Patel's closeness to the Gandhi family was undeniable. But unlike others, he resisted the temptation to use it to leverage personal business, says Aditi Phadnis.
The speed at which he led the central bank in different areas -- ranging from internal reorganisation to inflation fighting, stabilising the currency, taking on rogue corporations, cleaning up bank balance sheets, and opening the sector -- makes one believe that Rajan knew he had only three years to do his job. A fascinating excerpt from Tamal Bandyopadhyay's MUST-READ Roller Coaster: An Affair with Banking.
There was near unanimity among the guests at the Sibal dinner that the country is ready for a change, that the ruling party has lost popularity. However in the same breath speaker after speaker lamented that without Opposition unity Modi could as well win a third successive term, reveals Virendra Kapoor.
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
Paswan was a minister under six different prime ministers, hardly out of government since he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Chandrakant Khaire said his party -- the partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the National Democratic Alliance - was not consulted on the decision of NDA MPs sacrificing 23 days pay to protest the disruptions in Parliament.
Shatrughan Sinha is said to be miffed at being "sidelined" in the party and the government.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Chaudhary, who took 13 hours to reach Lakhimpur Kheri from Delhi, several hours more than it would take to cover the 420 km-odd distance, also met the families of some of the farmer victims to learn their story of loss.
After Lok Sabha successfully passed the Telangana bill, the government on Tuesday said it will immediately bring the legislation in Rajya Sabha.
BJP leaders said the party will take corrective measures, while its long-time ally Shiv Sena appeared taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday pulled out of the 'grand alliance' in poll-bound Bihar, saying it felt "humiliated" as it was not consulted while deciding seats and would contest the assembly elections in the state on its own.
The imapsse continues over issues like bank scams and special status demand for Andhra Pradesh.
Mulayam said the new chief minister will be chosen by the Samajwadi Party.
The Congress on Monday demanded an independent probe into the issue involving alleged phone tapping of prominent personalities including journalists in India using Israeli Pegasus spyware.
The portfolios were cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the exercise had turned out to be tricky for the party state leaders.
Amid efforts to convince L K Advani on declaring Narendra Modi as Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Bihar's BJP chief Sushil Kumar Modi said the veteran leader had failed to gauge the public mood in this regard.
He accused the Congress of putting up obstacles to the temple's construction through 'its lawyers' in the Supreme Court.
The Congress has reasons to enjoy the BJP's discomfiture. After all, the Insurance Bill was introduced by the UPA government in 2008 but was constantly blocked by the BJP on some pretext or the other which was then in the Opposition.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday condoled the death of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and said his contribution to public service will always be remembered.
'It will take a long time for people's memory to be misled by a prime minister who is so arrogant and who refuses to acknowledge his own faults.'
With the cabinet expansion being deferred repeatedly, several aspirants, especially those from Congress, had openly expressed their displeasure over the delay, piling pressure on the party to fill its quota so as to avoid any trouble ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Culture Minister Prahlad Patel asserted that national memorials cannot be 'political memorials' and they should be kept away from politics.
The suspense over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir following the hung verdict in the assembly elections continued on Wednesday as the People's Democratic Party, the single largest party, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the next big outfit, kept their cards close to the chest.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
She resigned soon after her husband and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal strongly opposed the bills in Lok Sabha on Thursday night, claiming these proposed legislations will "destroy" the agriculture sector in Punjab, and announced that Harsimrat Kaur Badal will quit the government in protest against these three bills.
He has been away from the hullabaloo of Indian cricket for the last six months but former Board of Control for Cricket in India president Anurag Thakur says if required, he 'won't shy away from accepting responsibility'.
The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on Tuesday morning to clear the Bill that is likely to come up in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday
Transcript of the political resolution adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party in its national executive meeting in Panaji, Goa on Sunday.
The chief minister still has time to repair the damage but he will have to act all-round, both at the government and party levels, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government is ready for a discussion on the issue of alleged financial irregularities in the banking sector and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will reply to the debate.
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
Top officials of the environment ministry, Delhi Development Authority and municipal commissioners also stayed away from the deliberations.
Cutting across party lines, political leaders welcomed the government's decision to confer Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian honour, on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya.
In a three-page letter to Facebook Chief Executive Zuckerberg, Prasad alleged "bias and inaction" by individuals in Facebook India team on complaints by people supportive of right-of-centre ideology.
The president-elect has vast public, social, and political experience which will help him better to discharge his duty as the First Citizen of India.
An interplay of Modi government's outreach in Bihar and the sequence of events in Chirag Paswan's life could make Bihar a game of musical chairs when the results are out.
'If the BJP comes back to power, Sterlite will open in one week.' 'If the Congress comes to power, it will open in one month.'
'The BJP certainly has an edge as the BJP has gone ahead of the Congress in pleasing the trading community.'
'The path of militant Hindutva that the BJP's national leadership chose as its main electoral plank literally dug the grave for the party in Kerala,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
