As Azad ended his decades-old association with the party, leaders across political spectrum praised his contribution to Jammu and Kashmir, with the BJP hailing him as a "towering leader".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi became emotional in Parliament on Tuesday while talking about Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad during farewell to retiring members of the Rajya Sabha.
"The situation has become irretrievable", Azad, 73, said in his parting shot to Sonia Gandhi, whose trusted confidante he remained right from the time of Sitaram Kesri's unceremonious exit as the party's chief in 2000.
Sources close to the top BJP leadership tell me that Tharoor has already had secret meetings with the BJP's top brass and is waiting patiently to make his next move, reports Ramesh Menon.
Azad said it was a good meeting with the Congress president with the discussion centred on how to prepare and fight unitedly the forthcoming assembly polls to take on rival parties.
Britain's Prince Edward and former prime minister Rishi Sunak were also at the game.
The opposition party, however, said the four eminent Congress MPs and leaders who have been included at the instance of the Modi government will, of course, go with the delegations and make their contributions.
Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers vandalised a Congress office in Mumbai on Thursday, claiming the party had always insulted Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The protest followed Congress leaders' accusations against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for insulting Ambedkar in a Rajya Sabha speech. Several BJYM workers were detained and an FIR was filed against them.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his first public meeting in Jammu after quitting Congress, announced to launch his own political outfit that will focus on the restoration of full statehood.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has demanded that the Election Commission (EC) accept its error in issuing duplicate voter card numbers within 24 hours, threatening to release more documents on the issue if the EC fails to do so. The party alleged that the EC issued the statement after the TMC announced it would hold a press conference on the issue, and termed it an "Epic Scam." The EC had said it would rectify the issue and update its technology-driven platform, but the TMC insists the EC must accept the error. The party also demanded an in-depth probe into the matter.
Azad, who is now politically affiliated to the Congress party, was earlier with the BJP. He has had his share of differences with the late Arun Jaitley when he was the DDCA president.
In the question paper, issued in an exercise book of a Bengali-medium school for Madhyamik aspirants, the paper setter has asked them to identify several places on the map (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (referred to as 'Azad Kashmir' in Pakistan), the place where Gandhiji had first undertaken the Satyagraha movement, and the Chittagong battleground.
Sources said they will discuss the party's poor performance at the hustings and will evolve their future strategy.
Jairam Ramesh said the Congress has to be the "fulcrum" of any Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections as it is the only political force with a pan-India presence.
Even at 99, INA veteran R Madhavan Pillai remains an active advocate for keeping Netaji's and the INA's role alive.
The diplomatic exercise aimed at presenting India's stance against Pakistan on terror comes in the wake of Operation Sindoor -- the Indian offensive against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
A court in Sonipat on Tuesday remanded in judicial custody till May 27 Ali Khan Mahmudabad, the head of Ashoka University's political science department who was arrested for his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor, his lawyer said.
Azad, who is a prominent member of the group of 23 leaders who had demanded organisational overhaul in the Congress, said that for the next two months the party is the top priority.
The Congress on Sunday said it was not stopping anyone from being part of diplomatic delegations to be sent to various countries following Operation Sindoor and that its leaders who have been named at the instance of the government must listen to their conscience and contribute to the exercise.
A hill with an altitude of 5,000 feet, once a hub of the Maoists along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, was reclaimed by the security forces after driving out the extremists following nine days of intense anti-Naxal operation, official sources said.
Defence stocks have been on a tear, with the Nifty India Defence index hitting all-time highs. Over the past week, the index jumped around 7 per cent, far outpacing the flat performance of the Nifty 50. Over the past month, its 12 per cent gain has trebled the benchmark's return.
Afsar Dayatar/Rediff.com captures glimpses of Simran Shaikh returning home to Dharavi, a couple of days after she became the most expensive hire at the Women's Premier League auction in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Days before the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam, intelligence agencies had flagged the potential targeting of tourists especially those staying in hotels on the outskirts of Srinagar in the foothills of the Zabarwan range, officials in the know said Saturday.
The ambit of the G-23 grouping increased this time as some more leaders -- Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Haryana speaker Kuldeep Sharma -- joined them.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while legal affairs secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel.
Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from the Congress on Friday marked the most high-profile exit of one of the "Group of 23" (G-23) leaders, who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi two years ago for a "collective and inclusive leadership" in the organisation, exposing the faultlines in the grand old party.
Azad, who was part of the group of 23 which has been critical of the party leadership and has sought an organisational overhaul, has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to public affairs.
Simran Shaikh stays in a tiny 12 by 12 feet room along with her grandmother, parents and siblings. On Sunday, her life changed perhaps forever when she became the most expensive hire at the Women's Premier League auction.
"It was partly in response to Tikait's tears that he decided he also has tears," Tharoor said
India captain Rohit Sharma has spoken about his journey from being a young player who would stand outside the Wankhede Stadium to catch a glimpse of Mumbai Ranji Trophy stars, to having a stand named after him at the iconic venue.
'After being married for almost 18 years, and since there was never any rancour between us, we are still very close, as parents of Azad, as colleagues in the film work that we do, and as friends.'
He was stopped by the administration and will be sent back by a flight later in the afternoon, the Congress leaders said.
Viral videos of a senior female professor getting 'married' to a student in the classroom at a state-run university in West Bengal triggered a furore, following which an inquiry was ordered on Wednesday, officials said.
Several opposition MPs in India have criticized the government's handling of the deportation of Indian citizens from the United States, questioning the treatment they received. A US military aircraft carrying 104 Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar, India, on Wednesday, marking the first batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration. The deportees reported being handcuffed throughout the journey, sparking protests from opposition leaders who staged a demonstration in Parliament wearing handcuffs. While the government maintains it will address the issue at a later time, opposition members condemned the treatment of the Indians and questioned the government's handling of the situation.
A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump government as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.
Though the party has made no announcement, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister in the outgoing government, is being seen as the frontrunner for the key position.
Earlier, only Azad was scheduled to meet Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress veteran said that a stronger emphasis needs to be laid on grassroot leadership and that there is a need to rebuild the party's structure.
