Jitin Prasada was once considered as among Rahul Gandhi's 'young Turks' and was a minister in successive Manmohan Singh governments but defected from the Congress to the BJP in 2021, where he has again established himself as a prominent Brahmin face of Uttar Pradesh.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government publish a 'White Paper' on rising prices of essential commodities that crippled lives of the middle class and the poor in the country.
It seems as if the government is spending more time fighting its allies than the opposition. In particular, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has become a big headache for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, with sources saying that the Trinamool Congress leader has gone into opposition mode and is challenging most of the proposals put forward by the government.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Russia next week, according to a source in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.However, the Prime Minister's Office refused to confirm or deny the news.Dr Singh is scheduled to visit Yaketenaburg, an industrial town in Russia, on June 15-16 to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China summit.
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vehemently defended the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill 2010, it was only the eighth time he had addressed Parliament since his government took charge in May 2009.
Pledging to take corruption head on, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance on Sunday night promised to punish the guilty in scams and assured the people that it would demonstrate through actions and not words what it meant.
During the Cabinet reshuffle, the "give and take" amongst the trio of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi has resulted in a new paradigm of power within the Congress and the government, notes Sheela Bhatt.
Earlier, talking to reporters after meeting Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, Amar Singh said there was no immediate move to withdraw support to the Congress-Led coalition.
'Never in the history of any government, the first 100 days have been characterised by the daily turmoil that we witness in Parliament,' according to the PM.
Shivraj Patil will be the home minister, while Natwar Singh will be the next external affairs minister.
In a politically unstable climate, the prime minister is making it clear that he is still part of the political race. Renu Mittal reports.
The arguments in favour of the proposed 'Har Hath Mein Phone' scheme are strong. The challenge lies in its implementation.
The senior Congress leader, a Rajya Sabha MP, said "all your friends are greatly relieved that truth has prevailed".
How would you rate the UPA? Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government live up to its promises and the expectations? Or did it fail to deliver on tackling issues like poverty and corruption? Vote and tell us!
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has put the Manmohan Singh government in the dock with the party standing by former telecom minister A Raja who was arrested on Tuesday and making it clear that just because a person is arrested, it does not mean he is guilty.
With both friends and foes warning that spiralling prices of essential commodities might sound the 'death knell' for the Manmohan Singh government, reining in inflation will be a task for the UPA to accomplish to escape the ire of voters. As the government is caught in the web of coalition politics, the Congress-led UPA has to do a tight-rope walk so as not to annoy its Left partners and at the same time keep the voters in good humour by containing inflation.
"Seventy per cent of people of our country live in villages, earning livelihood from agriculture. My heart beats for these people," the NCP chief said.
Former Union law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj on Friday alleged that some of his Congress Party colleagues, especially former HRD Minister Arjun Singh, had asked him to influence the judiciary during his time in office under the first Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2009.
Union minister Chirag Paswan has caused a flutter by stating he would choose to give up his ministerial berth instead of a compromise on his principles, in keeping with the precedent set by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan.
"When Modiji undertakes a trip abroad, thousands of Indians wait to welcome him and foreign nations are eager to do business with India," he added.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party's senior leader Arun Jaitley has urged him to put an end to the alleged misuse of investigative agencies by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Information Technology giant Infosys, has lamented that economic activities in India were 'stalled' and decisions were not taken by the Manmohan Singh government in time in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-era.
Congress leaders A R Antulay, Vasantdada Patil, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan are among the leaders who were not members of any of the state legislature Houses when they occupied the top post.
"We are trying to transform India's economy where there is a premium on honesty... We switched over from a system which promotes it (corruption, dubious political funding, bribery) into a more ethical system which the developing economies in the world has followed," Jaitley told Times Now.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
Presenting a report card on completion of 30 days in office on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rued that he did not have the luxury of 'honeymoon' period as a "series of allegations" were levelled against his government in less than 100 hours.
"We urge the government that the issue of security of our leaders has to be beyond partisan political considerations," said Anand Sharma in Rajya Sabha.
The former PM also hit out at the Modi government saying it was "harping" on corruption to divert people's attention.
If elected, he will be the second All India Congress Committee president from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa, and also a Dalit leader to hold the post after Jagjivan Ram.
Sonia Gandhi is confident about a third term for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader A R Antulay passed away on Tuesday.
Singh asserted that the people have made up their minds to vote out the government
A day after the Union cabinet withdrew a controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers it had earlier cleared, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Thursday termed the decision as "strangulation of democracy" as it was effected after condemnation by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
Gandhi, then a newly appointed Congress chief, had staked claim to form the government at the Centre after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 1999.
Despite the Samajwadi Party demanding unconditional apology from Bharatiya Janata Party over chants of "Har Har NaMo" cheering BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi during a recent rally in Varanasi, Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday again raised slogans of 'Har Har Modi' while addressing party workers.
Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, has become the Congress' first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.
