Rajiv Gandhi would have turned 72 on August 20. Had he lived. On a humid night 25 years ago, the former prime minister of India was murdered in cold blood by an LTTE suicide bomber. Neena Gopal was an eyewitness to the assassination, and in this exclusive extract from her new book, The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, she reveals for the first time what she saw in Sriperumbudur that night.
The Congress had won over 400 seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha election after which Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were disrupted on Monday as the treasury benches accused top Congress leaders of colluding with billionaire investor George Soros to destabilise the country, triggering protests from opposition members.
The Congress has lodged complaints with the Election Commission against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing them of making 'false, divisive, malicious and slanderous' statements during their recent election campaign.
The city's 24-hour Air Quality Index, recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 418, up from 334 the previous day, and it may trigger stringent restrictions under the third stage of the graded response action plan to mitigate hazardous conditions.
The members of the cabinet committees included Union ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance partners like Janata Dal-United, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal-Secular, Shiv Sena and Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas.
Wearing the bloodstained cap and badge -- evidence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case -- on the day of his retirement was a cocktail of emotions, says IPS officer Prateep V Phillip, who survived the ghastly attack that killed the former Prime Minister in a 1991 election rally near here.
Rajiv Gandhi had made the comment following the anti-Sikh riots which broke out after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. The comment had created a major controversy.
The Supreme Court Monday extended by a week the parole of A G Perarivalan, serving life sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, for undergoing medical check-up.
Nalini, lodged in the Special Prison for Women in Vellore for the last 27 years, had sought six months leave to make arrangements for the marriage of her daughter.
The top court refused to agree with the Centre's suggestion that the court should wait till the President decides on the issue.
The Trust has been running a vocational training centre on state land allegedly without proper authorisation.
The Tamil Nadu government's decision to release late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassins from prison a day after the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of three of the convicts to life term, has triggered a major debate. Vicky Nanjapp presents a cross-section of opinions on the decision.
'Whenever the hike in voting percentage is more, the NDA gains more, and when the hike is negligible, the NDA falls.' 'I have established this in UP, Haryana and Jharkhand.'
Amid a social media storm over the death of a young employee at tax consultancy major EY allegedly due to work pressure, Deloitte has formed a three-member external committee, which includes former revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj, to look into practices, policies and processes concerning employees, its South Asia CEO Romal Shetty said on Friday. Shetty said to manage the work pressure within the organisation and have an open work culture, Deloitte has a chief happiness officer and takes strictest action for any bad behaviour within the organisation. Deloitte is one of the four major global tax consultancy firms.
Reader Priti Srinivasan sends us pix.
'I have been a spokesperson of the party for the last 41 years and now I think some other party member should take up my post,' JD-U's K C Tyagi tells Rediff.com about his resignation from the post of party spokesperson.
'Leave aside the negative fallouts of phraseology like 'urban Naxals' and 'terrorists', both the BJP and the Congress have to re-discover themselves in the context of the 2024 election results, including those of the upcoming ones for Maharashtra and Jharkhand,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kumar also hinted that the Maharashtra elections could be held after Diwali.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned former Indian cricket team captain and Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin for over nine hours in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association, official sources said.
There has been speculation that Goel quit due to differences with Kumar.
If Indira Gandhi hadn't targeted the RSS, Narendra Modi wouldn't be sitting pretty with his second majority and looking at a third, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Umesh Choudhary was penalised two points for 'reporting late' to the preparation arena ahead of the 10m finals, which cost him the gold medal in the eight-shooter final.
Rajiv Kochhar, who was asked to appear at the CBI office in Mumbai, was examined about the loan and his links with Venugopal Dhoot, the promoter of the Videocon Group, and Videocon.
Rediff.com brings you a chronology of the more than two decade-long Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, which finally seems to be getting some closure
Facing criticism from the Congress, the government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of its order for premature release of six convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
During a five-hour meeting with his entire Council of Ministers, Modi specifically asked for faster and better communication of the government's decisions.
At a rally in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, Modi targeted the former prime minister while attacking Rahul.
On Tuesday, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused BJP MP Anurag Thakur of "abusing and insulting" him during the Lok Sabha discussion on the Union Budget.
Tilak Varma's impressive batting wasn't the only highlight of his innings against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Sharma was the key person who looked after Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies on behalf of the Gandhis.
"The open-ended nature of Section 6A has, with the passage time, become more prone to abuse due to the advent of forged documents to establish, inter-alia (among other things), wrong date of entry into Assam, inaccurate lineage, falsified government records created by corrupt officials, dishonest corroboration of the date of entry by other relatives so as to aid illegal immigrants who are otherwise not eligible under Section 6A by virtue of having entered into Assam after March 24,1971," he noted in a separate 127-page dissenting judgment.
The Supreme Court has said it listed for Tuesday pleas on the vexed legal question of whether a husband should enjoy immunity from prosecution for the offence of rape if he forces his wife, who is not a minor, to have sex.
Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, who is demitting office on November 10, Wednesday deferred by four weeks hearing on pleas challenging the immunity granted to husbands in cases of marital rape.
You can also read about the Indira Gandhi Assassination Case, the Parliament Attack Case, the Red Fort Attack Case, the Jessica Lal Murder Case, the Decriminalisation of Homosexuality Case among others.
The assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase while Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday.
The BJP has emerged the second largest party by winning 29 constituencies in the maiden assembly polls post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, improving its all-time high tally of 25 seats recorded in 2014 elections.
Modi had hit out at Rahul Gandhi, saying: "Your father was termed 'Mr Clean' by his courtiers, but his life ended as 'Bhrashtachari No 1."
While Bibek Debroy echoed his view in Twitter, Pronob Sen questioned Kumar's conclusion
