The protesters who had gathered under the banner of the Joint Forum for Restoration of Old Pension Scheme and National Joint Council of Action said they were worried about their post-retirement future.
At the meeting, many parties urged the Congress to publicly denounce the ordinance but the Congress refused to do so, claimed AAP, adding that the grand old party's "silence raises suspicions about its real intentions".
In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
Few in Varanasi expect the result to be different from 2014 and 2019. The only point of interest is whether Narendra Modi will increase his winning margin against his rivals.
The Delhi services bill that entails the creation of an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in the national capital and gives the central government primacy over such appointments has received presidential assent.
"Is it any surprise that the new Parliament is being consecrated with typically false narratives from WhatsApp University? The BJP-RSS distorians stand exposed yet again with maximum claims, minimum evidence," Congress general secretary communications Ramesh said in his tweet.
NEET is a court-ordered examination, supposedly aimed at meritocracy. However, over the past years when the incumbent Narendra Modi government at the Centre began implementing it, it took on political and casteist colours, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Nasreen, who served as the director of the Indian Cultural Centre at the high commission of India in Male, Republic of Maldives, from 2019 to 2023, shared insights into the growing influence of China and Pakistan in countering India's soft power.
'The Constitution of India is a stumbling block. So, they want a Presidential mode of election.' 'This is the sole purpose of the BJP to go for one nation, one election.'
AAP organisational general secretary Sandeep Pathak cited the performance of the party in recent local bodies polls in MP and said it will form the next government.
The grand old party is looking to retain power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh while seeking to come to power in the other three states going to polls -- Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram.
Naidu also termed the dharna by opposition leaders near the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises as a big tamasha and an insult to the Father of the Nation.
The National Democratic Alliance, led by strong man Narendra Modi secured a whopping 352 of 542 seats, making it evident that his message of muscular nationalism, security and Hindu pride had worked wonders.
Seventy-seven MLAs were present in the assembly during the voting.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance looked set to return to power in Maharashtra while Haryana could be a cliffhanger with no clear majority for the BJP or the Congress, Election Commission trends indicated.
Counting of votes will be held on Sunday in assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana in what is seen as a semi-final contest ahead of the general elections in less than six months.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
"What is the hurry," Modi said, while referring to Gandhi's hand gestures when he came across to PM's chair.
Their leaders go abroad and abuse India, while BJP workers sacrifice everything for the sake of the nation, Modi said.
The Congress on Thursday slammed the Centre after a May 4 video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur surfaced, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge accusing the Narendra Modi government of turning democracy into 'mobocracy'.
Replying to the debate in Rajya Sabha on a motion thanking the president for his address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament, he said for the first time in decades, people of Jammu and Kashmir got benefits of reservation.
The speculation was triggered after Shravan Kumar, a Bihar minister, who is also the Janata Dal-United's in-charge for UP, said there were 'demands' that the party boss enter the fray from the adjoining state.
The party, however, did not announce as whether it would merge with any other party or become part of some other alliance.
Earlier in the day, one person was killed and three were injured after a crude bomb went off in a mango orchard in Murshibabad district, police said.
'If the Opposition believes the BJP is out to undermine the principles on which the Constitution rests, they had better start behaving as though they believe in those principles,' says T N Ninan.
The opposition Republican Party plunged into a crisis as its Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost the gavel after a small group of its Congressmen joined hands with the Democratic Party in an unprecedented vote in the House of Representatives.
'Elections and audience interest in specific movies are often independent factors.'
It said the Congress will infuse new blood in leadership roles without creating new fault lines and cementing its ideological moorings.
'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.' 'So, when the Opposition sweepingly says there are no jobs, I'm sorry... I'm not saying it's raining jobs, but there are jobs. The (skill) gap has to be bridged.'
The JD-U also accused the ruling BJP of having "authoritarian" tendencies and destabilising non-BJP governments in several states, including Delhi and Jharkhand besides Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra earlier.
Rajasthan Congress leaders Jyoti Mirdha and Sawai Singh Chaudhary switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jaipur on Monday ahead of assembly elections due later this year.
"Religious festivals seem to have become occasions to intimidate and bully others -- a far cry from when they were occasions for joy and celebration. Instead, there is intimidation and discrimination only on account of their religion, food, caste, gender or language," Gandhi said.
Can Mamata Banerjee unite the Opposition?
The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday said the problem with electoral bonds scheme is that it provides for "selective anonymity" and "selective confidentiality" as the details are available with the State Bank of India (SBI) and can also be accessed by the law enforcement agencies.
The Congress victory in Karnataka, its first big state since 2018, puts the party back in the game for general elections as it re-establishes primacy in the opposition space that is currently vastly fragmented despite efforts to cobble up a united front against the BJP.
'He only promotes those leaders who will never show any resistance to him in future.'
Seeking to make inroads in Chhattisgarh, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced 10 'guarantees' for the upcoming assembly polls in the Congress-ruled state including free electricity, monthly 'samman rashi' for women and Rs 3,000 monthly allowance for the unemployed.
Gokhale has said that China used its "close connections" with the Left parties in India to "build domestic opposition" to the Indo-US nuclear deal.
'They know the people of Karnataka will not accept it.'
Polling for assembly polls is underway in Meghalaya and Nagaland, northeastern states the Bharatiya Janata Party rules in alliance with regional powers.
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