Rahstriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue S Gurumurthy, who was asked by the Sangh to probe charges against Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, on Wednesday said he had found "no moral or legal wrongdoing" in Purti Group's funding and alleged that the media is giving the issue a political colour.
The regret expressed by Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari's on his remark on Swami Vivekananda ahead of the party's core committee meet eased tensions among its members.
Finance Minister and Congress trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday took command of the consultations with Andhra Pradesh leaders to prepare the ground for the creation of Telangana, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided against imposing President's rule in the troubled state after holding talks with Governor E S L Narasimhan. Assisting Mukherjee in the consultations are Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy and members of a core committee.
The BJP's core committee will meet on Sunday and decide the future course of action, party leader Chandrakant Patil said.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to maintain the status quo on policy rates for the fourth consecutive time in its October 4-6 review meeting. The incremental information available since its last meeting in August suggests that growth and inflation prints for the second quarter (Q2) of financial year 2023-24 (FY24) will exceed the committee's projections. However, the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation is expected to moderate in the second half (H2) of FY24.
Amid "confusion" on how to take the movement forward, Team Anna's Core Committee met in Ghaziabad on Monday sans ailing Anna Hazare to decide on their future strategy.
The winter session will begin on December 7 and will last until December 29.
Keen to prevent a downgrade of India's sovereign rating by Standard & Poor's (S&P), which could trigger an exodus of foreign investors, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told the Congress party there is no option but to raise diesel prices by at least Rs 5 a litre after the Presidential election. The current diesel subsidy is Rs 9.13 per litre sold.
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, S Jaipal Reddy is likely to be the Leader of Lok Sabha and the decision to this effect is likely to be taken on Friday in the core committee meeting. Informal consultations between the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi has already taken place, say highly placed AICC sources.
It was the end of the road for Karnataka Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, who tendered his resignation to Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi. He will be replaced by Jagadish Shettar. Gowda is expected to return to Bangalore and hand over his resignation to the Governor.
Mohun Bagan's star players like Okolie Odafa, Tolgay Ozbey and Syed Rahim Nabi are free to leave the green-and-maroon brigade and play for some other clubs.
Janata Darty-Secular leader H D Deve Gowda on Thursday announced his party's support to UPA's Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee.
While the opposition continues to demand a rollback, the government is not inclined to give a categorical assurance to that effect. Renu Mittal reports.
Team Anna Core Committee member Kiran Bedi on Saturday rubbished a media report that claimed she had complained to social activist Anna Hazare that colleague and fellow Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was not using funds of the Public Cause Research Foundation adequately
"They should not indulge in levelling charges against each other and they must keep away from any controversial act because the government has one motto -- to defame all those who speak against it," Ramdev said in Ghaziabad.
Bringing to fore the feud in the Rajasthan Bharatiya Janata Party, its leader Gulabchand Kataria on Saturday night called off his 'Lok Jagran Yatra' following differences at a core committee meeting which saw Leader of the Opposition Vasundhara Raje threatening to quit the party and walking out the meeting in a huff.
As fresh cracks appeared in Team Anna after the expulsion of a Muslim leader, activist Anna Hazare on Monday said there is no rift in the group over the "leakage" of information. In his first reaction after the expulsion of Mufti Shameem Kazmi after he was allegedly found recording the proceedings of a core committee meeting in Noida on Sunday, Hazare said that there is no fallout over the issue.
High drama was witnessed at the Team Anna core committee meeting in Noida on Sunday with the group expelling one of its members Mufti Shameem Kazmi for allegedly recording its proceedings even as he claimed that he quit the movement as it was turning anti-Muslim.
Aiming at devising a strategy for passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament, the two-day meeting of the core committee of Team Anna began in Ralegan Siddhi on Saturday.
