A reshuffle of the All India Congress Committee office bearers and the Union Cabinet is on the cards and is likely to take place "soon" say highly placed sources in the Congress. Renu Mittal reports.
Sharat Pradhan secures exclusive access to the Justice Vishnu Sahai report and discovers it blames two BJP MLAs, a former BSP MP and his cohorts, local intelligence officials and the media for the horrific Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, but attributes no blame to the Samajwadi Party government in the state.
The party is using the two year occasion to launch its election campaign in the state, which was key to them reaching simple majority in the Lok Sabha in 2014.
'It is at the root of all the reservation tussles, and the sharpening polarisation that we witness today, be it on Jat politics or the problems faced by Indians from the north-east in many places,' says Ambassador Kishan S Rana.
The Congress's revival plan says it needs to bring back into its fold Hindus repelled by the Sangh Parivar, take its message to youth and women and sections upset at curbs on their personal freedoms.
Indications of a stormy start to the Budget session emerged at an all-party meeting with opposition accusing the government of "setting the agenda for disruption".
With Thursday's win, the Congress's strength in the Lok Sabha has gone up to 48.
A video purportedly showing a Pakistani soldier sharing details of an encounter in which Captain Saurabh Kalia was killed in 1999 just before the Kargil war broke out has emerged, sparking a fresh debate on his death amid allegations that he was brutally tortured.
Captain Saurabh Kalia was captured, tortured and barbarically killed in the Kargil War. For 20 years, his father has waged a war of his own to get justice for his son. Captain Kalia is no more, but he lives on in the home he did not return to.
'Captain Haneef-ud-din, pulling his sinewy body forward, crawled, rifle in hand, in the snow on 6 June 1999. He died on this craggy mountainside exactly two years after he had passed out of the IMA...'
Some glimpses of the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday began a stock-taking exercise following the party's debacle in assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra even as a clamour for "course correction" grew within its ranks in the wake of the dip in electoral fortunes.
Rashtriya Lok Dal Ajit Singh on Friday attacked the government for rejecting his demand for converting the bungalow occupied by him into a memorial to his father, former Prime Minister Charan Singh, and blamed it for protests over the issue.
'The problem of a Hindu rashtra is that it has no text which can be adapted to the modern world.' 'The most prominent element of the Hindu way of organising society and the State is through caste.' 'This is not acceptable to most Hindus.' 'Because a Hindu rashtra also erodes the power and the rights of the majority of Hindus, we can be assured that this is not something that the BJP, or any other force can do,' argues Aakar Patel.
'In the next two years, we might see a new kind of realignment across India.' 'I don't see political alliances working against the BJP until an alternative political agenda is created.'
The least the leaders who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have done was to highlight the plight of the Muslim riot victims, but they happily chose to ignore it, so privileged they must have felt to be in the presence of the prime minister, the most powerful man in the country, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Curfew was lifted on Monday from all parts of riot-hit Muzaffarnagar, ten days after it was imposed, as the administration found the situation "conducive" for scaling down the high alert.
The passage of this major legislation comes ahead of the general election due early next year.
The trial court declined the plea of Kumar's lawyer that he be sent to high-security Tihar Jail.
'When you meet Rahul Gandhi, you will know he is definitely the right guy to lead this country.'
'Gurmeet Ram Rahim's political clout inhibited the chief minister, affected the bureaucracy and restricted the police.'
The man's family was against their marriage, claim the girl's kin.
#RIP #Brexit #Trump #Aleppo made Twitter a pretty distressing place in 2016. Dhruv Munjal wonders what 2017 will bring.
'Am I wrong in presuming that UP is being seen as a new laboratory of communal politics like one has seen in Gujarat,' asks Ashutosh.
'Modi maintains what has been called a 'strategic silence' on controversial topics,' points out Amulya Ganguli.
'The situation in Doklam has plateaued; militarily, the Chinese know they can do nothing here,' an Indian general tells Ajai Shukla.
'Rahul is misguided by a handful of family retainers who don't want him to show unrestrained initiative in forming allies.' says Sudhir Bisht.
'If I am angry, then I do not have the right to be in the Cabinet. Whatever I have done, I have ensured that farmers' interests are protected,' Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, who 'abstained' from a meeting with the President on the ordinance, tells Rashme Sehgal.
'It was frightening to feel that you were in a war-like situation.' 'Why do I have to feel unsafe in my own country?' asks angry Panchkula resident Raashi Sethia.
'Every person has two identities in India, that of his caste and nation.' 'It is understandable in a multi-caste, multi-religious society and I don't mind this.' 'What I mind is the State has failed in doing enough to melt these two identities in such a way that everybody has access to citizenship which is more important than your caste.' 'That is why people remain in the narrow identities of his caste or religion.'
Sudhir Bisht recalls the battle of 1984, in which UP's strongman H N Bahuguna was felled by Bollywood superstar turned political novice Amitabh Bachchan.
The Battle of Pratapgad can be termed the turning point in Indian history as it interrupted the continuous chain of Muslim successes on the battlefield.
The Mathura MP's Mercedes car reportedly rammed into an oncoming Maruti Alto.
In the wake of forthcoming assembly polls in Haryana, retired bureaucrats and police officers are in the fray to test political waters in the 'jat' heartland which goes to polls on October 15.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's solid solo performance in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections confirms continuation of some of the trends that emerged in the Lok Sabha elections in May this year.
Maruti, Hyundai & Mahindra together had 72.5% market share in year's first half.
'Narendra Modi might not have made 145 in Maharashtra, but it is definitely true that the Congress, and other dynastic parties, are well and truly stumped.'
A day after he was expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party on charges of indiscipline, Jaswant Singh on Sunday lashed out at the party, saying it had lost its vision and frittered away its virtues for temporary political gains by heeding to "petty whims" of individuals.
No BJP president is powerful when the party is in power. Amit Shah is completely dependent on Narendra Modi's clout. He has a protective political immunity and everyone knows its source, says Bharat Bhushan
PM to launch outreach campaign with a rally in UP on May 26, ministers to visit 200 cities in 2 weeks.
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