Several former Olympians were among around 6,000 sports buffs who took part in a colourful 'Walk for Hockey' to kick start the centenary celebrations of the Bengal Hockey Association in Kolkata on Sunday. A galaxy of Indian hockey legends including Leslie Claudius, Keshav Dutt, Gurbux Singh, Jaswant Rajput, Ashok Kumar, Pargat Singh and Dhanraj Pillay rode on well decked-up phaetons to create awareness about the national game and revive hockey in the state.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi will take the final call on Wednesday on who will be the chief minister.
'Taranjit has the ideal temperament to deal with the Americans who understand firmness and appreciate flexibility.' 'He can hold his ground with a cheerful face and still make it clear that India and the US are partners, rivals,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The PIL has alleged that large scale violence last month over the Gujjar's demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category was a fallout of the 'infighting' within the state Bharatiya Janata Party.
"Yes, we know that the scene is changing everyday and things are becoming difficult, but we are hopeful that Bhairon Singhji with his stature and name would be able to get enough numbers to make it to Rashtrapati Bhavan," a top BJP leader said.
Party leaders have been flocking Advani's residence since morning to garland him and present bouquets.
Giving details about the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in his book, the former deputy prime minister wrote: 'I was sitting in my office on a cold Friday afternoon on December 24,1999, when Shyamal Dutta, former director of Intelligence Bureau called me to convey the bad news. 'Sir, an Indian Airlines plane coming from Nepal has been hijacked'. I was stunned by what I heard.'
The luncheon meeting took place at the prime minister's official Race Course Road residence.
The BJP had come up with a fresh proposal just four days ago to the Samajwadi Party for toppling the Manmohan Singh government and had claimed the backing of Left as also the BSP to the move, SP leader Amar Singh claimed on Sunday.
BJP banks on Modi, Congress on its candidate Manvendra Singh in Barmer, India's largest constituency by area after Ladakh.
'Despite the subsequent events at Kargil and the October 12, 1999 military coup in Pakistan, the Lahore initiative firmly established Vajpayee's credentials as a crusader of peace,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The BJP on Sunday said its senior party leader L K Advani had never said that he was not aware of the decision to send former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh along with terrorists in an aircraft to Kandahar for release of passengers of a hijacked Indian plane.
The Centre has said the case must be referred to the Council of Ministers and not the President directly.
BJP's chief returning officer O P Kohli who conducted the organisational elections in the country said there were 15 sets of nomination papers all in support of Rajnath Singh's candidature.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Friday concluded his four-day visit to Moscow leaving for home without meeting with President Vladimir Putin. He is the second senior Indian minister to have visited Moscow in one week who the president hasn't met, the other being External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The actor-turned-politician hit out at the BJP leadership, alleging there's no place left for dialogue in the BJP anymore and the party's top brass "doesn't value its own people and views opponents as their enemies".
After two adjournments on Tuesday, Shekawat tried to break the impasse by counselling members that they should uphold the tradition of allowing the Leader of the Opposition to make his submission.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha, who is in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, briefed the top party leadership about the crisis in the state following the suspension of talks between the BJP and JD (S) abt the impending power transfer
A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan and V S Sirpurkar also agreed to consider the plea of Additional Solicitor General Gopala Subramanium whether the matter should be referred to the five-judge Constitution bench or not.
Stepping up their offensive, a National Democratic Alliance delegation Saturday met President A P J Abdul Kalam with an appeal to direct Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to forward an opposition petition for the removal of Election Commissioner Chawla.
The met department forecast heavy rains in the southern part of the state as moderate rains lashed the entire state on Tuesday with Mount Abu recording a maximum rainfall of 124 mm.
The Leader of the Opposition L K Advani wants the government to 'amend' the condemnation statement made against the opposition in the House.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh ruled out the possibility of replacement of Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, whose handling of the Gujjar protests has come in for criticism from BJP leaders like Jaswant Singh and Saheb Singh Verma.
He said the government continued to neglect national security.
The discus thrower, suspended for a positive dope test at the World Championships, filed her written submission to the AFI panel hearing her case.
Demonetisation makes its presence felt at the Sonepur cattle fair.
India on Thursday decided to write-off dues worth Rs 95.44 crore (Rs 954 million) of seven heavily indebted poor countries.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav refused to offer any comment when asked what was his perception about the UNPA's meetings with the leaders of various political parties.
Amit Shah now enters an unfamiliar and interesting phase of his political career. His success or failure will henceforth be assessed based on his performance as a key minister, points out Shekhar Gupta.
P B Chandra finds out if the 'Modi wave' is sweeping the desert state as party workers have been claiming since the Bharatiya Janata Party's thumping victory in the assembly polls last year.
The Indian discus thrower tested positive for a banned drug during the 10th World Championships in Helsinki.
Pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party's S S Ahluwalia who has the backing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, Trinamool Congress nominee Baichung Bhutia said the real issue in Darjeeling hills was not a separate state, but lack of development.
The Congress leader, responsible for the party's victory in the recent bypolls, has slogged it out, meeting people, establishing contact and listening, all the time, to people.
CEC gives views on Chawla debacle
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