Accusing the Congress and Telugu Desam Party leaders from Telangana of being insincere over their resignations in support of separate statehood demand, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and political Joint Action Committee on Wednesday announced an action plan to intensify the stir to make them quit and mount pressure on the Centre.
The BJP had no option but to get Jagdeep Dhankhar out of its way for the sake of the Modi government's stability, reveals Sheela Bhatt, the legendary political journalist.
Normal life was affected on Friday in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh following the day-long bandh called by the Telangana political Joint Action Committee.
While the BJP went back to the drawing board to recraft its political and governance outreach and regained momentum by notching up surprisingly big wins in a string of assembly polls, the burst of fresh optimism in the main opposition Congress and other INDIA bloc parties fizzled out.
Joint Action Committee head Professor M Kodandaram says that looking at the atrocities being committed on students by the Andhra Pradesh government, the political JAC has decided to act fast and not wait until February to start their aggressive campaign for a separate state.
EPS has had its way on most things, alliance-wise. A week earlier, he reiterated that he would not re-admit OPS and Sasikala Natarajan back in the party. It was a message not just to detractors in the AIADMK. It was even more so for the BJP leadership in Delhi. Even more important for the AIADMK was their demand for accepting EPS as the chief ministerial candidate of any alliance that the party would form, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Activists have divided themselves into teams and positioned themselves in front of the houses of each and every Telugu Desam Party and Congress MLA and MP.
'Amaravati will be a game changer for Andhra Pradesh.'
Stepping up the agitation for introduction of a bill for formation of Telangana state in the budget session of Parliament, activists of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Bharatiya Janata Party, and several other organisations staged road blockades across the region on Monday.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao and a delegation of the Telangana political Joint Action Committee on Friday left for Delhi to press for an early decision in favour of a separate Telangana state. The delegation will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other important leaders including Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Rao told reporters. The BJP supports the demand for a separate Telangana state.
Profesor Kodandaram, chairman of the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee, says that they still do not have faith in the Congress as they feel that the formation of the new state will be delayed.
Demanding that Centre make an announcement of formation of Telangana state by June 25, the Telangana political Joint Action Committee on Thursday said the members of Parliament and members of legislative assembly of the ruling Congress and opposition Telugu Desam Party should resign if this did not happen.
After the non-cooperation agitation, pro-Telangana parties and groups would now observe a 48-hour bandh in the region from tomorrow to mount pressure on the Centre to introduce a bill in the Budget session of Parliament for formation of separate Telangana.
In a bid to intensify their protest seeking statehood status for Telangana, the members of the Telangana Rastriya Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday picketed the offices of all the district collectors. Members of both the parties came out in huge numbers and gheraoed the offices of the district collector and also shouted slogans in favour of a separate state.
The Telangana Political Joint Action Committee on Friday postponed the `Rail-roko agitation, earlier scheduled for October 9 to 11, to October 12, 13 and 14.
A delegation of a Meitei civil society group from Manipur has conveyed its concerns to the Centre over an incident where the state's name written on a bus windshield was covered with white paper. The group, Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), expressed its commitment to peace and its willingness to cooperate in efforts to restore normalcy. They also raised concerns over the growing threats posed by narco-terrorism, cross border illegal immigration, and widespread illegal opium cultivation in the state.
Seeking to mount pressure on the ruling Congress leaders, the Telangana political Joint Action Committee on Monday asked them to quit their posts and join the "strike by all sections of people" scheduled to start from next month.
The Telangana Political Joint Action Committee has issued an ultimatum to the Centre, asking it to announce a clear cut time-frame for the formation of a separate state by Monday evening, failing which an indefinite bandh would be called from December 29. "We will wait till Monday evening for the Centre's announcement, failing which there will be an indefinite bandh in the entire region from Tuesday," Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao said.
In the wake of the recent hostilities, both sides have moved from weapons to words, with India dispatching several delegations to visit more than 30 capitals across the world. A similar effort by Pakistan is set to start on Jun 2.
Political Joint Action Committee chief Professor Kodanda Ram says that there is no way in which this agitation is going to stop.
