Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan sparred on Twitter on Saturday with the Opposition leader raising questions over the emergency use approval given to the indigenously developed vaccine Covaxin and the Bharatiya Janata Party leader hitting back alleging that Tewari was only passionate about spreading rumours.
In the book 10 Flashpoints: 20 years that is set to be released on December 2, the former union minister has looked back at the security situations that have impacted India in the last two decades.
Questioning the timing of the remarks, the BJP demanded a statement from former PM Manmohan Singh and former defence minister A K Antony on the issue.
In his post, Tewari wrote in Hindi in Roman script about how Modi "befooled" people.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk called off his hunger strike as protests for Ladakh statehood and Sixth Schedule extension turned violent. The BJP office was set on fire, vehicles were torched, and clashes erupted, leading to the imposition of prohibitory orders.
The Congress decision to clamp a gag order to restrain its leaders from speaking out of turn, has drawn sharp response from two defiant leaders Manish Tewari and Rashid Alvi who said it is not time for fighting and humiliating each other.
Talking to rediff.com from Jammu, Abdullah said that this was a remote possibility unless the Congress decides to rig the elections. "The United Progressive Alliance government had assured us that it would hold free and fair elections which is the right of the people. If this is denied to the electorate then the government is going back on its words," he said.
The Congress on Monday disapproved of the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi on the charge of sedition, saying the action was a bit "over-stretched" and "not called for". At the same time, the All India Congress Committee advocated for "reasonable restrictions" on freedom of speech and called for respecting the national emblems.
The Congress on Tuesday reiterated that the United Progressive Alliance government has taken firm steps to bring back black money stashed abroad in the last three years, and criticized leaders of the National Democratic Alliance for lending support to yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation.
As controversies dogged Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive meeting in Mumbai, the Congress on Friday took a dig at the principal opposition terming it a "splintered and fractured" party .
Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who is a part of India's diplomatic mission abroad, on Monday said it is 'distressing' that people back home are calculating political allegiances and asked if it is 'so difficult to be patriotic'.
Taking a jibe at Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray for his comment that Sushma Swaraj is the 'only deserving" prime ministerial candidate in the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress on Sunday said the National Democratic Alliance has the habit of 'counting chickens before they hatch.
Buoyed by the trial court verdict, Congress on Saturday said the matter regarding Home Minister P Chidambaram's alleged involvement in 2G scam should be allowed to rest and asked the BJP to apologise to the nation for the "vilification" campaign.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, who is an MP from Punjab, on Friday quoted from an affidavit filed by the Punjab government in court which said that 70 per cent of the youth in Punjab are on drugs of various kinds. It is the same Akali-BJP government, which filed the affidavit in the court.
Amid media reports about conferment of Qatar nationality on noted painter M F Husain, the Congress on Thursday said if the artist chooses to return to India, it is government's responsibility to provide him full security.
The two-day media workshop of the Congress began on Monday with Rahul Gandhi emphasising on the need to tone up the party's communication strategy and to institutionalise a framework for it in all states ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Hours after, however, firing from the Pakistani side was reported in Akhnoor sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Drones were also seen in the Pir Panjal area.
The Opposition also seems to be in a disarray as far as floor coordination is concerned with no meeting held to discuss the strategy to corner the government on key issues.
The Congress on Monday strongly criticised the Union budget, saying Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's speech was oblivious to the declining GDP and the budget was a case of "wrong diagnosis and prescription".
Following the Chinese president's comments on Kashmir, India in a quick response asserted that it is not for other countries to comment on "internal affairs of India".
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said during the 1962 war, then Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee demanded that a session of Parliament be convened to discuss it and then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru accepted his demand.
Teen Murti Bhavan served as the official residence of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Opposition leaders said India should speak for what is right and should not be afraid of its neighbour.
Congress asked the government to clear its stand on whether it intended to hold talks with Pakistan.
"This is not the appropriate time to be going ahead with political programmes., However, what really shocked us was as at this point in time when the nation is looking towards its leadership, when the nation wants its leadership to speak to it, the prime minister chooses to address the booth workers of the BJP rather than address the nation," said the Congress.
The resignation of Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Aamir Raza Husain over Narendra Modi's "puppy" remarks gave Congress a fresh handle to attack the opposition party as it wondered what stand will the other Muslim leaders in the BJP take.
Congress attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delivering a "zero effect" speech and getting bogged down in "pedestrian issues" on Independence Day, saying it had "no new ideas, no new schemes, and no new initiatives".
"We reaffirm that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India," spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said.
They claimed that what the country had witnessed in the last two years was just 'empty promises and gimmicks' and dubbed Modi government as 'most disappointing' ruling dispensation since independence.
The MPs suspended on Tuesday include National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari.
The Opposition on Sunday was unimpressed with the rejig, which saw the introduction of nine new faces and the elevation of four ministers to Cabinet rank.
The Congress' central election authority on Thursday issued a notification for the All India Congress Committee president polls, setting the ball rolling for electing the successor to the longest-serving party chief Sonia Gandhi.
The opposition strategy to corner the government on Manipur will continue in the Rajya Sabha as well, the sources said.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also decided to convene a 'Chintan Shivir', a brainstorming session from May 13-15 in Udaipur.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday came under attack from political parties for his controversial remarks that India is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is its identity.
Gandhi said the prime minister continued shooting for a film till even three hours after news of the Pulwama terror strike came in.
Tewari said BJP's Hindu-Muslim and India-Pakistan rhetoric is the only way for the ruling party to cover up for its failure in improving the economy of the country which is in a shambles right now due to its policies.
He said the migrants and poor people had great expectations after the prime minister's address to the nation, but sadly...
Congress on Friday termed as "disgusting" and "petty-minded" the way the Narendra Modi government marked the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi while the ruling BJP wondered if that party prefers to see history through the "perspective" of Nehru-Gandhi family.
The central government on Monday issued a Gazette notification to extend the tenure of defence secretary, home secretary, director of Intelligence Bureau, and secretary of Research and Analysis Wing for a period of two years.
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