While the United Progressive Alliance government is preparing to ignore the protests from anti-Telangana members of Parliament and push through the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, the Congress' grim internal assessment is that the move may not pay the requisite electoral dividends which it had originally hoped for, says Anita Katyal
Rajya Sabha also rejected an opposition sponsored motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House and for making triple talaq a civil offence with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.
'The feeling in Telangana is that without her a separate state cannot be created... All the MPs and MLAs from Seema-Andhra have a business background. Their interest is to save their business,' Congress MP K Raj Gopal Reddy, who played a key role in Thursday's turbulent events, tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Successors of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during Partition will have no claim over the properties left behind in India, with Parliament on Tuesday passing a bill to amend a 49-year-old law.
Siva Sankar looks at S P Balasubrahmanyam's fantastic repertoire.
Names of CMs of Punjab and Karnataka along with a former CM found mention in the list.
Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) lists why India must not do away with AFSPA, but ensure enough transparency to avoid confrontation with human rights.
To expect that these past decades of grief, inter-group killings, anxiety and fear will be brushed aside because of the Naga peace accord is being unrealistic. Memories are built on old wounds and they heal slowly. So, it is important to be cautiously optimistic, says Sanjoy Hazarika.
Pune police on Tuesday raided homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them -- poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
The CM met M B Patil, a prominent Congress leader under whose leadership a section of dissatisfied MLAs have been holding meetings.
YSR Congress Party honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi began her indefinite fast against the proposed division of Andhra Pradesh and accused TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu of having a tacit understanding with Congress on the separate statehood issue.
Prasad alleged there was pressure for extraneous considerations and 'bribe' for not finalising the Rafale deal during the UPA rule.
As the House resumed its sitting an hour late, the Speaker made it clear, "The debate should start now. Everybody is watching us. Please don't make me a scapegoat. Let us reach our goal," stressing that the process should reach finality on Monday.
Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana came under judicial scrutiny on Friday with the Supreme Court agreeing to examine it and sought response from the Centre.
PETA said that the court had also ruled that cruelty is inherent in these events, as bulls are not anatomically suited for such activities and making them participate is subjecting them to unnecessary pain and suffering, so such events were outlawed.
After India scrapped its Rs 3,600 crore deal for supplying VVIP choppers, Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland on Friday said that the contract termination notice sent to it does not offer any firm basis for taking any action against it.
'The current impasse might be an occasion for Jayalalithaa's legal team to mull over what could have gone wrong with their strategy -- and where they could and should proceed from here,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Central Bureau of Investigation told a Delhi court on Wednesday that the Indian Embassy at Berne has requested authorities there for provisional arrest of three officials of Switzerland-based Swiss Timing Limited, against whom summons were issued for their alleged roles in a 2010 CWG-related corruption case.
India cricket captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu were on Monday recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna by the awards selection committee.
Realising serious lapses in the process of hearing, a division bench of Andhra Pradesh high court has recalled its order against payment of compensation to Muslim youth of Hyderabad who were illegally detained, tortured and booked by the city police in the aftermath of blast in Mecca Masjid more than six years ago.
Amid high drama, Telugu Desam Party Chief N Chandrababu was on Friday forcibly evicted from Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi by the police and taken to a hospital on the fifth day of his indefinite fast against bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
The kidnapping, illegal confinement and rape of a college girl for 17 months is threatening to blow up in to a major issue in Hyderabad. The family of the hapless victim has been running form pillar to post for justice and stringent action against the perpetrator.
In an open defiance, Union Minister M M Pallam Raju on Wednesday questioned the government's hurry to push the Telangana bill and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's disapproval of disruptions in Parliament was not "fair".
With her various overtures and right noises at the right time, Mamata is once again trying to reshape her image from being a regional leader to one with national appeal and acceptability. After all, the charge of building a Federal Front may also bring to the fore Mamata's chances to become prime minister in 2019.
The minister was making statement on three incidents of attacks on Indians in the US.
There are indications that the BJP may not be as enthusiastic as it was on the Telangana issue now that the Congress has cleared the decks for the creation of the new state.
A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus on Wednesday morning.
K Chandrasekhara Rao is using politics to highlight an administrative and judicial issue, says B Dasarath Reddy.
The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed the ban on some fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs of Glaxo SmithKline, Wockhardt and Laboratories Griffon but said action against their sale could be taken in the absence of valid sale and marketing licence.
'We were expecting death sentences, but now the court has acquitted them, despite Aseemanand himself admitting to his crime in front of a judge.' More importantly, it seems the tag of 'Hindu Terror' coined by the United Progressive Alliance government was wrong all along. Amjedullah Khan, spokesperson for the Majlis Bachao Tehreek, has been tracking the Mecca Masjid blast case from day one and was also involved in securing the release of more than 100 Muslims youths who were falsely accused in different terror cases in the aftermath of the blast. He spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com about the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and what it means.
The judiciary has often shied away from contesting the speaker's right or that of the legislature, but it has not always avoided taking a close look at the processes employed and arrive at conclusions that are binding on all concerned, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
How has the Indian State, in principle and practice, given shape to the essential ingredients of the secular principle and composite culture?
'One thing is clear from what happened last night; both sides are being manipulated by the same party with a lot of wrong inputs.' 'I see a hand in Delhi doing the puppet act on both sides.'
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, 11 parties on Tuesday got together with a vow to defeat Congress-led United Progressive Alliances and prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power by presenting themselves as an alternative to them.
'I would personally like to see Rahul Gandhi continue as party president.' 'I genuinely believe he has far more to offer to the party still, particularly in leading us in these challenging times that we find ourselves in.'
'Some false information was carried to Delhi, these negative bits seemed to have played heavily.' Union Textiles Minister KS on why he opposes the Telangana decision.
Jaitley said the Opposition has been using the zero hour to raise the issue for 'getting footage on TV'.
FDA allows Teva to launch Nexium generic; Cipla, which supplies formulation, to gain
Politicians have continued taking people for granted and managed to stay above the law, says T N Ninan
The proposed ban on cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh may hit luxury goods, jewellery sales and real estate.