While the ruling party and its ministers wanted Azad to withdraw his controversial remarks and apologise, the Congress leader denied drawing any parallel between the two.
"The situation has become irretrievable", Azad, 73, said in his parting shot to Sonia Gandhi, whose trusted confidante he remained right from the time of Sitaram Kesri's unceremonious exit as the party's chief in 2000.
After Parliament's nod, SC's sanctioned strength will go up to 33, plus the CJI.
Oppn members raised slogans demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe into the issue.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday criticised the government for proceeding with the presentation of the Union Budget after the death of E Ahamed, accusing it if delaying announcement of the news so that it could present the Budget without any hiccups
Asia's largest tulip garden overlooking the Dal Lake in Srinagar has been thrown open to the public, marking the beginning of the new tourism season in the valley. Formerly known as Siraj Bagh, the Tulip Garden was opened in 2008 by then chief minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Ghulam Nabi Azad. The idea of the garden, spread over 30 hectares in the foothills of snow-clad Zabarwan range, was conceived to advance the tourism season in the valley by two months.
Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy also dismissed reports that a section of MLAs of their parties were unhappy over their joining hands in government formation.
Congress on Wednesday said that it was open for discussions on the GST Bill on which it has "very genuine concerns".
The Padma Bhushan was conferred on 17 personalities including N Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, Krishna and Suchita Ella of Bharat Biotech, Cyrus Poonawalla, Satya Nadella, chairman of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai, chairman of Google.
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.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with senior party leaders on Wednesday amid reports that a final call on the fate of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna will be taken soon.
The second leg of the budget session is of 23 days and all 14 days so far have been wasted.
This will be the second all-party meeting called by the government to discuss the COVID-19 situation since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Consensus seems to be eluding the Congress over the issue of Telangana with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday refusing to set any deadline for deciding the statehood issue.
New Delhi is witnessing a spurt of political activity over the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
Sources said Sonia Gandhi referred to Azad and others twice during her brief address and the issues raised by them.
Sonia, Sumitra Mahajan share a laugh at the event
Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kapil Sibbal, Raj Babbar, Vivek Tankha, Ghulam Nabi Azad will address an event in Jammu on Saturday which Manish Tiwari is also expected to join.
With 19 border polling stations along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch, a contingency plan has been worked out to deal with cross-border shelling though chances are negligible given the ongoing ceasefire between India and Pakistan that came into effect in February 2021, officials said.
Congress jolted by SP move in Uttar Pradesh.
Tiwari said on Amarinder's remark that when the latter was PCC president, he had himself demonstrated as to how the EVMs can be gerrymandered.
Gehlot was made the chief minister of Rajasthan after the party formed government in the state.
A court in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh has issued notices to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and six union ministers on a petition filed by two advocates over bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Scindia, who is now with the BJP and took oath as a member from Madhya Pradesh, greeted his bete noire before taking oath. Scindia and Singh had differences that led to Scindia quitting the Congress. Scindia also greeted Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina, seeking re-election from Nowshera assembly constituency of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir, is facing a major challenge from his former party colleague Surinder Choudhary.
Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy and president of the ruling National Conference Dr Farooq Abdullah filed his nomination papers from the prestigious Srinagar parliamentary constituency on Monday. The constituency goes to polls on April 30.
The leaders who Gandhi met included Deputy Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari. She is likely to meet some other leaders of the G-23 as well in the coming days.
The Congress on Friday released a list of 30 star campaigners for the February 20 Punjab Assembly elections and left out names of Tewari and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who are among the prominent members of the 'G-23' leaders who had written to the party leadership seeking an organisational overhaul.
Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP accused National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah of leaving them "no option".
Modi did not have the guts to face the students of the country and so he crushed them using the police, he alleged. "I challenge the prime minister to go to any of the universities, stand over there without his police, without his infrastructure and tell the people what is he going to do with this country," the Congress leader said.
The move comes after the letter that four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court had earlier written stating that there was danger to the independence of judiciary.
The Congress on Sunday wrote to the Rashtrapati Bhavan seeking an appointment with President Ram Nath Kovind for a 7-member party delegation led by Rahul Gandhi to meet him and present a detailed memorandum of facts in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri incident that claimed the lives of eight people earlier this month.
On December 13, 2001, five heavily-armed gunmen stormed the Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire, killing nine persons.
An embarrassed government promised to investigate the matter saying this was not its stand and neither of the Sangh.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi also decided to convene a 'Chintan Shivir', a brainstorming session from May 13-15 in Udaipur.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed them about the operation that destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
Trinamool Congress's Lok Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi would get the award for 2016 and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad would get it for 2015, the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a statement.
The Congress party will have an elected president by June 2021, with the party's working committee on Friday approving holding the internal election after the assembly polls.
The Prime Minister's Office sought on Sunday to justify the exclusion of the Gandhi clan in the reconstituted government committee for commemoration of 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, arguing that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had opted out of such an initiative in May this year.
This is not the first time that political leaders were not allowed the enter Srinagar and had to return to Delhi from the airport itself.
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