Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort in the national capital on the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day celebrations
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, has called a meeting of its MLAs in Mumbai on June 7.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 by voice vote following a walkout by opposition members over the Manipur issue.
The shifting of MLAs to Congress-ruled Rajasthan will allow the party to focus on drawing up its strategy for the crucial Rajya Sabha elections for which it has fielded two candidates, the source said.
Despite facing stiff opposition, two candidates from the ruling party in Bihar, the Janata Dal-United, have won the Rajya Sabha by-polls with the support of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party.
Anshuman Mishra, the Independent candidate for Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand who is in the thick of a controversy for getting the support from Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs, has left the saffron party in a spot of bother.
If everything goes according to plan, a resuscitated SAD could emerge as a central player in Punjab in three years, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Some analysts also pointed out that "outsourcing" political management to regional satraps such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana may have proven counterproductive and micromanagement by the Gandhi family was needed.
The MLAs of the three ruling parties and the BJP have reached Mumbai ahead of the elections.
With the reduced strength at 65, the Congress may find it difficult to win 2 RS seats.
Modhwadia emphasised that he was not joining the BJP due to any coercion or allurement as claimed by the Congress.
Hectic preparations were underway at the Congress headquarters for the ceremony where party president Sonia Gandhi will hand over the baton to her successor, Mallikarjun Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the outfit in 24 years.
Soon after the obituary references and laying of papers, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan moved a motion for Shantanu Sen's suspension. The TMC member had snatched papers from Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and tore those in the House on Thursday. The motion was passed by a voice vote and Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked Sen to leave the House.
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
The high commission of India in Dhaka and the assistant high commissions in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna have been assisting in the voluntary return of Indian nationals, he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge used poetry and humour to take swipes at the government on Monday, saying nothing will be accomplished by changing names, and went on to recall how first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 'inclusive' approach of involving opposition parties had led to the laying of a strong foundation for the Constitution.
Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations in its report, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group.
The nearly month-long session is likely to have around 20 sittings, sources said.
Besides Azad, two PDP and one BJP candidate won.
'It's the same problem with all six of us. Behenji (Mayawati) is not to be blamed, but the coordinators have acted in a manner which has depressed us and we thought what is the use of remaining with such a party'
TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose submitted a letter to the Election Commission on Thursday.
This year promises to offer ample opportunities on the electoral turf to the SP, BSP and Congress to get their act together and play the "semi-final" of sorts before the "final match" two years later, reports Virendra Singh Rawat
Minister of State Prahlad Singh Patel on Monday posted on social media platform X that the Union Cabinet has approved the women's reservation bill, but deleted the post within an hour.
The Rajya Sabha is slated to take up impeachment motion against Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen on March 14. Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari has admitted a motion for Sen's impeachment after a three-member committee headed by sitting Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudarshan Reddy, found him guilty of misconduct.
Rajya Sabha is slated to take up the Impeachment Motion against Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen on March 14.Sen will be the second judge in independent India to face such a motion for allegedly misappropriating Rs 42 lakh when he, as a lawyer, had been appointed a receiver by a court of law.There are ten senior advocates in the Rajya Sabha from various political parties who are keen to speak on this motion. The motion may turn out to be embarassing for the UPA.
With uncertainty looming over the Maha Vikas Aghadi government's stability in the wake of Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde camping in Gujarat with some party MLAs, the stand of 29 legislators from smaller parties and Independents is likely to be crucial.
The country's 5,000 MPs, MLAs and MLCs should resolve in this historic year to return to the people the favour they have been doing by relentlessly nurturing democracy over the last 70 years, he said.
Two lawyers on Monday wrote separate letters to Attorney General K K Venugopal seeking his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal for allegedly making statements "scandalising" the verdicts delivered by the Supreme Court.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday claimed a senior railway official had flagged a fault in the signal interlocking system in February and warned of the train accident risk but the problem was not rectified which led to the Balasore train crash.
In a major cabinet reshuffle, Arjun Ram Meghwal has replaced Kiren Rijiju as the Union law and justice minister, a communique from the President's Secretariat said on Thursday.
Congress MP from Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh Sanjoy Singh is one of the Congress candidates who have filed nominations for the February 7 election to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Assam.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders condoled the death of Veerendra Kumar.
Droupadi Murmu, India's 15th President, will be the youngest (she is only 64) and India's first President to be born after Independence.
To keep their MLAs together, political parties are organising dinner meetings and arranging hotel stays for them ahead of the council elections, which are taking place just three months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
The activities of the two secretariats over the years have increased many folds which involve manpower planning, judicious and prudent financial management, transfer, postings of senior officials, meeting the grievances of the officials and staff, reveals Rup Narayan Das.
The BJP-led Centre sent the CBI to conduct searches at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's residence here just after the New York Times published a positive story in its front page about the Delhi model of education, AAP leaders said.
Kamal Nath said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was perturbed as its "corruption over its 15-year rule is going to be exposed"
Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in a written response to a query in Rajya Sabha on Monday said that "as on date, the DRDO is working on 55 mission mode projects out of which 23 projects are delayed".
