Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday failed to show up at the Central Hall in Parliament to pay tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on the occasion of the birth anniversary of India's first home minister. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Speaker Meira Kumar and innumerable Union ministers were present at the function. A senior BJP leader admitted that the absence of the party's Members of Parliament at the function was a lapse on their part.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has announced the formation of a special CoBRA battalion for counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir. This decision comes 17 years after the jungle warfare unit was established to combat Naxal insurgency. The new battalion, directed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will be deployed in forested areas of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Jammu region, where recent terrorist incidents have occurred. CoBRA units are known for their specialized jungle warfare and guerilla tactics training, and the new battalion will be equipped with modern weaponry, communication, and surveillance equipment.
Rajesh Patel, 57, said he collected nearly 70 tolas of gold ornaments, which would be priceless for the victims' kin, Rs 50,000 and a few US dollars from the scene of the deadly aviation tragedy and handed them over to the police.
Authorities at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital have so far identified eleven victims of the June 12 Air India plane crash through DNA testing and started the process to hand over the bodies to their relatives, officials said on Saturday.
'The move to appoint a person with a profile, markedly lower than the leader Nitin Nabin will replace, has the potential to put the brakes on the careers of several others in the party and government in the positions they currently hold,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
A post written in Hindi on the handle "RaGa4India" at 9.52 am on September 8 stated that the statue "can fall anytime as cracks have started appearing on it".
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to scuttle the possibility of his party's alliance with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray ahead of civic polls.
Take Kashmir but don't talk of Hyderabad, Soz claimed Patel told the then Pak PM.
All 33 persons from Gujarat, who were among 104 Indians deported from the US for illegal immigration, were safely transported to their native places on Thursday in state vehicles under the supervision of police, the state government said.
In view of increased threat along maritime border with Pakistan, Navy will commission a new base near Porbandar in Gujarat to strengthen surveillance and security apparatus in the region.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday raked up another controversy over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with L K Advani quoting a book to allege that then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru called his home minister a "total communalist" when the latter suggested that army be sent to take over a defiant Hyderabad State after Independence.
He also said that although India got independence much before Goa became free, people of the country could not enjoy at that time as they felt uneasy thinking that one part was the country was still under foreign rule.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in a country-wide marathon to be organised on October 31 to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a Union Minister said on Wednesday.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on Tuesday declined Narendra Modi's invitation for an event on Sardar Patel, suggesting that the Gujarat chief minister's motives were not sincere and the name of the great leader was being misused for partisan political agenda.
Some people were so great, Modi said, that attempts were made to make their contributions forgotten for 70 years but these met with no success.
I think the 'What-if-it-had-been-Patel?' sentiment represents a yearning for more of what we are already seeing around us in India today, observes Aakar Patel.
Two days ahead of his 57th birthday, Union Home Minister Amit Anilchandra Shah offered prayers at the Bahuchar Mataji temple in Mansa, north Gujarat, on Wednesday, October 20.
In the manifesto released on Saturday, the Congress also promised unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month, Rs 2,000 pension to divyangs, widows, senior citizens and needy women, and waiver of loans of up to Rs 3 lakh of all fishermen, among other things.
There is no question of banning the Bajrang Dal if it plays by the rulebook and behaves itself, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said on Friday, as his party's manifesto proposing to outlaw the outfit continues to come under fire from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Monday referred to another book to support his claim that there were differences between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel over sending the Indian army to Hyderabad when the Nizam was trying to join Pakistan at the time of partition.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has declared that Chhattisgarh will be free from the menace of Naxalism by March 31, 2026. He stated that the Centre and the state government are committed to eradicating Naxalism, highlighting the significant achievements of the Chhattisgarh police in the last year. Shah also appealed to Naxalites to surrender and join the mainstream, emphasizing the government's rehabilitation policy. He further praised the Chhattisgarh police's efforts in curbing organized crime and narcotics.
As the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party battle it out over the legacy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari hit out at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying the United Progressive Alliance's record in issuing advertisements to commemorate Patel was far better than that of its rival National Democratic Alliance.
Modi warned BJP workers and supporters to be aware of the Congress which, he said, has stopped abusing him and is "working silently" to capture rural votes.
'I warn them of such tactics because hundreds of Hardiks will be born if one is killed because our fight for justice has been accepted by the Patidar community.'
A week after the devastating Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad claimed 270 lives, investigators on Thursday continued to sift for clues to ascertain the cause, while the government said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau will decide where to decode the black box of the ill-fated Dreamliner.
The Congress on Saturday accused the Centre of insulting Dr Manmohan Singh, the country's first Sikh prime minister, by carrying out his last rites at the Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated spot that could later become his memorial.
It had organised its 83rd anniversary event last year in Jammu after the government asked all paramilitary or CAPF to hold these events outside the national capital.
Addressing close to 700 employees and the leadership team across the Air India headquarters and Air India Training Academy in Gurugram, Chandrasekaran urged them to stay on course, terming the accident the most "heartbreaking" crisis of his career.
India should have learnt lessons from the 1962 war but no headway was made in the development of border infrastructure till 2014, he claimed, adding that the Modi government increased the budget for the same from Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 14,500 crore.
The Narender Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat had banned Jaswant's book alleging that it defamed the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The process of identification of victims by matching the DNA samples is currently underway, and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives once the process is complete.
When the prime minister was offering floral tributes to Patel, flower petals were also showered on the world's tallest statue by an Indian Air Force helicopter.
'By the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, they moved back to the BJP almost totally and later their backing helped us win the local body elections.'
Stating that sports should be kept free of politics, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Friday that the Pakistan cricket team's tour of the country next month should be welcomed.
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Wednesday said there would have been no Partition had Mohammed Ali Jinnah been made the first prime minister, adding to the row on a remark by Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav.
The Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) on Wednesday invited proposals from consultants to conduct a 'gap analysis' to assess the existing infrastructure in the city and to state what more is needed to make it a potential venue for the Olympic Games.
22 images that captures glimpses of a most unusual Indian who led the nation for 10 years.
Dr Singh and Modi will share the stage at a function to inaugurate a museum dedicated to Vallabhbhai Patel's life. The function has been organised by the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, whose chairman is the Union minister of state for mines, Dinsha Patel.
Jagadish and Anukumar were taken into custody from the district headquarters town of Chitradurga by a team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dinakar.
New National Police Act to be formulated soon: Patil
