In a frontal attack on the Common Minimum Programme of the new Congress-led coalition government, the National Democratic Alliance
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said on Saturday that he has approved the draft Cabinet note for amending Foreign Exchange Management Act.\n\n\n\n
Ruling out the implementation of value-added tax from June 1, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Wednesday announced several excise duty concessions on edible oil and textiles.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday met expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh and is understood to have demanded that he step down from the post of chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
Representatives of BJP, Shiv Sena and Swatantra Bharat Paksh kept away in protest against Singh's continuance as its chairman despite being asked to step down. "We stayed away as it was National Democratic Alliance's directive," said Shiv Sena representative in PAC, Anandrao Adsul.
"The party has taken no decision on the vice president's post. We will only comment after the United Progressive Alliance has announced its decision. Whatever Jaswantji is doing is by his own initiative. I already made this clear during my press conference on Tuesday," said Rajya Sabha member of Parliament and BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar
As the deadline to withdraw nominations ended at 1500 IST, Returning Officer H R Punia anounced that there were five candidates for an equal number of seats and hence voting was not necessary.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Saturday said he had sought removal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the post-Godhra communal riots and even opposed L K Advani's 'Ram Rathyatra'.
Former Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh's enormous love for Mohammed Ali Jinnah was once again on show during the launch of his controversial, yet popular book, 'Jinnah India, Partition, Independence' on Thursday.
In the book, Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan, Bisaria says this public telecast sounded to observers like a mid-summit report on the talks, where Pakistan's hard views were being inflicted on India, while New Delhi's positions were unclear.
Mole issue: PIL against Vajpayee, Jaswant
Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said the state has no plans to follow in Gujarat's footsteps and ban the book. He was speaking at a press conference on the just concluded by-elections in Karnataka.
Terming the 13 economic bills cleared during the Parliament session as 'building blocks for the future', the finance minister said the government is geared up to hasten reforms.
The Rajya Sabha today bid a touching farewell to its members who were retiring after serving their six-year term, including Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla and Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh
A Delhi court has convicted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar of murder in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The court found that Kumar was part of an unlawful assembly that killed the victims and is guilty of the murders of Jaswant Singh and Tarundeep Singh. Kumar now faces a maximum of the death penalty and a minimum of life in prison. The court rejected Kumar's argument that the statement of the complainant couldn't be trusted, as she named him belatedly and held at the time of the incident she was not aware of the identity of the accused as she was admittedly new to the area and had never seen him earlier. The court also found the other residents of the locality were reluctant to come forward to aid the victims at the time of the incident, leading to the conclusion that they would also not support the victims' version in court.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Monday came under fresh attack by the right-wing, when an article in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece accused him of conniving with Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah's grandson Nusli Wadia, to help the latter get possession of a prime property in Mumbai.
Sheetal Kumar, Jaswant's wife, said the poster prepared by a BJP worker and a local priest not only hurt her religious sentiments but also that of Hindu community at large.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday said that it would not be sensible to reverse the policy for the housing sector which has shown 25 per cent growth in the past three years.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Friday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat government's ban on his book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The Himachal Pradesh government has no plans of banning expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said. "Thousands of books hit the stands everyday. ... Why should the state government bother about those," he told reporters. Of the six BJP ruled states, including Himachal Pradesh, only Gujarat has banned the book so far.
The announcement on the name of Singh, 74, is expected to be made on Monday, when all the partners of the alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, are expected to meet. Senior BJP leaders are of the opinion that the UPA nominee should not be allowed to win uncontested and all Opposition parties should put up a candidate against the ruling Congress-led front.
Jaswant Singh could stick out like a sore thumb for BJP even in the Lok Sabha after its attempt to remove him from the Chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee has been virtually rejected by Speaker Meira Kumar.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are not on talking terms with expelled leader Jaswant Singh after he refused to resign from the chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament, Union minister Murli Deora claimed on Friday. The Petroleum and Natural Gas minister, who is heading a high-level delegation to London, said senior BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murali Manohar Joshi, are not on talking terms with their former colleague.
After its notification banning Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah faced flak for not giving detailed reasons, the Gujarat government today told the High Court it proposes to come out with a fresh communication superseding the old one which is under legal challenge.
Call it a setback to Narendra Modi. The Gujarat High Court on Friday set aside the Gujarat government's order to ban Jaswant Singh's book on M A Jinnah.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh has invoked the battle scene from Hindu epic Mahabharata to defend his "covering up" for Leader of Opposition L K Advani during the election campaign, when he had said that the former home minister did not know that he was going with three terrorists in a plane to Kandahar.
Three top leaders of the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Jaswant Singh -- will contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections and manage the party's election campaign instead.
