'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
The Congress on Monday strongly criticised the Union budget, saying Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's speech was oblivious to the declining GDP and the budget was a case of "wrong diagnosis and prescription".
'He is not the leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha. He is just an MP.' 'In the order of precedence of the Republic of India, Rahul Gandhi is at 21st position,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The party did not formally assign any reason for relieving him from the position.
"Looking at the films come to life on set was a lot of fun. The lensing, the art direction and Prakash Sir's detailed eye. It felt like something special was brewing," says Naina Bhan.
'The Congress has become two distinct parties, one of the durbar, the other of the field and if they keep drifting apart, death is a certainty,' says Shekhar Gupta.
In the Majnu Ka Tila area in New Delhi, Children carrying tricolour burst crackers and shouted 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.
It sent shock waves in the party -- a political greenhorn had taken on Modi in his home turf of Gujarat. Smriti had clearly tried to choose sides, in this case Vajpayee's camp. Many felt that this would end Irani's career. A revealing excerpt from Nidhi Sharma's new book She, The Leader: Women in Indian Politics.
It seems the Congress party's act of bravado in opposing the ordinance on Nripendra Misra witnessed in the Lok Sabha on Friday may prove to be just that: an act. Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal reports.
'This government will be toppled in 2024.'
"The world is in general equilibrium. A small change in one parameter effects changes in all variables. So Krishna advised: Sukh Dukhe...," Subramanian Swamy tweeted.
The transgender community in Tamil Nadu hopes the bill, once it becomes law, will give them a dignified status and make more private sector jobs available to them. Ramasubramanian reports from Chennai
Stalin gets a new title...
Party sources said Gandhi will be accompanied by Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and several other party leaders and MPs.
Appearing on national television to mark the silver jubilee of the party he founded in 1997 after breaking away from the Janata Dal, Prasad, who is suffering from many ailments and convalescing at his MP daughter Misa Bharti's residence in New Delhi, recalled his struggles for OBC quota and the fight for the rights of the weaker sections.
Aggarwal also hit out at the media, saying why it was only talking about Jadhav when hundreds of Indians were lodged in Pakistani jails.
While the Punjab CM expressed grief, his Congress colleagues targeted Sushma Swaraj for misleading the families.
In a shake up ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan resigned on Saturday from the Union Council of Ministers and more may be in line for being drafted into party work.
Braving the heat, hundreds of protesters, including women and children, gathered at the Jantar Mantar to protest against the killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.
'Swamy's crash-landing carries a message to all loose cannons.' 'Get your rants vetted by someone higher up in the party so that you are not left high and dry,' says Amulya Ganguli.
A private member resolution seeking that the government implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report and other reports that have discussed the educational and social backwardness of Muslims and enact a legislation for the prevention of atrocities against minorities was moved in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Throughout her campaigning, Irani asserted that people of Amethi want change and development and will vote for Modi.
Joining the BJP cannot have been an easy decision for former UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who grew up with secular values and appears to be a victim of the party's durbar politics. Amit Agnihotri reports.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar on why Indian media and entertainment quality will remain a national gripe and why we, the viewers, are not blame free.
Sanjay Kakade, while speaking to a television channel, also said he does not think that the Shiv Sena will sit in the opposition.
Amid the chanting of hymns, preceded by a gun salute and band played by the Assam Police, the state's longest serving chief minister's mortal remains were consigned to flames by his son Gaurav Gogoi.
A senior politician Naidu respected once tried to convince the firebrand student leader to quit the Jana Sangh.
She said no government can declare anyone dead without proof and her government does not believe in the theory of 'missing, believed to be killed'.
He was deliberately reducing Ansari to his Muslim identity by linking his career as a diplomat in the Arab world and educationist and his reflections on intolerance with his religion.
The Food Security Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill and the Aadhar card could bring electoral dividends to the government as it tries to hard to woo the poor, reports Renu Mittal
As Sachin turns 50, Rediff brings you 50 fascinating facts about the God of Cricket.
If Kerala wants to sustain its room for independent thinking and talk back to Delhi when needed, it should put its finances in order. Or - if one takes the North East example - Kerala's political posturing may end up commensurate with its financial dependence on others, suggests Shyam G Menon.
'During his stint as MoS in the Narasimha Rao PMO, Matang Sinh developed contacts in the bureaucracy which stood him in good stead even when out of power.'
An average 59.24 per cent voter turnout was recorded as of 5 pm on Thursday across 89 assembly seats in the first phase of Gujarat elections, officials said.
After Twitter briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account for alleged copyrights violation, chairman of the parliamentary panel on information technology Shashi Tharoor on Friday said the same thing happened with him and the standing committee will be seeking an explanation from the social media firm over the temporary locking of their accounts and the rules it follows while operating in India.
'HEADLINE HUNTING. A NUMBER -20 LAKH CRORES. NO DETAILS'
Adamant on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's resignation, Congress forced three adjournments in pre-lunch session of Rajya Sabha
Targeting Rahul Gandhi, the BJP on Wednesday asked the Congress whether it has the capacity to accept defeat of his leadership in the election battle against Narendra Modi.
Naidu was an ABVP activist during the Emergency and was arrested and jailed.
"I am now a free citizen of India like you. I am no longer the DGP. So, no service rules apply to me anymore. Thousands of people are coming from Buxar, Begusarai, Jehanabad, Aurangabad and other districts. I will take a decision after talking to them. Contesting elections is not illegal," he told journalists.
