Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Saturday charged the Centre with attacking constitutional institutions working in the interest of the people and said it was harmful for the nation.
Joshi termed as 'absurd notion' the prosecution's view that the Shankaracharya could poison himself if he was allowed to cook his own food in jail.
'When Dr Murli Manohar Joshi wanted to start a course on astrology, Jayant was the first one to have the courage to stand up and say astrology is not science.' 'That's a very rare quality -- to stand up to authority.'
A spokesperson told reporters in New York that Vajpayee has been in touch with Joshi, who resigned after a special court in Rae Bareli decided to frame charges against him and six others in the Babri Masjid demolition case on Friday.
Shah's meeting with the two leaders came days after they were not given poll tickets.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari hit out at Public Accounts Committee chairman Dr Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday, for not taking the members of the committee in confidence before the scheduled meeting on Thursday, and for trying to push his report.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday said Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi had no right to submit the draft report on the 2G scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it was 'rejected' by a majority of the committee's members.
Former Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi is likely to become the next chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee while Yashwant Sinha will replace him as head of the Standing Committee on Finance, BJP sources said.
Congress on Sunday demanded the resignation of Murli Manohar Joshi as Public Accounts Committee Chairman alleging the Bharatiya Janata Party leader was making the Parliament committee "partisan and motivated" and "playing politics" by circulating afresh with some changes the panel's controversial report on 2G scam.
By naming a sworn swayamsevak for vice president, the Modi-Shah duo have sent out a clear and positive message to Nagpur, where the RSS headquarters is located, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday came to the defence of senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, whom NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra has accused of meeting the officials of companies involved in the 2G scam, saying the charges levelled against him are "false" and "baseless".
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday charged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with orchestrating a vilification campaign against the Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi after the parliamentary panel had asked a PMO official and the Attorney General to appear before it for questioning in the 2G scam.
The petition challenges the Rae Bareli court decision against him in the Ayodhya demolition case.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi tells Rediff.com's Savera R Someshwar he is shocked that the Marathi Manoos, for whom Balasaheb Thackeray did so much, are raising objections to a samadhi to the Shiv Sena patriarch at Mumbai's Shivaji Park.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday said that a Comptroller Auditor General inquiry should be conducted into expenditure made during Maha Kumbh Mela at Allahabad.
Dialogue between Udhav and Raj can end imbroglio: Joshi
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has demanded that Home Minister P Chidambaram should be dropped from the cabinet for his alleged misdeeds in leaking the PAC report, sending wrong data of most-wanted persons to Pakistan, his role in the 2G spectrum scam and for the rise in fuel prices when he was the finance minister.
Former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudarshan and former Bharatiya Janata Party president Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday attended a function to release a book, which severely criticises former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Politics over its critical reports on scams echoed in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Wednesday when Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi praised Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for defending both the CAG and the PAC when they came under attack.
In a surprise development, senior Bharatiya Janata P Leader Murli Manohar Joshi, a well-known critic of L K Advani, is understood to have advised Gujarat dissidents to meet the party president and seek redressal of their grievances.
A day after a chaotic meeting of the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, its Chairperson Murli Manohar Joshi along with National Democratic Alliance, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Biju Janata Dal and Left members are exploring the possibility of submitting the draft report on 2G scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar before its term expires on Ffriday.
Only in the event of the RSS managing to force Modi into accepting a consensual candidate, will the party not continue to 'being' the 'next Congress', observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi who heads the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament has said that the prime minister's offer to depose before the committee is being considered. Joshi said that the Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai had not been summoned, but was a partt of the committee's proceedings.
The Shunglu committee, which went into the financial needs of the Indian Institutes of Management, is understood to have backed the drastic fee reduction mooted by Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.
Joshi courted arrest after he made a speech and was taken away in a police bus.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday attacked Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi saying his draft report on his role in 2G spectrum allocation was a "gross distortion" which "deliberately and mischievously" omitted his suggestions on the issue.
He said the IITs, established on the same lines as IIMs, which were charging a mere Rs 30,000 annually, would certainly be prompted to raise the fees if not compelled.
The statement by Public Accounts Committee Chairman Dr Murali Manohar Joshi -- about the offer of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to appear before the PAC to clarify his position in the 2G spectrum scam -- has shocked senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Joshi said on Friday that the large-scale spending on the premier technology schools of the country were not paying back ample dividends.
The former HRD minister said the Congress is changing the education system of the country under 'unwanted influence of Left ideology'.
Against the backdrop of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Kishenchand Advani's 'PM-in-waiting' remarks, former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday said he believes there is no dearth of leaders in the party for the post.
Journalists, whose names have cropped up in the 2G scam tapes, will face the Public Accounts Committee, PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi has said.
He ruled out any differences among the BJP's top echelon over the issue, saying: "The media has written enough about it but it [the speculation] will come to an end by tomorrow evening."
On a day when the Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G scam was set up, the Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi said his panel has every authority to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to appear before it.
Wangchuk, who has been camping at Ladakh Bhawan in the national capital, is yet to be approached by a central government representative, a group member said.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday ruled out reversal of government's decision to lower fees of Indian Institutes of Management.