While India today is vastly different from the India of 1975, the need for vigilance against authoritarianism remains the same, asserts Utkarsh Mishra.
A number of senior BJP leaders including Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and party Vice President S S Ahluwalia rushed to L K Advani's residence in New Delhi after the announcement of his resignation on Monday from key party fora.
Seeking a consensus on Narendra Modi's projection as the prime ministerial candidate, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has held confabulations with top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including L K Advani, who is said to have reservations on the issue.
Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader L K Advani has told party leaders that he does not want to continue as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for the next five years, senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said on Friday."He told us that he does not want to continue till the tenure of the 15th Lok Sabha and would like to hand over the responsibility to some other colleague," Naidu said.He said Advani was elected leader of the party for the 15th Lok Sabha.
The opposition party also said that it would like to remind the BJP that Hindu Mahasabha president Syama Prasad Mookerjee aligned with Jinnah's Muslim League to form the government in Bengal during the British rule.
The government has to specify what it intends to do with caste census data. It will be closely tracked if the government would simultaneously move towards removing the present 50% bar on reservations using means which are permitted in law. If this is not done, the entire exercise will become meaningless and could boomerang on the BJP, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
During Emergency Indira Gandhi acquired absolute power. Lakhs of political opponents, students, activists were arrested.
Attacking Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's close associate Sudheendhra Kulkarni on asked as to how a leader who has "polarised" the society and even his party can run a stable and effective government at the centre.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
Addressing media persons at a press conference, Swaraj said: "We have elected him for a full term. We did not elect him Leader of Opposition with a deadline."
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Thursday met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Sangh founthead office in New Delhi to discuss the recent developments in the party, including the elevation of Narendra Modi as Election Campaign Committee head and the Janata Dal-United's decision to quit the national Democratic Alliance.
Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday, seeking answers to five questions on the Bharatiya Janata Party's politics and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's actions.
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
The prolonged delay over electing J P Nadda's successor possibly stems from the RSS leadership wanting a person who is at least equidistant from the Sangh as well as the Modi/BJP edifice, observes BJP-RSS watcher Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'Had these leaders known that Jinnah was dying...'
If there is unity in the Opposition, it is only about regional parties other than the DMK not wanting Rahul Gandhi or any other Congress leader for prime minister, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh on Sunday met party patriarch L K Advani, who is sulking after Narendar Modi was named the party's prime ministerial candidate.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Sources in Kejriwal's office said it was conveyed to them by Advani's office that he has some engagements and cannot meet the chief minister as decided earlier.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
The demand was made by the Nationalist Congress Party, the Trinamool Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Leader of the Opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani makes a strong case for the revival of POTA.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday called for a "main front" of all non-BJP parties to take on the ruling alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and asserted that the decision on its leadership can be taken later.
According to the sources, during their floor coordination meeting this morning, leaders of the INDIA parties decided to continue their aggressive stance in Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha.
Naveen Patnaik's guest list has been prepared with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls, reports Archis Mohan.
Asked whether it meant that Advani should not be considered PM-in-waiting, he said, "No, this is not what I am saying. Whenever a decision is taken on the issue within the party and the NDA, you will be told."
Khurana, a party strongman in Delhi till a few years ago, has sent a letter to Advani containing his demand.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani said the Mumbai attack was nothing less than a fidayeen attack.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said the question of L K Advani's resignation does not arise once it has been rejected by the party's highest decision-making body. "The question of resignation does not arise once we have rejected it," Swaraj, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha told reporters.
Freedom At Midnight is a bold attempt to revisit the whole discourse about Partition, its causes, and the predicament under which the Congress leaders accepted it. It perfectly captures the extremely confused and complicated situation to which it seemed the only viable solution, observes Utkarsh Mishra.
Profit motives shouldn't override national interests, said BJP leader at the Business Standard annual awards function. Though he did not name Ranbaxy, the signal from the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate was clear.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani on Wednesday amidst speculations that the present monsoon session may be curtailed.
With a tagline "Dui hajaar uneesh, BJP finish, the West Bengal chief minister met several opposition party leaders as well as Bharatiya Janata Party critics and in-house rebels.
After Rahul's Bharat Jodo Yatra began criss-crossing the Hindi heartland, BJP leaders have revived their attacks on 'dynasty politics' and 'family rule' in the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Kerala BJP leadership is doing the job of clerical staff. What the boss orders, they just follow them.'
The veteran parliamentarian gave vent to his pain and anguish soon after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House for the day amid trading of charges between the government and the Opposition on smooth functioning of proceedings.
External Affairs Minister and leader of House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee called up Leader of the Opposition L K Advani expressing willingness to re-schedule the session as suggested by the latter at an all-party meeting on Friday on account of festivals, including Diwali, and the assembly elections.
Leader of Opposition L K Advani is upset with the developments in the Bharatiya Janata Party, on the event of the national executive to be held in New Delhi shortly.
Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, asserted on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete his full term if elected to power, refuting the Aam Aadmi Party's claim that Modi wants Shah to succeed him after turning 75 next year.
