In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Kishenchand Advani has requested the government to honour former Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the Bharat Ratna, the country's higest civilian honour.
He was returning to Delhi after a day's visit to Lucknow when his plane was diverted to Jaipur.
Of late, the former prime minister has been seeking an internal debate in the BJP on the Gujarat riots saying they were partly responsible for the setback to the party.
The prime minister said public opinion in India and Pakistan should lead politicians to 'pragmatic and acceptable' solutions to their problems.
"Indian sports persons had done well in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and now we are ready to enter the Olympics," the Indian prime minister said.
Vajpayee's ashes will be immersed in rivers in all the districts in Uttar Pradesh -- his karmabhoomi.
But Haramani Sarangi of Orissa won't be meeting the prime minister when he visits the state next week. She died.
On Wednesday, the prime minister had declared that Advani would lead the BJP in the next general election.
"At one time, Vajpayee was talking about 'aar paar ki ladayi' (fight to the finish)...at another point he said talks with Pakistan would not be possible till cross-border terrorism was stopped," Gandhi said.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, under attack from within his own party, has found an ally in Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
Ruling out any future alliance with the National Democratic Alliance, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Friday said his party was part of the dispensation when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was at the helm, but not now.
'I don't think it is needed,' Vajpayee said in New Delhi when referred to Smriti Irani's demand.
The condition of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences with chest infection, is stable and he is responding to the treatment, doctors attending him said on Sunday.
The BJP leadership too has rallied behind Vajpayee, saying he would remain the party's undisputed leader.
The government told Portugal on December 12 that the gangster would not be given capital punishment if he were extradited to India.
Expressing serious concern over "two distinct voices" that have emerged "louder" after the Gujarat election, the prime minister said Hindutva was being projected by "some people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner."
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued to be on ventilation on Saturday with his respiratory track infection remaining a cause of concern, doctors attending on him at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said. "Vajpayee's condition is stable. His heart is stable but his lungs require support and that is why we are putting him on ventilation," Dr Sampath Kumar, head of Cardiac Thoracic Vascular Sciences of AIIMS, said.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that reforms carried out in a democratic country like India are more deeply rooted and sustainable, and democracy cannot be blamed for impeding reforms.
The government and people of Pakistan extend their 'heartfelt condolences' to Vajpayee's family and to the government and people of India, the spokesman said.
Calling Narendra Modi a "chest-thumping, self-proclaimed hero", Union Minister Sachin Pilot has said that it is not possible for the Gujarat leader to be like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday congratulated the Indian cricket team on their victory over Australia in the second Test match at Adelaide.
The earlier non-Congress prime ministers fell like nine-pins with only the late Morarji Desai remaining at the helm for two-and-a-half years as the head of the Janata Party government in the late seventies.
The Pakistani leader said he had decided to cut short his stay in Agra twice after the Indians had "backed out" of what had been agreed earlier. However, he had been persuaded by his diplomats not to do so.
The outfit's chief also took the English press to task for apparently keeping the Gujarat riots 'alive'.
'He should declare whether he belongs to the Sangh Parivar, and if he believes so he has to abide by its discipline,' Ashok Singhal said.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh top brass led by its general secretary Mohan Bhagwat on Monday met Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani
He was in Mumbai to flag off the Deccan Odyssey, via video conferencing from the Darbar Hall of the Raj Bhavan.
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