Welcoming the fresh initiative of the Centre to find a solution to the decades-old problem, 13 Congress ministers from Telangana have withdrawn their resignations.
The much-awaited women's reservation bill will be brought to the Lok Sabha soon, the government said on Saturday.
Among the new entrants in the council headed by the Prime Minister, which will now have 147 members, are Ambika Soni, Dayanidhi Maran and Salman Khursheed have made their entry as Union Ministers while BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have come in as Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.
With Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi appearing before the Special Investigation Team in connection with a 2002 riots case, the Centre on Saturday said it was 'unfortunate' that a chief minister has 'landed' himself in such a situation.
The government said on Tuesday that it would hold a discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and not bulldoze the passage of the evolutionary measure involving amendment of the Constitution.
Faced with strident opposition from the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal over the Women's Reservation Bill, the government on Monday said it does not want to 'bulldoze' the Constitutional amendment and would favour a 'healthy debate' before going ahead with it. After a day of high drama in the Rajya Sabha, where the bill was moved for consideration, Law Minister Veerappa Moily slammed the Opposition parties for the way they protested against it.
The appointment of a new chief information commissioner has been deferred as the scheduled meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Leader of Opposition L K Advani has been postponed. Official sources said the meeting of the three-member committee comprising the Prime Minister, Advani and Law Minister Veerappa Moily has been postponed without citing any reasons and no new date has been given.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had a brief meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on salient features of the Budget.
Apparently embarrassed by the resignation of two party Members of Legislative Assembly from Telangana to protest the Terms of Reference of the Sri Krishna committee, the Congress high command has summoned the two legislators to Delhi for talks.R Damodar Reddy and Ch Mutyam Reddy left for the national capital on Tuesday to hold talks with Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, in-charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, and other leaders.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will undertake an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of Karnataka's Bellary district on Monday.
It is pertinent to mention that the ministry of defence had agreed to vacate the spectrum only during middle of this year.
The Congress leadership has also asked its leaders not to make any public statements on sensitive issues.
By the looks of it, the Congress cannot hope to return to power even in election 2024. What it can do is to start from the bottom, hold organisational elections, which are honest, and co-opt those elected to form teams of office-bearers at all levels, right up to the working committee. By the very nature of the elections that they are going to lose, the party should use the interim to shore up youth power, or whatever remains, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Seeking to take the wind out of defiant Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's sails, Congress on Monday announced Rs 1 lakh each to the families of those who committed suicide in the wake of the death of then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and his father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
"There are differing views (in the Cabinet), but that does not mean divisions," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said when asked about the lack of consensus at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday on conducting caste-based census.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected to issue a statement on Wednesday on Telangana, which the party hopes would undo some of the damage of the December 9 midnight statement by Chidambaram, without in any way going back on the statement made by the home minister.
In a bid to find a way out on the Telangana issue, the Centre and the Congress on Tuesday began hectic consultations with MPs from Andhra Pradesh, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said a decision would be taken soon to "bring everything in order".
The government on Monday ruled out imposition of President's rule in Andhra Pradesh, saying it was 'absolutely foolish' to even think about it.
Union Home Secretary G K PIllai has said Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana. MPs from the non-Telangana areas will meet Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
In the aftermath of the announcement to form a separate state of Telangana, the Congress party is now facing new problems.
The United Progressive Alliance government on Wednesday said a solution to the contentious Telengana issue is 'under discussion' but refused to set a timeframe for it.Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said the issue is under discussion but the government has not yet arrived at a decision to the issue, which hogged the limelight following violent protests by the Telanagana Rashtriya Samiti and an indefinite hunger strike by its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The government on Tuesday said it has accepted all the recommendations made by the Liberhan Commission in the backdrop of the Babri Masjid demolition and 'positive action' would be taken on them.
For the past one-and-a-half months, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has stopped her informal interactions with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after a sharp exchange on telephone over a municipal election issue.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Leader of Opposition L K Advani and Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Friday to decide on the new Chief Information Commissioner but the meeting remained "inconclusive".
The Congress on Wednesday night denounced as "most mischievous, highly motivated and perverse" the editorial in the Nationalist Congress Party mouthpiece calling Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi arrogant.
The lawyers of Gujarat high court are all set to go on a strike if Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily doesn't pay attention to the issue of 35 per cent posts of judges lying vacant in the HC. In Gujarat, due to various administrative reasons and probably due to political tension between the Centre and the state, new appointments have not been made since many years. The situation has now reached crisis proportions as an increasing backlog of cases is piling up.
Former Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi, whose dilution of charges in the Bhopal gas case has created a storm, on Saturday said he would not like to enter into the blame game over the issue of accused getting light punishment.
A six-point charter with terms and reference for a committee to lay a road map for Telangana is ready. The file has been approved by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister M Veerappa Moily. It will be taken to the prime minister on Friday for final clearance.
Government will assist the Supreme Court in arriving at a "right decision" on the issue of decriminalising homosexuality and no decision should be expected from the Union Cabinet on the matter, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Sunday.
As the debate over the issue of leadership raged, another group of leaders put their weight behind the Gandhi family on Sunday, calling for Sonia Gandhi to stay or Rahul Gandhi to take charge again.
The campaign for making Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy, gathered pace on Friday with his supporters losing no time and taking up the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Rosaiah was administered the oath of office and secrecy at a simple ceremony by Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari at the Raj Bhavan.
There are indications that the Centre will order a reinvestigation of the case against former Haryana director general of police S P S Rathore, convicted of molesting a teenaged girl who later killed herself, in the face of public outcry that he got away with a light punishment and that should be charged with abetment to suicide.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a ministers' group to monitor the government's stand on the Ambani gas dispute in the Supreme Court.
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday accused the Centre of stoking fire by announcing the "shocking decision" about creation of separate Telangana state and said the onus lay with it to douse it.
The Centre on Saturday sought to downplay the growing momentum for carving out of small states in some regions after the decision on Telangana and said cooperation of (undivided) states and political parties is needed in addressing such demands.
Veerappa Moily was forced to defer the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill, 2009 after the Opposition, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and Left, took strong objection to Clause VI of the Bill which states that High Court and Supreme Court Judges would declare their assets but the same would not be made public.
The three-member panel of Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad met in New Delhi on Tuesday evening and "critically analysed" the pros and cons of the Delhi High Court judgement legalising gay sex.
The meeting, which will take place almost a month after incumbent CIC Wajahat Habibullah resigned, is being looked forward to by RTI activists who have been demanding transparency in the selection process and pressing for the appointment of a non-bureaucrat to the post.
As the Delhi High Court legalised gay sex among consenting adults in a path-breaking judgment on Thursday, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government reacted cautiously by stating that it will have to examine the judgment in detail before taking any decisions. "We need to examine the details of the judgment. Let me examine it," Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily told reporters in New Delhi.
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