Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the vote of thanks to the President's speech on the opening day of the Budget session.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said "a government of the youth" will come to power in 2014 which will work for the poor and "change" the country, comments that triggered speculation whether he would take a leading role after the next polls.
In her four-page resignation letter addressed to the prime minister, she said, 'In view of the decision of the government of India to go ahead with the Bill on the issue of marketing of agricultural produce without addressing and removing the apprehensions of farmers and decision of my party, Shiromani Akali Dal, not to be a part of anything that goes against the interest of farmers, I find it impossible to continue to perform my duties as a minister in the union council of ministers.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday discussed the strategy to be adopted in the monsoon session of the Parliament on issues such as Telangana and proposed amendments in the Right to Information Act.
In a move which could once again put the Congress in the firing line and give them a great deal of negative publicity, the party's core group in its meeting held on Friday evening has given the green signal to bring a fresh bill in the monsoon session of Parliament to keep political parties out of the ambit of the Right to Information Act.
'Government is saying that I will not be responsible for ensuring you get MSP but traders and large corporate will be responsible. 'India now is the only country that is saying such things'
'To summarise, PM Modi's failures in the last nine years can be categorised under 'durniti' (bad policies), 'anyay' (injustice) and - perhaps most importantly - 'badniyat' (ill intention)'
Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday predicted the rise of the third front to power in the post 2014 Lok Sabha poll scenario.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have slowed down her activities over the last few weeks, say highly placed sources in the party.
The representatives of thousands of agitating farmers, who are sitting on various borders of the national capital since November 26 demanding repeal of the three agri laws, have said that the countrywide strike on Tuesday would be observed with full force.
During the day-long debate, the lines between science and religion often got blurred with many invoking religious texts and the contribution of 'rishi munis' to highlight India's tryst with the extra-terrestrial world.
Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN reiterated that he is not going to contest the next Lok Sabha elections.
The decision marks first successful policy intervention.
The Bharatiya Janata Party chose not to raise any protests when their demand to raise Robert Vadra's suspect land deals was not considered by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari. Anita Katyal reports.
'It is a national shame that the only country that enacted a food security act is now better known as the land of farmer suicides. Indian farming can change only if national irrigation policy is implemented in totality,' Dr M S Swaminathan tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
While the FIPB has sought more transparency on whether the rules concerning effective control would be followed once the deal fructifies, the Finance Ministry has also written to Sebi for a report on the Jet-Etihad deal, official sources said Wednesday.
Both Houses adjourned till Wednesday amid din.
The 15th Lok Sabha will go down in the history as the most disrupted in Independent India so far including the pepper spray incident which marked a new low in parliamentary conduct.
Sri Lanka's embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, under immense pressure from the public and the Opposition to quit over the island nation's worst economic crisis, said on Thursday that the abolition of the executive presidency, a move that will curb his powers, will be considered by Parliament.
Once a Congress-led government is formed at the Centre, the farm laws will be revoked and dumped into the 'dustbin', he said, addressing a gathering in the evening here on the conclusion of his 'Kheti Bachao Yatra' (save the farming march), which began from Punjab's Moga district on Sunday.
A sovereign bond float continued to be among the range of options to address the current account deficit (CAD), Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday, even as former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha asked him to tell Parliament the Centre would not countenance that measure.
In a frontal attack on BJP, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi alleged that the saffron party, which is leading the NDA, is trying to make "Hindus fight against Muslims" and also seeking to create two Indias with one for chosen business class and another for the poor.
The Committee, in an earlier report on the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill, had favoured abolition of STT.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday night tweeted that her party was opposed to the ordinance approved by the union cabinet and "we request the President not to sign this ordinance".
Renowned women's rights activist and founder of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) Ela Bhatt passed away in Ahmedabad on Wednesday due to age-related ailments, her associates said.
Pawar alleged that the Centre neither consulted states this time, nor it called any meeting with state agriculture ministers before preparing these bills.
The Congress on Thursday dared Narendra Modi to an open debate on his governance model in Gujarat, while rubbishing his attack on the United Progressive Alliance over the economic slowdown.
Seeking to dispel the perception of gloom and pessimism, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on asserted in the Lok Sabha that rupee will correct itself and the growth will bounce back.
Bomb blasts on Thursday rocked Assam and Manipur during Independence Day functions injuring one person even as chief ministers asked extremists to abjure violence and return to the mainstream.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
Ramesh says the best route now is to refer the amendments to Parliament's standing committee on rural development.
The Congress expressed its 'whole-hearted' support to the 'Bharat bandh' called by farmer unions against the new agri-marketing laws and announced that it will hold protests that day at all district and state headquarters in solidarity with the demands of the farmers. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the party rank and file would actively participate in the bandh to ensure it was a success.
Any such acquisition, if at all, should only be in exceptional cases
The Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentary board on Thursday discussed the allocation of election campaign responsibilities among its general secretaries and top office-bearers in the run-up to the assembly polls in five states and Lok Sabha polls next year.
The Congress may get chairmanship of the prestigious Public Accounts of Committee but still there is no guarantee whether it will get the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
'The so-called economic reforms are for the rich.' 'The government should not facilitate and entertain this kind of lust for land by the capitalists.'
With SAD member and union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
Alleging that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government's mindset has led to "decay" of key institutions including Parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said it poses a serious issue before the next Lok Sabha as it is threatening the survival of democracy in the country.
Opposition party is unlikely to block Bills for GST, insurance and e-auction of coal mines.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had a two-hour luncheon meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday afternoon, disclose highly placed sources at the President's house.
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