Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said there should be no controversy over the issue of the party's prime ministerial candidate as that would be akin to committing a "hit-wicket" and turn out to be the only possible reason for the main opposition losing the upcoming general elections.
Rahul Gandhi's blunt denouncement of the ordinance on lawmakers was rubbished by the opposition with the Bharatiya Janata Party calling it a "desperate and belated" damage control exercise and saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit if he had any self-respect.
'When I read page number 50 of Transcendence, second paragraph, there he writes, "No more manoeuvres are required any more, as I am placed in my final position in eternity".' 'And within a month of that. he was no more.'
The court also asked Kejriwal and other leaders of his party to file original documents related to the allegations levelled in the suit against them in one week.
How seriously should we take Natwar Singh's book? Indeed how seriously should all such memoirs and autobiographies be taken? The answer, I imagine, depends on the intent. If the authors are merely settling scores, as many think Natwar Singh is, future historians would be entitled to ignore such autobiographies. But if there is no mens rea (guilty mind), so to speak, these books must be taken seriously, says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Some of the letters exchanged between the arrested activists spoke of planning 'some big action' which would attract attention, Singh said.
'The simple truth is this: That we had come to assume that a second term was Modi's for the asking. But the fact is that Modi will have to win one, just like everybody else.' 'And so much has he invested in his strongman persona that even a loss of just 50 seats from his extraordinary 282 in 2014 will look to his potential allies and to his party like a defeat,' says Mihir S Sharma.
Pro-growth economist Arvind Panagariya has been appointed as first vice-chairman of the newly announced NITI Aayog, which has replaced the Planning Commission.
The National Democratic Alliance won 64 seats.
'Those who are upset by the current government's hard position against agitating Kashmiris should know it is exactly as hard as the position of previous governments.' 'Congress also killed as many, and actually more, but it spoke softly.' 'The BJP uses harsher words, but that is the only real difference,' says Aakar Patel.
Former prime minister and BJP veteran leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malaviya will be conferred with the country's highest civilian award the "Bharat Ratna" after President Pranab Mukherjee gave his consent in his regard on Wednesday.
The new body may be headed by the Prime Minister as the chairman position would be ex-officio.
The Delhi and District Cricket Association again strongly refuted the AAP's allegations of financial bungling by its former chief, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying the charges are completely baseless and without substance.
From Swachh Bharat to spearheading the Make in India campaign, the PMO seems to be at the centre of all policies, writes Nivedita Mookerji.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Saturday hit back at Rahul Gandhi for his remarks that Mahatma Gandhi was killed because of its ideology, saying Congress should not give sermons to others as it itself is pursuing a thinking that is opposite to that of the Father of the Nation and Sardar Patel.
The BJP chief also said there is no need to say 'Bharat Maata Ki Jai' under pressure from the RSS or the BJP.
"The prime minister's post is very dignified and he should not have made personal attacks, but I did not mind. He does not give answers, but only makes promises which are hollow," Rahul said, addressing an election rally.
Playwright and novelist Cyrus Mistry's English novel Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer and K R Meera's Aarachar in Malayalam are among the works that have won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award for this year.
'You can accuse him of many things but one thing you cannot accuse him of is being bad at politics,' says Aakar Patel.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley leaves for Tokyo on Sunday evening for a security dialogue with Japan, a visit that acquires huge significance after North Korea's hydrogen bomb test on Sunday morning.
National Anti-Doping Agency chief Navin Agarwal confirmed the former India captain was tested by NADA officials in March but declined to elaborate further.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dedicated birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as National Unity Day, saying a nation that disregards its history cannot create one and made a veiled reference to anti-Sikh riots that followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination this day 30 years ago.
'The border standoff, if not properly addressed by both sides, could escalate to a conventional or sub-conventional conflict between India and China,' predicts Srikanth Kondapalli, one of India's leading China experts.
'A dangerous and false binary is now surfacing in Indian political discourse, which must be firmly rejected.' 'It is that we have to choose between freedom and development.' 'For us freedom is neither merely an instrument for development nor to be subordinated to development.' 'It is, as our founding fathers proclaimed early in our freedom struggle, 'our birthright' on which we shall never compromise.' 'Growth, wealth and development are fruits of democracy, not substitutes.' Dr Manmohan Singh's thoughts on democracy: A Must Read!
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hosted a high tea for all National Democratic Alliance members of Parliament -- the first such event after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance stormed to power in May -- and utilised the occasion to ask them to be a symbol of positive political entity.
'The strategies outlined in Jaitley's Budget won't create the millions of jobs needed to dispel the despair and cynicism of militant youth in the Red Corridor running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.'
NSUI's Rocky Tusheed won the president's post by a margin of 1,590 votes while ABVP's Mahamedha Nagar defeated NSUI's Minakshi Meena by 2,624 votes to win the post of secretary.
The government said it is open to debating the JNU row in Parliament during the upcoming budget session starting February 23 with Modi saying that it will address the concerns raised by the opposition.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inducted 19 new ministers into his Cabinet on Tuesday has carried out major changes in the portfolios of his top ministers.
We need credible retellings of the times we have lived through, or the events in the immediate past that have shaped our today, says Mihir S Sharma
The remark by Agrawal was expunged by the chair even as it came for a strong condemnation from the BJP.
The CPI-M leader also demanded the setting up of a House Committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities.
'Hum karan poochtey rahe avishvas ka, karan nahi bata payey to gale pad gaye'
Nobody is clear what 'minimum government maximum governance' means.
He said there is a fundamental distinction between religious practices, rituals and civil rights.
Ramesh says that since the attitude of the Narendra Modi government is deliberately provocative and confrontational, it should not expect cooperation from the Congress.
Taking exception to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as "martyrs".
Kirti Azad, a known detractor of Jaitley, egged on the Congress to seek a time-bound SIT probe.
Former RA&W chief A S Dulat, who served as Atalji's adviser on Kashmir, gives us an insider's glimpse of a prime minister he has hailed as the 'greatest after Nehru'.
