been working for them since last four years."
The minister was admitted in the new private ward under the supervision of Dr Rajesh Malhotra who heads the orthopaedic department there, said a senior doctor at AIIMS.
Vajpayee's last rites will be performed at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in New Delhi at 4 pm on Friday.
Sahdev Singh, a head constable, sustained a bullet wound on his right shoulder when he turned the gun on himself at the Lok Sabha MP's 7, Akbar Road residence.
'It is possible that in his perambulations from the company of Baba Ramdev to that of Anna Hazare and finally to the BJP, he hasn't had time to refurbish his memory of what he may have read earlier,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The road to AICC headquarters in New Delhi was blocked on Wednesday with the Congress alleging the party was "under siege" while the police said barricades have been erected and its personnel deputed to avoid any untoward situation.
There's a quiet before the storm within the ruling party. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.
A signboard outside his house reads: 'I am not taking any new court matters but welcome for anything else.' Jethmalani is probably planning his retirement from active legal practice.
Of some 70 villages in the coastal area of Gujarat's Kutch district, people of Salaya are the last to shift to safe shelters in the face of the approaching cyclone Biparjoy.
A court in Goa capital Panaji on Wednesday issued a warrant to search Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's official residence in Delhi to trace former Goa minister Francisco 'Miccky' Pacheco who is reported to be absconding for a fortnight since his conviction in a 2006 assault case.
'Strange when people who don't have the capacity to fight a ward poll, were "chaprasis" of Congress leaders give "gyaan" about the party it's laughable'
The scenes at the party headquarters were indicative of the growing tumult in the Congress with the party deeply divided on the leadership issue.
Some analysts also pointed out that "outsourcing" political management to regional satraps such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana may have proven counterproductive and micromanagement by the Gandhi family was needed.
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
Congress sitting MLA Saleh Mohammad, is hoping to buck the trend of anti-incumbency in the seat, and believes people will vote for his development work and not along religious lines.
Thousands throng the narrow mohallas around the Mohideen Aandavar mosque in Rameswaram for A P J Abdul Kalam's Alvida Namaaz. Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com reports from Rameswaram.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday demanded that all roads and monuments named after Mughal emperors be re-christened, claiming that the country should not drag on with "signs of slavery".
Patel, who died on Wednesday at a Gurugram hospital where he was admitted with COVID-19, could have been the tell-all leader offering insights and information with his inside view of the workings of the Congress and the political world. But he would have none of it.
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