The Centre is planning a series of political initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir which may include discussion with mainstream parties of the Union Territory and elections to the assembly in the early part of next year, officials said in New Delhi.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Ill-health forced Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to cancel his scheduled visit to Chennai on Tuesday, where he was invited by his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin, a key aide of the Janata Dal-United leader said.
The victim was identified as Sanjay Sharma, a resident of the Achan area in the south Kashmir district, they said, adding that the incident took place at around 11 am.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's all-party meet, People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said peace in the region cannot be restored without undoing the 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional' act of revocation of the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
'The biggest danger is that majoritarianism is getting normalised, insidiously and overtly... We are bringing the worst, not the best in us... We are looking for new enemies - Muslims, urban Naxals, tukde tukde gang, some enemy or the other which keeps this majoritarian wheel turning,' says journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
The TMC leader, who was attending a sports event in Howrah, West Bengal on Sunday was busy attending phone calls while the national anthem was being played.
Leaders of 13 Opposition parties Sunday urged the Centre to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country in view of the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi against the Narendra Modi government after a head count of over 50 MPs as required under the rules.
A day after India opened up vaccination for those over 60 years and within the age bracket of 45 to 59 years with specified co-morbidities, more politicians took the vaccine jabs on Tuesday, including Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who, along with his wife, took the first dose of indigenously developed Covaxin at the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute.
With talks between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Peoples Democratic Party on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir making no headway, the state seems to be headed for a spell of governor's rule.
With his swearing-in, the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post has ended.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Ruling National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said the party's apprehensions about the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government working towards abrogation of Article 370 have come true.
More than 20 national leaders will attend the meeting, TMC sources said. Most of them have already arrived in Kolkata.
'The implication of being adamant is to be arrogant. So yes, he is arrogant.'
Restrictions continue to be imposed for the 66th consecutive day since the abrogation of the state's special status under Article 370 on August 5.
Main markets and other business establishments across the Valley remained shut and public transport was off the roads.
Classes were not held in most schools across Kashmir as students did not turn up due to the prevailing situation, they said.
Several prominent opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.
Though markets and commercial establishments remained shut and students stayed away from schools.
At a time 20-odd opposition parties, many of them regional rivals, joined forces over the Adani issue, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar's open support for industrialist Gautam Adani has put a question mark on the durability of a non-Bharatiya Janata Party block in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
National Conference president Omar Abdullah on Sunday evening met Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra in the winter capital Jammu and staked claim to form the government. Omar was earlier chosen as the leader of the NC legislature party and state Congress president Saif-ud-Din Soz and another senior party leader Chowdhary Mohammad Aslam met Vohra and handed over a letter pledging the party's support to the NC.
The situation in the Valley is tense as the fresh order directing the zonal SPs to provide the list of mosques here and its management committees has added to speculation about some major decision in the offing regarding Jammu and Kashmir's special status.
Can Nitishbabu create an anti-BJP phalanx like Jayaprakash Narayan did in 1977 or will his efforts come undone by Opposition leaders' political ambitions and, of course, the BJP's agency-aided campaign of intimidation?
The BSF opened fire in Pakharpora near Charar-e-Sharif area to quell stone-pelting protesters in which at least one person was killed and five injured.
The government on Monday said that matters regarding Chinese intrusion can't be discussed in Parliament as it concerns the security of the country.
Farmers from various parts of the country are protesting at Delhi borders against the three farm laws brought by the Centre, alleging that the legislations will hamper farming.
The Congress will launch a two-month door-to-door campaign across India from next week to spread Rahul Gandhi's message among the masses, senior leader Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.
"Okay. Good," a bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said when the counsel of Union Territory administration and Iltija informed it about the release of Mufti, who is the president of the PDP.
In the present case, the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be constituted after the erstwhile state was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in 2019.
It has never been the practice to discuss in the public domain the details of deployment and movement of paramilitary forces deployed in a particular theatre.
'This move rendered the chiefs of important investigative agencies to the status of daily wage earners. It undermined the autonomy and independence of the agencies.'
At the moment, there appears to be no alternative political narrative to the one lying buried under the debris of havoc caused on this front by the fallout of 'August 5, 2019', asserts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Union Minister Farooq Abdulla on Monday said there was a "massive" public opinion in favour of revoking the Armed Forces Special Powers Act but maintained that all the stakeholders should discuss the issue and take a collective decision.
'We repent our decision today as we feel we betrayed our (Congress) party, while the DAP betrayed us'
'We are never going to get 303 seats again. Let us push through all the anti-Muslim legislation that we have in mind'
The detenues are likely to be released on Saturday as some of them are lodged in prisons located outside the union territory in places like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, they said.
A man of perseverance and great survivor, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed had an astute political sense honed by decades of experience in Kashmir politics that has stood him in good stead in crafting a delicate alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party to return as chief minister for the second time.
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