Special NIA judge Gurvinder Singh Mehrotra, who had on October 27 pronounced the nine guilty, also sentenced two other accused to life imprisonment, besides awarding 10 years rigorous imprisonment to as many and seven years in jail to another convict.
Why the Bihar defeat can be the best thing for him as PM, but only if he has the humility to read the writing on the wall, says Shekhar Gupta.
A roundup of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day matches played on Wednesday
Is it a divine, sacrosanct university, a holy cow, prohibiting human intervention?
With uncertainty prevailing over 'Janata Parivar' constituents contesting the Bihar assembly polls as one party, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asked Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to convene a meeting of the merger committee to "clear the air".
'We have finished that fear.'
Some senior Congress leaders including Kapil Sibal have called for introspection after the party's dismal performance in the recently held Bihar assembly polls, after which the ruling National Democratic Alliance returned to power in the state despite the main member of the grand opposition alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal, putting up a strong show and emerging as the single largest party.
'If the BJP continues with Nitish as CM, it will not consolidate its position further in future.'
Among the names being mentioned for inclusion as ministers are Tejasvi Surya, the 29-year-old MP from Bangalore South, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the 35-year-old MP from Ladakh, Locket Chatterjee, the 45-year old MP from Hooghly, and Dilip Ghosh, MP from West Medinipur and president of the BJP's West Bengal unit.
"Governance, governance, governance," was what Nitish Kumar said were his three priorities when he took the helm of Bihar in 2005.
To beat BJP, you either deny them a critical mass of Hindu vote or build a regional leader and party strong enough to protect their turf, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 39 points at 26,265 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 1 point at 7,954.
'When the campaign started the Congress said it had been miserable for the last 27 years for UP and that people should get rid of those who made it miserable, and that they should bring back the glorious years of the Congress.' 'Then they joined hands with those who ruled for the last 26 years. Some called it a shrewd strategy, but to the people this was not shrewdness.' 'Where is the credibility in your actions when you change direction of the campaign?'
The Jharkhand poll results also show that the caste equations against BJP are consolidating. Cong leaders feel that the BJP is not invincible and can be defeated if like-minded parties get together.
Nobody bothered to articulate the upsides; instead, the four-year tour of duty and denial of life-long pensions got played up.
Job-seekers for government and related opportunities found that their future was at risk, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
Most exit polls telecast by news channels soon after voting ended for the fifth and final phase of the Jharkhand elections on Friday indicated a hung assembly. Results for the elections to the 81-member state assembly will be announced on December 23.
PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that all people will be provided free of cost vaccines.
'If the leadership goes back to Rahul Gandhi, then there will be a perception problem about the drama about his exit a year-and-a-half ago.'
Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma added to the mystery by declaring only that the next CM would be from the BJP, without naming Sarbananda Sonowal, the CM of the outgoing government.
'I think public awareness should be created and laws should not be made only for the sake of politics'
The fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections will go to polls on April 29. The voting will be held for 71 seats spread across 9 states.
'Those who should have been affected benefitted from demonetisation.' 'And the vast majority who should not have been affected lost out.' 'That is the ultimate result of demonetisation.'
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Eventually the law of averages has to play catch up with Modi and the BJP, sooner or later,' says Rajeev Sharma.
'If there is one thing our politicians, especially those with their ear to the ground, understand, it is the reality that their voters want three things from their children's schooling: English, English, English', notes Shekhar Gupta.
'In today's situation, it is not going to help anyone's case if they try to politically contest with the BJP on ideological issues.' 'Instead, it is best is to swim along the tide, present the more acceptable face of the cultural Hindu, but not be a political Hindu as the BJP or Mr Modi is.'
The party leadership also thanked the people of Assam and credited the victory there and increased vote share in other states to party workers, state leaders and PM Narendra Modi.
The formula of Lok Sabha polls this year wherein JD-U and BJP had both fought 17 seats each, leaving six for Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, which joined the National Democratic Alliance in 2014, a year after Kumar's exit, could not serve as the basis for the assembly polls, said the poll strategist.
The feud in the family -- brother versus brother, sister versus brother, and daughter versus mother -- is an open secret. In the absence of the patriarch, there is no one to compose their differences, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
Shatrughan Sinha says he was ignored even after he offered to campaign in Bihar.
JD-U leaders believe Prashant Kishor's entry would benefit its case for contesting a larger number of seats in Bihar in next year's general election.
Amit Shah, who missed campaigning in Bihar, made a two-day trip to Bengal starting November 5 to oversee BJPs preparedness for the state polls.
After the Bihar setback, these are the issues the PM must address to maintain the people's faith in him.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
'Those who support the attacks should realise that beating Kashmiri students can't help anyone change the result of the game.'
Petrol price on Thursday was hiked by 35 paise per litre and diesel by 15 paise, pushing rates to a new high across the country. Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 101.54 a litre and diesel Rs 89.87 per litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The increase comes after rates stayed mute for three days. Petrol price was last hiked on July 12, on a day when diesel rates had seen its first reduction in almost three months. The increase on Thursday neutralised the 16 paise price cut in diesel on July 12.
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Sharad Yadav says that reports about disquiet among the factions are 'sponsored'.
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