Exclusive! Home Secretary G K Pillai on his tenure
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai's off-the-cuff statement on Friday -- about Hyderabad being the capital of Telangana after its formation -- has triggered a political thunderstorm in New Delhi.Member of Parliament from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema, who have strongly protested against the Centre's decision to create Telangana and have been meeting the party's top brass to plead their case, were left aghast by Pillai's statement."Who is GK Pillai to say this," said a Cong MP.
As P Chidambaram came in the line of fire over the withdrawal of three FIRs against an hotelier, former Union home secretary G K Pillai on Friday defended him saying the home minister had clearly instructed his officials not to take any decision and asked only to convey the law ministry's advice.
The panel's claim assumes significance as it was Pillai, few months ago, who alleged that Chidambaram as home minister 'bypassed him' and had rewritten the affidavit.
Pillai said that it was surprising to see that the minister, who is competent to revise the affidavit, was taking cover behind the home secretary.
Pledging to fight American imperialism, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat and Communist Part of India national secretary D Raja flagged off a protest jatha from Chennai to Vishakapattanam.
Eight member-delegation of the United Liberation Front of Asom led by chairman Aurobinda Rajkhowa, already in the national capital, will hold talks with the Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on Thursday after a introductory meeting with the Home Minister P Chidambaram.
Former Home Secretary G K Pillai's remarks on affidavit regarding LeT links of Ishrat Jahan on Friday triggered a political war of words with Congress questioning the timing of his claims and alleging that he was only parroting the ruling BJP's words.
"It is incomprehensible why some files are missing," the former home minister said replying to questions.
The Congress leader said he made the changes to improve the quality of the language as is any lawyer's wont in the second affidavit.
The resignation came hours ahead of a scheduled board meeting of MCX-SX, where former LIC Chairman Thomas Mathew T has taken over as new Chairman.
A bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi said it will hear the petitions of the BRS leader and others after three weeks.
"We demand the resignation of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah and state Director General of Police Girish Kumar in connection with Azad's murder," Maoist leader Kishenji told PTI over phone.
While acknowledging Shivaji's naval contributions, questions are being raised about the inadequate acknowledgement of Chola sea-power in southern Tamil Nadu, which dates back by a few centuries, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Even though he knew full well that the manipulation went against the facts as he knew them, Pillai nonchalantly contented himself with stating that since the file came from the minister himself, he just passed it on as it was,' says B S Raghavan.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu charged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was misused by the then United Progressive Alliance government to harass its political opponent and 'defame' the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
The Village starts off pretty well, but it required something more convincing than a bunch of creepy Gollum-like monsters to deliver the impact it should, observes Divya Nair.
Following the Chola era tradition, the pontiff of the Thiruvaduthurai Aadeenam presented the sengol to the first Prime Minister of India Nehru signifying the transfer of power from the British to Indian hands.
Singh, now a Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament from Bihar, said what was the reason for the change of the affidavit when the Intelligence Bureau had said that Ishrat had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists.
There is a deep-seated sense of rejection that the new generation Tamil youth have felt for a decade and more now, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress veteran P Chidambaram held a meeting with the Goa assembly poll candidates of his party and those of ally Goa Forward Party on Wednesday night, where it was decided that the alliance will name its leader immediately after the election results are out and stake claim for government formation, sources said.
Prasad, additional secretary in the home ministry, will inquire into the circumstances in which the files related to the case of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004, went missing.
A one-man inquiry panel of the home ministry, probing the missing files related to the case of alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan, has been asked to expedite its work.
An under secretary serving in the home ministry has filed the FIR at the Parliament Street Police station in New Delhi under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servants) of the Indian Penal Code asking police to probe "why, how and under what circumstances" five documents related to the case went missing.
"The inquiry committee was set up not to implicate anyone but to find the missing files," he said amidst allegations that the National Democratic Alliance government set up the panel to find faults in the previous United Progressive Alliance government.
Leaders of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom on Thursday met Home Minister P Chidambaram as they began face-to-face unconditional talks with the Centre in an attempt to usher in peace in insurgency-hit Assam.
Without naming P Chidambaram, he charged the then home minister with giving "colour" to terrorism by coining the term 'saffron terror'.
'Amid the different versions of truth on the Ishrat case, what is certain is that Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar, who has continued to maintain that Headley's confession was nothing but an attempt by powerful people to save themselves in the case, is unlikely to find a closure anytime soon.'
He did not name the officer but it was Gujarat Indian Police Service officer Satish Verma who probed the case.
Setting the Telangana process in motion, the Centre has cleared the way for the formation of an organisational structure for the Justice B N Srikrishna-headed Telangana committee.
An eight-member delegation of the United Liberation Front of Asom, led by leader Arabind Rajkhowa, will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. The ULFA delegation will brief Dr Singh about the on-going talks between the Centre and the militant outfit. ULFA leaders on Thursday met Home Minister P Chidambaram and Home Secretary G K Pillai in Delhi.He made it clear that the ULFA had no plans to contest the state assembly elections.
In the midst of controversy over the remarks of Home Secretary G K Pillai on Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Indian counterpart P Chidambaram for "creating positivity" on Thursday.
Union Home Secretary G K PIllai has said Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana. MPs from the non-Telangana areas will meet Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
The one-man inquiry committee, appointed to probe the recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh which killed 76 security personnel, on Monday submitted its report to Home Minister P Chidambaram.Former chief of Border Security Force E N Rammohan submitted the report to Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai, who handed over it to the home minister.On April 6, nearly a thousand Maoists staged an ambush on a group of CRPF personnel, killing 75 of them, along with a state police head constable
Conflicting views are emerging over the proposal to ban Sanatan Sanstha, a right wing group allegedly linked to the killing of Govind Pansare.
Former Under Secretary, Internal Security, in the ministry of home affairs RVS Mani has alleged that he was abused and tortured by officers of the Special Investigation Team during the United Progressive Alliance government to sign on a contradictory affidavit
Congress seeks suo motu action by the Supreme Court, accusing the Modi government of creating a 'fake controversy'
'In the hands of a majoritarian government, with utter contempt for the cultural plurality and diversity of our great nation, the pipe dream of making Hindi the sole official language takes on nightmarish proportions.'
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