The Telangana political Joint Action Committee on Friday asked people in the region to boycott the Census, refrain from paying taxes and observe a shutdown as part of the non-cooperation agitation from February 17. The JAC has planned the agitation in support of its demand for early introduction of a bill for the formation of separate Telangana. The JAC would announce the details of the non-cooperation agitation in the villages on February 13 and hold rallies on February 14.
India has secured international support in its fight against terrorism, with Russia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates expressing solidarity and a commitment to working together to combat the threat. This follows a recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India, which claimed 26 lives. Multi-party parliamentary delegations from India briefed the leaderships of these countries on Operation Sindoor, India's response to the attack, and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in counter-terrorism and combating radicalism. These developments highlight the growing global consensus against terrorism and the importance of international collaboration to address this shared challenge.
The Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune, India, has stopped taking deposits from patients at the emergency department after a pregnant woman died after being turned away for non-payment. The hospital faced intense criticism following the incident, which involved the wife of a BJP MLC's personal secretary. The woman was shifted to another hospital where she died after delivering twins.
Top military officials from India and Pakistan highlighted their views at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, billed as Asia's premier defence forum, amid heightened tensions between the two sides following last month's military confrontation.
The present dimensions of Andhra Pradesh politics is likely to change with over 1000 people's representatives deciding to submit their mass resignations on Tuesday after a crucial meeting of the Telangana Joint Action Committee in Hyderabad at 2 pm.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet in the National Herald case, accusing Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of a "criminal conspiracy" to "usurp" properties worth Rs 2,000 crore of its public company AJL by transferring 99 per cent shares for just Rs 50 lakh to their private company Young Indian. The ED has named Sonia Gandhi as accused no 1 and Rahul Gandhi as accused no 2 in the chargesheet, which was filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Opposition MPs in the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill are scheduled to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday to protest its chairperson Jagdambika Pal's alleged 'unilateral' decisions and attempts to 'bulldoze' proceedings, indicating that they may disassociate themselves from the panel.
Almost five years later, the three services have still not fully understood that joint/theatre commands are not a discussion point; they are the prime minister's diktat on a military reform measure that is in line with what armed forces around the world have implemented, points out Ajai Shukla.
An Anna University girl student was allegedly sexually assaulted and a 37-year old man, who sells biryani on the pavement, has been arrested for the crime, police said on Wednesday.
Ahead of their planned protest in Chandigarh on March 5, several Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders were detained in early morning raids at their residences on Tuesday and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann denounced the agitating farmer unions, saying they have turned Punjab into a 'state of dharnas' and caused huge losses to it.
United States President Joe Biden on Monday issued pre-emptive pardons for General Mark Milley, Dr Anthony Fauci and members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as a shield against possible retaliatory action against them by his incoming successor, CNN reported.
The disputed region witnessed clashes on Saturday between the police and activists of a rights movement, leaving at least one police official dead and injuring over 100 people, mostly policemen.
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
This was in accordance with the larger strategy of creating a constitutional and political crisis in Andhra Pradesh to force Centre's hand on Telangana state. Of the 119 MLAs of the region, only 77 have sent their resignations so far.
Alleging that the Congress lacks the political will to carve out a separate Telangana, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday demanded that the full content of the Srikrishna Committee report on formation of the state be made public.
The State Election Commission on Friday informed the Calcutta high court that it has requisitioned 822 companies of central forces for the July 8 panchayat polls in West Bengal.
The Seemandhra Lawyers Joint Action Committee on Thursday said about 18 lakh cases were pending in various courts in 13 districts of Seemandhra as their protest against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh entered 100th day today.
The meeting of the Joint Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill took an ugly turn as the Trinamool Congress MP smashed a glass water bottle and threw it towards panel chairman Jagdambika Pal of the Bharatiya Janata Party during a heated exchange of words with BJP's Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a former Calcutta high court judge.
MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi told rediff.com on Thursday that MIM was a political party responsible to the people and it cannot act under pressure from any committee or forum.