Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Muslim outreach programme, which will kick off on Friday, has received mixed response from the people in Muslim-majority Kashmir, but there is a consensus that there is a need to bridge the gap between the Valley and the rest of the country.
Gulam Abbas Azad was on his way to Doda city from Soti village in Doda district at the time of the attack.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's war against corruption has triggered up a regional debate even though the menace is still far from being eradicated from public life.
Former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday appeared all set to become Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha after his appointment as Leader of Congress in the Upper House.
Azad, while condemning the brutal murder of five civilians by militants, said the incident is an eye opener and a lesson.
'...Else we will let the situation develop to a dangerous level where much greater violence will be the only outcome,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said if anyone talks of "freedom of Kashmir from India" then it will not be tolerated. His comment came when he was asked about the girl holding a 'Free Kashmir' poster at the Gateway of India in Mumbai during the protest against Jawaharlal Nehru University violence.
Soon after he took oath as Chief Minister at the head of a 12-member coalition government on Wednesday, Azad had asserted that custodial killings in the state would not be tolerated.
Asserting that human rights violations will not be tolerated, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday defended the firing by security forces on protestors in Kupwara.
Addressing a public meeting at Uri, about 100 km from Srinagar in north Kashmir on Saturday, Azad said once peace was visible on the ground in the state, withdrawal of troops will automatically follow.
Azad had, on Sunday, called on the Governor to stake claim to form the new government in Jammu and Kashmir, replacing Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the chief minister.
The odds are apparently stacked against Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad when he seeks to prove his majority in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Monday, but the confidence he exudes suggest that his government might just scrape through.
Azad will have to seek election as an Assembly member in 6 months.
'India should be able to weather the storm, given its enhanced standing among the major powers. However, India's international clout is partly from its rapidly growing emerging economy and a large and expanding commercial market. 'If the Indian economy continues to slow and protectionist barriers advance, then our international clout will also diminish. The international fallout from bringing the Valley to heel may be more difficult to handle,' says Shyam Saran.
'It is not something that is going to unfold in the next few weeks or even the next few months.' 'This process will continue for some time. And that's how it should be.' 'If the politicians are coming on board, then that is a welcome step.'
"We want Mahatma Gandhi's India, return of our identity and honour which was given to us by the Indian Constitution and I am sure they have to return it with interest as well," PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said.
However, Azad said he personally did not favour capital punishment.
A suspension of the agitation over the Amarnath row is necessary to pave the way for a dialogue, senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Wednesday.Azad said he was happy that all political parties echoed the view that the situation in the state was serious and there should be no room for communalisation of politics.He added that it is important for the current agitation to stop because "you cannot solve a problem."
Three terrorists, including a serving soldier of the Pakistani army, have been arrested in the Kashmir Valley. State Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda on Tuesday said the three terrorists, belonging to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, were to launch a suicide attack in Jammu during the ongoing assembly polls in the state.
Mukherjee has been entrusted with the task of handling the stand off between the two stalwarts before it gets out of hand, according sources close to external affairs minister.
"It does worry me. These trends are the outcome of unfortunate things happened in July and August. The question is that secularism is getting shrunk at the cost of development," Azad said, adding that it should be 'a worry for each and every Indian'.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is likely to resign on October 27 to enable Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad take over the reins of the state administration on November 2.
A Congress minister has defended the former Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General's disclosure that it framed rules in violation of the Roshni Act under a Rs 25,000 crore land-transfer scam.
A rotating chief ministership as a way to appease factions can work only if there is a credible guarantor, explains Aditi Phadnis.
Fate of 271 candidates including two former chief ministers -- Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad -- would be sealed on Wednesday, as 16 constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir go to polls in the sixth round of the seven-phase assembly elections.As many as 20,000 additional security forces personnel and nearly 10,000 local policemen have been deployed at 1,268 polling stations set up in the 16 assembly seats spread over five districts.
A 23-year-old man from Surat working as a 'helper' for the Russian Army was killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in a war zone, as per the claim made by his relatives.
Chairman Shaharyar Khan said PCB would not ask India to play a one-day match in Pakistan occupied Kashmir
The Congress emphasised that there can be no talks with Pakistan at the 'moment' when it is 'waging a war of words'.
In a blow to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's government, key partner Muttahida Quami Movement on Monday quit his government at the centre and also made an exit from the ruling coalition in the Sindh province, citing Pakistan Peoples Party's "undemocratic and dictatorial" attitude."
A day after the Jammu and Kashmir government took over yatra arrangements after the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board withdrew its request for the forest land, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday appealed to people to resume normal activities and let peace prevail while asking politicians and other groups not to rake up an already settled issue of land transfer. The Chief Minister urged politicians and leaders of various groups not to put the people to inconvenience & trouble.
Pak abetting terrorism in J&K: Ghulam Nabi Azad
Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are both set to enter the Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir. Congress president Sonia Gandhi cleared their names and both the Congress leaders would be filing their nomination papers on Tuesday.
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