National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Prime Minister's Principal Secretary T K A Nair have been asked to 'continue' in office till further orders, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said on Tuesday. The decision has been taken apparently to ensure continuity and speedy implementation of the United Progressive Alliance government's flagship programmes. The sources said that last week, Manmohan Singh asked Narayanan and Nair to continue in their posts.
He underlined that India stands for dialogue and cordial relationship with Pakistan.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
A confrontation with the Taliban in Kabul in this fading light of a twilight zone would have been sheer madness, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.
In a bid to allay global outrage after the leak of the United States snooping programme, President Barack Obama has put an end to the surveillance of "foreign leaders of friendly nations" but ruled out scrapping the controversial programme altogether.
The new minister must commit himself to supporting long-term defence plans or else defence modernisation will continue to lag and the growing military capabilities gap with China will assume ominous proportions, warns Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Former National Security Adviser of Pakistan Mahmud Ali Durrani, who was sacked after disclosing to media the Pakistani nationality of Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab, has said he had written authorisation from the prime minister to speak on the evolving situation in the wake of the 26/11 strikes.
'Anybody and everybody who opposes this government for whatever reasons will be branded a terrorist and charged in such a manner that all human rights will be taken away.'
The home ministry has sent a detailed sequence of events to the Prime Minister's Office, primarily blaming the ministry of defence for the inordinate delay, reports RS Chauhan
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also asked the RBI to make public details of FDI inflows from Cayman islands since demonetisation.
A high-level Indian delegation led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan arrived in Colombo on Friday for talks with Sri Lankan leaders amidst intense speculation on the nature of the visit, kept under wraps. The presence of Defence Secretary Vijay Singh in the delegation set tongues in political circles wagging in the backdrop of reports that with no let up in LTTE attacks Sri Lanka would like military assistance from India.
Following the arrest of a top terrorist who had made a video of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's office, it has come to light that Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad is planning a strike in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir police chief Dilbag Singh said on Sunday.
The upcoming National Security Advisor-level talks between Pakistan and India are in doldrums as both countries seem to be in no mood to defrost the tensions between them.
In an apparent reference to the Left parties' opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan on Wednesday said the lack of consensus on the issue was hampering efforts to become a part of nuclear mainstream and needed an early resolution. He said opposition to the nuclear deal within the country is driven by 'considerations' other than the factors like non-proliferation cited by some members of the international community.
Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz has accused India of acting like a regional superpower, saying it was imposing its agenda in violation of the Ufa agreement that scuttled the NSA-level talks. He said Pakistan was not responsible for the cancellation of the first-ever NSA-level talks.
Fugitive United States intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has said he would like to leak more secrets after disseminating documents on a complex network of snooping on phone and internet communications across the globe.
Why should an elected government, any party's government, need a law to protect itself from its people? asks Shekhar Gupta.
The United States has asserted that it will continue to gather foreign intelligence, which it argued is essential to keep the nation and allies safe, amid report that National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders.
Former Union home minister Shivraj Patil has been appointed the Governor of Punjab while National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has been appointed the Governor of West Bengal.Senior Congress leader M O H Farooq has been appointed the Governor of Jharkhand and Urmila Singh has been appointed the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, according to a statement by the Rashtrapati Bhavan.Erstwhile Chhattisgarh Governor E S L Narasimhan will take charge as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.