New Delhi's defence establishment has quietly put in place India's own counter-measures to woo and bolster China's neighbours as a long-term strategy, says Nitin Gokhale.
On August 17, the Rajya Sabha for the first time will take up a case of impeachment of a sitting judge of the Calcutta high court, Justice Soumitra Sen. An impeachment motion will be moved by Communist party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury.
You see him seated at meetings, looking a trifle lost, or mouthing homilies at government functions (the MAFA syndrome -- mistaking articulation for action). Other than that, he is both invisible and silent. This is no way to lead.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves on Saturday on a four-day visit to South Korea where he will seek to strengthen ties with his Asian economic partner and also participate in the Nuclear Security Summit. During his visit to Seoul, Dr Singh is scheduled to hold talks with President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday to forge closer economic ties. This will be the second official visit by an Indian prime minister to South Korea after the visit of P V Narasimha Rao in 1993.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP D N V Senthil Kumar on Wednesday apologised in the Lok Sabha for his controversial 'north-south divide' remark which had sparked a backlash.
Revealing the stand of the outfit in the aftermath of the arrest of most of its top leaders in the past few months, spokesperson Mithinga Daimary also said that given the (changed) political situation in the region and the world, sticking to the armed struggle could prove suicidal.
The Congress president during his year at the helm of the party has repaired the citadel for far more challenging years ahead, and played a crucial role in shaping the Opposition alliance.
Former telecom minister Sukh Ram on Wednesday moved the Delhi high court challenging his conviction and sentencing by a trial court for taking Rs 3 lakh as bribe to award a lucrative contract to a telecom firm in 1996.
Former Telecom Minister Sukhram was on Saturday awarded five years imprisonment by a Delhi court after being convicted of taking Rs three lakhs as bribe to give a lucrative contract to a private firm in 1996.
Senior BJP leader and party prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Tuesday alleged that the Manmohan Singh Government is the most inefficient one which compromised national security and pushed the price-graph due to its financial mismanagement.
A statesman, scholar and linguist Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao will be remembered for several firsts to his credit during an eventful five years as prime minister in the last decade that saw India take a new economic path.
'Don't be surprised if the Census forms come with a caste box.' 'I will be surprised if it doesn't. It will be a point conceded to Rahul Gandhi and his allies,' asserts Shekhar Gupta. The BJP machine could take all 3 in its stride, but this election has changed that, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Security to controversial politician Matang Sinh, who was arrested by CBI in connection with Saradha scam, has been finally withdrawn.
The government on Thursday said there were no records of calls made by home ministry officials before the exit of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson from India in December, 1984 and on the 'safe passage' assurance reportedly given to him. A day after Congress leader Arjun Singh sought to point fingers at P V Narasimha Rao for the exit of Anderson, an accused in the Bhopal gas disaster case, Home Minister P Chidambaram also gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a joint session of the US Congress on June 22 during his official state visit to the country, top congressional leaders announced on Friday.
'It is not just about numbers. Sometimes coalitions and alliances have symbolic value.'
YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has proved that he was the real heir to the political legacy of his father late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
The most interesting news and features on rediff.com.
The wax statue of Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar will be unveiled at Madame Tussauds Museum in April, the first Indian sportsperson to be featured in one of London's famous tourist attraction.
A copybook President, R Venkataraman, who passed into the ages on Tuesday, skilfully guided the country through a testing period of coalition politics in its nascent days that saw three prime ministers in two years.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari on Friday said his party was not against Electronic Voting Machines or the use of technology in elections, but wanted paper back-up, as it had not been proved conclusively that EVMs were tamper-proof. Gadkari insisted that reservations about EVMs were not confined to the BJP alone and many other political parties, including the Orissa unit of the Congress, were wary of its use."The system should be modernised," Gadkari said.
Wiping the tears of the most oppressed in society and giving them succor remains central to the Gandhian vision and the mismatch between rhetoric and reality in the current Indian context is glaring.
From a hard core Leftist in the late 1960s to being the liberal face, Palaniappan Chidambaram combines in him the qualities of a bold reformer, experienced administrator and a taskmaster in whatever assignment is given to him.
The Liberhan Commission''s Report on the Babri Mosque demolition and the Action Taken Report (ATR) will be discussed in Parliament on Monday.
The list of departures from the path of economic reforms can be longer.
The Balochs were totally suppressed by the Punabi-dominated Pakistani Army till 2004. But their desire for independence has remained as strong as ever. They started a second war of independence in December 2005, which continues till now despite the ruthless actions taken to suppress them by the previous government of Pervez Musharraf and the present government of Asif Ali Zardari.
While Modi has spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor (270 days versus Dr Singh's 306), he has travelled more extensively and actively than any other Indian PM.
In a strange case two judges -- father and son -- landed in jail in a dowry harassment case in Hyderabad. A court in the city remanded T Kiran Kumar, a magistrate, his father second additional district sessions judge of Mahbubnagar T Narasimha Rao and his wife Narayanamma to two weeks' judicial custody on the complaint of harassment for dowry.
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
In a short video of the incident, the woman is seen telling police personnel that she threw the slipper because "Sidhu spoke against Modi".
Kishore said the Congress and its supporters are bigger than any individual and Gandhi should not be stubborn that it must be him who will deliver for the party despite repeated failures.
Former Union Communications Minister Sukhram was on Wednesday sentenced to three years imprisonment by a Delhi court for amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 4.25 crore during his tenure in the P V Narasimha Rao government. The verdict was delivered in a packed courtroom in New Delhi in the presence of the octogenarian politician, from whose official house in Delhi Rs 2.45 crore in cash were recovered 13 years ago by a CBI team.
Mole issue: PIL against Vajpayee, Jaswant
Former union urban development minister Sheila Kaul and her colleague P K Thungan are set to face criminal trial in a 1995 scam relating to allotment of over 40 shops and stalls in Delhi, as a Delhi court on Monday ordered framing of charges against them in the case.
Over a decade ago, PV Narasimha Rao had postulated a 'look east' policy for India. In view of the dynamism of the Asian economies in the early 1990s, it made sense to take advantage of the opportunities that these countries provided to expand Indian exports as also to diversify them away from excessive dependence on the US and Europe.
Accusing the Congress of using money power to win the trust vote, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said on Friday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had 'bettered the record' of his predecessor P V Narasimha Rao for indulging in immoral and shady practices' to remain in power.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said the country needs a strong government but not of 'one party with brute majority', and batted for a coalition rule.
The Ministry of Education was renamed as the HRD ministry in 1985 during the tenure of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The architect of India's economic reforms, Manmohan Singh, has another big mission on his hands now.