Paying tributes to Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of Constitution, the prime minister said he would be happy to see that India has strengthened and empowered its democracy in the last 70 years.
Launching a counter offensive against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for giving the Modi government "zero out of 10" for handling farmers' issues, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that "zeroes cannot see beyond zero".
The Trinamool Congress Friday appointed former party MP Arpita Ghosh as its state general secretary, two days after the Rajya Sabha chairman accepted her resignation from the Upper House.
Naidu informed the House that he had received letters from Singh and 13 other MPs seeking leave of absence on medical grounds.
Referring to the exit plan being planned by the government, Naidu said, "The next one week of lockdown is very critical for evolving an exit strategy since the data regarding the spread of virus and its rate during the next week will have a bearing on the decision to be taken."
Aamir Khan was at the centre of a raging debate a day after he expressed "alarm and despondency" over the rise in incidents of intolerance in the last six to eight months.
Terming the cash-for-votes scandal as "mother of all scams", senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday demanded that a special investigation team be set up to find out who was the beneficiary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met the freedom fighters and greeted them on this occasion. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla were among the dignitaries present there.
The country's 5,000 MPs, MLAs and MLCs should resolve in this historic year to return to the people the favour they have been doing by relentlessly nurturing democracy over the last 70 years, he said.
In a bid to defuse the crisis in Bharatiya Janata Party over Vasundhara Raje's continuance as Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, the party's central leadership has summoned her to the capital on August 31 to meet senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu.
Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar visits the site for former President Kalam's memorial.
The name of the next vice president of India will be known on Saturday evening after members of Parliament cast their ballot during the day in Parliament House.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, popular TV-star-turned-politician Smriti Irani, actor-turned-politician Shatrughna Sinha and senior leader Venkaiah Naidu will campaign for the party in Arunachal Pradesh, which goes to polls on October 13.While Irani has already addressed a series of election meetings in Itanagar, Sinha is scheduled to address a poll meeting at Along in Pasighat on Wednesday. Singh will hit the campaign trail on October 2.
He was a nine-time MLA, one-time Lok Sabha member and former finance minister of Tamil Nadu and a close friend of former Chief Minister late Karunanidhi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party supported the Telangana bill in Rajya Sabha onThursday but sought amendments to ensure the Seemandhra region got justice and a "defective" legislation was not passed.
In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu could not read out his customary closing remarks that sum up the business conducted in the House during the session, as Shiv Sena and other opposition MPs created a ruckus.
Buying of land should be left to developers and land owners: Venkaiah.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said there was "some amount" of intolerance in the society which has to be identified and dealt with firmly, instead of generalising it.
Vajpayee held consultations with Deputy Prime Minister Advani, BJP president Venkaiah Naidu and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh in this regard on Monday night.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu has said that the party will discuss the strategy for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections at its national council meeting at Nagpur from February 6 to 8. Naidu, who was in Vijayawada to review arrangements for Vijaya Sankalp Yatra, a public meeting to be addressed by the party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Wednesday, told mediapersons that 8,000 party functionaries from all over the country would participate.
They said the picture did not feature any 'life support system like a ventilator' and it was reassuring that their Thalaivar (leader) was recuperating well.
The talks between the Left and the Congress over the India-United States nuclear agreement was only a commercial break, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday. "There is every possibility of a mid-term election. Currently both the Congress and Left parties have taken a commercial break," Naidu told reporters at the BJP headquarters in Raipur.
Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will attend the swearing-in ceremony in which Narendra Modi will take oath as Gujarat chief minister on Wednesday. Heavy security arrangements have been made at the Sardar Patel Stadium where Modi will be sworn in as Chief Minister at a grand function at around 11 am.
Janata Dal-United MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh offered juice to Harivansh to help him break the fast.
Chief Justice of India N V Ramana administered the oath of office of the President to her in the Central Hall of Parliament.
'Vajpayee is the tallest leader of the BJP...' Venkaiah Naidu said, adding that the party held him in 'high esteem'.
'I will wholeheartedly campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Vajpayee,' the Bollywood star of yesteryears said.
M Venkaiah Naidu launched a scathing attack on the Congress for calling statements of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi anti-national and saying he should be tried for treason. "What else can you expect from the Congress government but to launch treason proceedings against Modi and confer the Bharat Ratna on Mohammad Afzal Guru who was awarded death sentence for attacking Parliament in December 2001," he told rediff.com.
The metro section opened at noon on Thursday for the general public.
Doubting the United Progressive Alliance government's intentions in conducting an impartial probe into the VVIP chopper deal, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded that a special investigation team be set up to investigate the matter under a monitoring mechanism.
The DDCA issue is likely to create ruckus in Parliament on Monday with parties looking to target Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as he is "practically the number two in the government".
UD Ministry will also give priority to linking of twin cities and infrastructure development of satellite towns and cleaning of religious cities across the country.
Leaders of several opposition parties took out a protest march in Delhi against the government on several issues, including Pegasus and alleged manhandling of their MPs in Rajya Sabha
Union Home Secretary R K Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar will face tough questions on Thursday from the members of the Standing Committee on Union Ministry of Home Affairs headed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu.
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 Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that those who oppose Foreign Direct Investment in retail are "ignorant", saying it is not the Opposition which is ignorant, but the United Progressive Alliance government and the Congress Party.
The governor told the delegation that he was considering the matter.
"Practice your religion but don't abuse and indulge in hate speech and writings," the Vice President said at an event organised to mark the 150th death anniversary of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, a spiritual leader and social reformer from the Kerala Catholic community, at Mannanam near Kottayam.