Backed by ruling Akali Dal, the SGPC, apex religious body of Sikhs, will file a clemency appeal before the President for Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is on death row for the 1995 killing of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, even as ally BJP steered clear of the issue.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who is camping in New Delhi, may have to wait a while longer before re-claiming the chief ministerial chair from Sadanand Gouda, as the Bharatiya Janata Party is not in the mood to "reward" his indiscipline.
A group of faculty members of Ashoka University has written to its vice chancellor claiming that free thought within universities in India is in crisis today and demanded that all decisions on matters related to academic freedom should be put on hold till the promised committee for academic freedom is in place.
Parrikar will stay at his private residence in Panaji,
Swami Agnivesh, one of the 22 members of the core committee set up by activist Anna Hazare, claimed on Monday that there has been no response from the Centre so far to end the activist's indefinite fast against corruption. "In the last seven days, we have never had anyone mediating between us and the government about the Jan Lokpal Bill," he said. He rejected media reports about the government roping in any mediators.
Defending Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over her indictment in the recently published report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India on irregularities observed in Commonwealth Games, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has said the party has decided not to take any action against her.
Remaining defiant after being rebuffed by Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari in his bid for regaining Karnataka chief ministership, state party strongman B S Yeddyurappa on Saturday said he and his followers would not attend a meeting convened by him in New Delhi on March 3.
Team Anna's core committee met in Monday at Ghaziabad amidst suggestions that the anti-corruption movement should not target a single political party in the future.
A day after Anna Hazare called off his agitations on Lokpal, Team Anna on Thursday admitted that his fast did not create the desired pressure on government and said there was no point in passing this "completely useless" bill.
Anna Hazare is likely to be present in the viewers' gallery of the Parliament when the Lokpal Bill would be tabled and discussed, sources close to him said in Mumbai on Friday.
The continuing global uncertainity has complicated the fight against inflation, opined Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra during the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on February 8. According to the minutes of the MPC meeting released on Wednesday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also mentioned that there is considerable uncertainty due to a host of global factors such as rising non-oil commodity prices. The RBI on February 8 hiked the key short-term lending rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent, citing sticky core inflation.
Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has asked Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to rethink on holding talks with Pakistan after Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in a United States military operation in Abbottabad near the Pakistan military academy, 61 km from Islamabad.
Team Anna members like Arvind Kejriwal and Gopal Sisodia and others will launch an indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on July 25 as part of the agitation to press for the bill, Rai told media persons.
Higher education policy may be at the core of the Tamil Nadu assembly polls next May, with a potential to break the ties between the ruling AIADMK in the state and the BJP counterpart at the national level, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The team members reached Ralegan Siddhi on Sunday morning and are expected to brief Hazare about the discussions held at the meeting held at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was on Tuesday attacked by a youth with a slipper while he was going to attend a programme in Lucknow as part of their anti-graft campaign, nearly a week after the assault on another colleague Prashant Bhushan.
Kashmiri Pandits should be brought back and their views taken into consideration said advocate, social activist Prashant Bhushan, who is also a core committee member in Anna Haraze's team on Saturday, at the San Francisco Bay Area.
Stepping in to defuse the Telangana crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said he understands the separate statehood demand and gave an assurance that the Centre will make all efforts to find a solution to the contentious issue soon.
Activist Anna Hazare will soon write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking his views on having an annual performance audit of the Members of Parliament.
Taking its campaign against Governor H R Bhardwaj to a new level, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka on Friday decided to launch state-wide protests seeking his immediate recall for 'insulting the people of the state'. Apprehending that Bhardwaj might sanction the prosecution of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on alleged land scams on the basis of a complaint by a lawyers' forum, a meeting of the BJP core committee decided to organise anti-governor protests.
Following the week-long standoff between the Nagas and the Manipur government over Thuingaleng Muivah's visit to his native village, the Congress core committee decided not to allow the separatist leader to enter the state. After prolonged deliberations, the party top-brass on Wednesday felt that the visit of the country's top rebel leader from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM might worsen the law and order situation in Manipur.
