Nearly 20 members of Trikone, a non-profit organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of South Asian descent, rallied in front of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Friday to condemn Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's remarks about homosexual acts being unnatural. The protesters were carrying placards written, "It is not a western import." "We want to show that the biggest democracy in the world has failed," said a spokesperson.
India's Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad would like Indian doctors travelling to the US for further studies to sign a bond assuring that they'd return to India after completing their course. Divya Nair weighs in the pros and cons.
He said, "I had to chase state chief ministers rather than them asking."
Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from the Congress on Friday marked the most high-profile exit of one of the "Group of 23" (G-23) leaders, who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi two years ago for a "collective and inclusive leadership" in the organisation, exposing the faultlines in the grand old party.
These days, the chief minister said, various political parties and the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders had been holding public meetings in the Valley.
Are victims of bomb blasts and terrorist activists given only "low cost" artificial limbs during rehabilitation? The issue has been highlighted by Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi in a letter written to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad asking for "good treatment" for victims of bomb blasts and terror acts.
The recent visit by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh has failed to provide any respite to the poverty-ridden Japanese Encephalitis struck population of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, where the killer disease has killed 507 children over the past four months.
Government on Tuesday said an indigenous Indian vaccine for H1N1 would be ready by the beginning of April, even as it demanded an inquiry into the 'panic' created by international bodies on the scale of the epidemic.
'Rahul Gandhi might not be holding any post as of now but everyone knows that he is the "captain of the ship'
As deaths due to swine flu continued to rise, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday discussed with Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar the situation arising out of the spread of the viral disease.The meeting, also attended by Health Secretary Naresh Dayal, came soon after two more deaths due to swine flu were reported in the country, and discussed the measures to contain further spread of the disease.
Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are both set to enter the Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir. Congress president Sonia Gandhi cleared their names and both the Congress leaders would be filing their nomination papers on Tuesday.
Azad, who had served as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Union minister under various prime ministers and the chief minister of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir, refused to divulge any further details on the formation of his new party.
The government has unleashed hectic behind the scene activity and is lobbying with non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties to break the logjam in Parliament and divide the Opposition ranks, in a bid to ensure there is no repetition of the winter session of Parliament where not a single item of business could be transacted.
Affirming that the Centre was "serious" about Rs 4,000-odd crore (Rs 40 billion) Metro Rail for Bangalore, Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said the project was expected to be completed in four years. \n
The government plans to screen the nation's entire population in the next five years for cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and strokes for early detection and treatment of the ailments, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Tuesday. He said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha that a pilot project has been launched in 100 districts of 21 states for prevention and early detection of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and strokes.
The delegations led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad (both Bharatiya Janata Party), Sanjay Kumar Jha (Janata Dal-United), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar) will visit a total of 32 countries and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said the agenda of the new political outfit would be to struggle for the restoration of J and K's statehood and to fight for the job and land rights of people.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday said he likes leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi who are proud of their roots and noted that Modi speaks frankly about his past as a tea-seller.
As of now, Azad couldn't be in the BJP leadership's calculus. The BJP has been trying to drill into the J&K electorate that this time around the UT would most certainly have a Hindu chief minister, explains Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
"75 years ago our country showed the whole world the strength of walking on the path of truth and non-violence. Today, we are remembering the sacrifice of all freedom fighters by taking out an 'Azadi Gaurav March' with our Congress family," he said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which had always misguided the people, had swung the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad during his retirement speech in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday summed up his more than four-decade-old political career in few Urdu couplets and a brief speech.
"Several (Congress) meetings happened, but not even a single suggestion was taken," Azad said.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while legal affairs secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel.
Azad, who is a prominent member of the group of 23 leaders who had demanded organisational overhaul in the Congress, said that for the next two months the party is the top priority.
The Congress on Tuesday slammed the government's move to remove governors appointed during the United Progressive Alliance tenure as "political vendetta" and said the "dictatorial" step will have "serious repercussions".
The Congress on Monday released a list of 30-star campaigners for the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
The Congress on Tuesday decided to attend the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday, with its leader G A Mir asserting that the restoration of full statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be its 'priority number one'.
The Congress and the National Conference on Monday announced they will fight the Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, in alliance, with both parties contesting three seats each.
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The ambit of the G-23 grouping increased this time as some more leaders -- Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Haryana speaker Kuldeep Sharma -- joined them.
'It is sad and unfortunate. But we have to accept it'
Party president Sonia Gandhi, former chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress chief ministers Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh and Charanjit Channi of Punjab attended the meeting.
