By hosting an informal dinner ('restricted private dinner' as it was described) for Dr Manmohan Singh -- the first time such a courtesy has ever been extended to an Indian prime minister -- Beijing informed the world that it could do business with India and its leader.
The government on Thursday sought to make light of Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's letter urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to confer the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In a sarcastic vein, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said it would have been better had Advani honoured him within the party.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee underwent a routine check-up of his wind pipe at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on Sunday.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on Sunday discharged from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences as doctors declared him fit to go home after 26 days of stay at the Intensive Care Unit, family sources said.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is likely to be discharged tomorrow from AIIMS as doctors have today declared him fit to go home after 26 days of stay at the Intensive Care Unit.
Mole issue: PIL against Vajpayee, Jaswant
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, a key ally of the previous Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, today said his Telugu Desam Party will never help L K Advani become Prime Minister nor support any BJP government at the Centre.
The VVIP intensive care unit at AIIMS is now reverberating with old Hindi film music with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is recuperating here, requesting for the songs to be played on the radio.
The announcement was made after a meeting of Parliamentary Board, BJP's highest decision-making body, which was chaired by Singh and attended by Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and other senior leaders.
Women leaders banged steel plates with spoons as men rang hand-bells during their symbolic demonstration at Vijay Chowk leading to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, is fully conscious and is breathing on his own, a senior doctor said on Sunday. "He is breathing on his own and he is fully conscious," Dr Sampath Kumar, chief of the Cardio Thoracic Vascular Sciences Department at the hospital, said. Vajpayee's basic parameters like heart, kidney, liver and blood pressure were normal and he had recovered from pneumonia.
The allusion is simple: Modi is the BJP in Gujarat. This encapsulates a paradigm shift in the way the BJP's internal politics is now being run.
Expressing serious concern over "two distinct voices" that have emerged "louder" after the Gujarat election, the prime minister said Hindutva was being projected by "some people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner."
He was admitted to the AIIMS on June 11 with a kidney tract infection, urinary tract infection, low urine output and chest congestion.
They included the Delhi Declaration and a joint declaration, which would enhance economic, scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries.\n\n
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Kaul had been Vajpayee's constant companion of many years and the mother of his adopted daughter Namita Bhattacharya
Strategic thinker and former bureaucrat, K Subrhamanyam says that India is not doing enough, just yet, to respond to Mumbai attacks.
First Look on an all-party condolence meet for Pramod Mahajan in Mumbai.
'India should act harshly by discontinuing the peace process. The Lashkar-e-Tayiba could not have the kind of capacity to train commandos. The Pakistani establishment's help has to be there to prepare people for such attacks,' says former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.
The issue of leadership kept popping up on the second day of the Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive with journalists shooting questions to top leaders, who maintained that it will be decided at an appropriate forum and time.
In the absence of an unwell Atal Bihari Vajpayee, there was talk of the leadership issue, but there were no clear cut answers.
Joining other National Democratic Alliance leaders, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his "impolite" and "unbecoming conduct" with an alliance delegation on Wednesday.
It is a measure of the overwhelming presence of the leadership of the original duo, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, in the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party that the party has had some difficulty in making the transition from the Vajpayee-Advani era. But in choosing Sushma Swaraj for the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has put its best foot forward.
Former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, who was on Sunday elected the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party legislative party in Himachal Pradesh, hit out at the Congress, alleging its government was failing to deliver on poll promises and leaders were moving in different directions.
The former PM was admitted with complaints of drowsiness and giddiness
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on Tuesday admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences after he complained of giddiness.
'I had a brief telephonic talk with Vajpayee and told him about my views about the party's problems,' Patel said.
Maharashtra BJP chief and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde asked reporters not to read too much into Thackeray's absence at Tuesday night's Sena-BJP dinner meeting.
Of late, the former prime minister has been seeking an internal debate in the BJP on the Gujarat riots saying they were partly responsible for the setback to the party.
Vajpayee and his party colleagues Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra were apprised about the draft agreement on Thursday morning
Former RAW chief A S Dulat on terrorism, Pakistan and Kashmir.
Akali Dal member of Parliament and former speaker of the Punjab assembly, Charanjit Singh Atwal, was today unanimously elected Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha
He is the first Communist leader to occupy the high office.
Massive security arrangements have been thrown around the Ashok Hotel as many would be attending the dinner party thrown by the UPA president Sonia Gandhi. A waterproof shamiana has been installed at Vajpayee's place on 6 A Krishna Menon Marg.
