The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday rose to the defence of former L K Advani aide Sudheendra Kulkarni in the cash-for-votes scam, saying whistleblowers cannot be charged and wondered why those who had benefitted from the scandal had not even been questioned.
In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.
Venkaiah Naidu said 'let there be a discussion... November 8 is a historic day'.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that there is a need for a strong Lokpal Bill to deal with the menace of corruption.
The Bharatiya Janata Party wants the Supreme Court's Ayodhya deferment order vacated, said senior party leader Arun Jaitley, while stressing that he had a "limited mandate" fom the party in making such a statement.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday claimed that the crisis in its Rajasthan unit had blown over and indicated that the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Vasundhara Raje is the undisputed head of the party there. Top leaders of BJP, including Arun Jaitley, placated Raje on Monday morning over the phone and asked her to pipe down. She had gone public with her anger over her party colleague Gulabchand Kataria's decision to kick off a yatra in the state.
Congress has repeatedly alleged a "scam" in the purchase of Rafale fighter jets claiming the cost per aircraft in 2012 was agreed at Rs 526.10 crore while the one signed by the Modi government costs 7.5 billion (Rs 1,670.70 crore per aircraft).
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's meeting with BJP top brass L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday ended on a positive note with both sides reaching a consensus on most issues in the draft bill.The Parliamentary Standing Committee finalised its report on Nuclear Liability Bill. The Compensation cap raised from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday asked its MPs to be present all day long in both Houses of Parliament for passage of crucial bills including the land bill coming up in Lok Sabha and the coal and mines bills in Rajya Sabha.
Thirty-five Union ministers on Friday huddled in a strategy meeting for an image make-over for the government on a day when Congress began its foot march against the land bill from the symbolical Bhatta Parsaul village.
The opposition battled it out with the Centre over farmer issues, the suspension of 6 MPs and the privileges of MPs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of failing to act on corruption cases, saying it was the cause of people's angry reactions and huge support to Anna Hazare's campaign for an effective Lokpal bill.
In a veiled attack on Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday asked the party why it was shying away from demanding the resignations of Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, for their alleged involvement in the IPL scam. Maneka said Patel and his daughter had flouted so many rules, but still the party had not demanded the minister's resignation.
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.
Frank Simoes-Tag and Utopia have won the contract for the media campaign from among 12 leading advertising companies. The final approval came from the Media Campaign Committee headed by BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley.
In Agartala, the Group A match between Mumbai and Tripura ended in a draw with the reigning champions earning three points by virtue of the first-innings lead.
Condemning the incidents of intolerance, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it is against the traditions of our culture. He said publicising the acts of vandalism is also a matter of great concern.
In a House of 243, the ruling United Progressive Alliance has the clear support of 101 members and needs at least another 21 members to ensure a simple majority for the bill
As unrest continues in Kashmir, the central government on Sunday outlined its priorities, asserting that there will be no compromise with those indulging in violence even efforts will be made for development of the state which was "denied" for the last 60 years.
The leaked Niira Radia tapes indicated that the health of every government institution is at stake and only a joint parliamentary probe could unravel the various facets of the 2G scam, including the 'role of power brokers' in the allocation of telecom portfolio, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley has said.
'If Parliament had not been obstructed, even the Indian media would not have realised that such a monumental scam had taken place,' says Arun Jaitley.
Key United Progressive Alliance ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party were on the same page on Sunday in their criticism of the Centre and the Congress over the handling of the Telangana statehood issue, which has spawned a crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday dubbed the Liberhan Commission report, probing the Babri Masjid demolition, as devoid of any credibility and said the 'leakage' of the report was as dubious as its content.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the serial blasts that claimed 18 lives in Mumbai on Wednesday night were a grim reminder "that India continues to be high on the terror list of terror outfits operating from Pakistan". "My heart goes out to the families of those who have lost their near and dear ones in this dastardly attack. No amount of condemnation is going to satisfy our sense of anger," he said.
The Finance Minsiter says country requires 'a larger opening out in more sectors, stability of policy and tax regime'
It was after a long gap that an aggressive and united Congress took the Bharatiya Janata Party head on in both the Houses of Parliament over the WikiLeaks exposure on the cash-for-vote scam as the party fielded its brightest and the best.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's writ seems to have run and how! The government in a sudden move, almost deceptively, put the women's bill to voice vote in the Rajya Sabha and opened the new chapter in constitutional history.
Targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said he has remained silent for three years on the 2G spectrum scam to "save his chair" and asked who is the "godfather" of A Raja as the former Telecom Minister alone is not responsible for decisions cleared by the Union cabinet.
Arun Jaitley and Janardan Dwivedi have rewritten the rules of politics in the Age of the Internet and its young and restless user base, reports Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitely tears into Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's press conference, and remarks that the 'formality' ended as a 'farce'.
While the Congress will firm up its strategy once the ruling alliance tables the Bill, initial comments by its leaders have been encouraging.
The issue of cross border terrorism must be addressed to find a 'pragmatic' solution to the Kashmir issue, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said as leaders from India and Pakistan favoured making the border 'irrelevant' to promote people-to-people contacts and discard the 'mistrust'.
Government on Thursday accused Congress of being "irresponsible" for not allowing Home Minister Rajnath Singh to make a statement in Rajya Sabbha on the Gurdaspur terrorist attack, which it said had originated from Pakistan.
With just eight days left for the winter session, Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minster M Venkaiah Naidu held consultations with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Deputy Leader Anand Sharma.
Naidu 'disturbed' by media reports that Opposition parties will now be more emboldened to unite and stall the government's Parliamentary agenda for the Winter Session.
Green's return would allow Australia to harness uncapped Matt Kuhnemann with Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy in a three-pronged spin attack
The Amritsar Lok Sabha battle is getting more and more personal. Congress candidate and former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh says merely being a Punjabi does not give his Bharatiya Janata Party rival Arun Jaitley the right to contest from Amritsar and he does not know anything about the place.
Everything you wanted to know about Prime Minister Narendra Modi but didn't know who to ask. Read on!
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is unlikely to heed economists' suggestion that an inheritance tax be introduced in Budget 201415 as an additional revenue stream.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is unlikely to heed economists' suggestion that an inheritance tax be introduced in Budget 201415 as an additional revenue stream.
