On a day when Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party's Parliamentary Board, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's chief Mohan Bhagwat raked up the issue of Ram Mandir in Ahmedabad, expressing the desire to build a glorious 'Shree Ram Mandir'.
Advani is unhappy with the manner in which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has dominated the show behind the scene to insist on Nitin Gadkari setting a second tenure as the party president.
Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani included seven former governors and five former Union ministers in the council.
Union Minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Arun Jaitley's reported comment that the Bharatiya Janata Party was using Hindutva as an opportunistic tool has exposed the real face of the party and demand an apology from him. The senior Congress leader also asked BJP veteran L K Advani and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to tell the nation "what they now think about Jaitley."
The future of India will be shaped and decided by the choices the RSS makes now, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Dr S Q R Ilyas, head of the BMAC and a senior member of the board, feels that the Sangh Parivar should not have raked up the Ram temple issue. In a candid chat with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Dr Ilyas said the recent proclamation by the RSS, VHP and BJP was a desperate measure to rake up the issue of Hindutva once again
The story of how Rajnath Singh was named as the new BJP president is nothing short of a potboiler.
Advani met RSS chief K Sudarshan and VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Parveen Togadia to discuss current political situation in the country. At least 15 top leaders of the RSS and the VHP were also present.
Why is the Congress worried about Rajnath Singh? Did the new BJP president upset the RSS's apple cart? Read on, and find out in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
The four-day meeting of RSS 'prant pracharaks' (state organisers) is also expected to discuss the government's move to 'de-toxify' National Council of Educational Research and Training textbooks and sacking of governors linked to the RSS
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh launched a sharp attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, likening their "hatred" towards Muslims to that of the Nazis towards the Jews and claiming that the "roots of terrorism" in India lie in BJP leader L K Advani's 1990 Rath Yatra.
'The fragmented polity of the country provides space that further divides society and fragments it. It is beneficial to those who are looking for opportunities to get votes.' BJP ideologue Tarun Vijay reacts to Raj Thackeray's assault on north Indians in Maharashtra.
B S Yeddyurappa is on his way out, sources told rediff.com on Sunday, adding that the top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to remove the Karnataka chief minister from his post. The BJP high command, after much deliberation, has decided to drop Yeddyurappa as chief minister after serious accusations of an alleged land scam were made against him by the Opposition.
Ram Jethmalani, who has demanded the resignation of Nitin Gadkari in the wake of allegations of dubious funding of his company, today said he may like to ask questions to the Bharatiya Janata Party president in a bid to convince himself of his innocence.
As a little child, no one expected him to climb the political ladder in such a fashionable manner. However, almost 65 years later, Narendra Modi will become the 14th prime minister of India. His climb was not an easy one. From the small village of Vadnagar in Gujarat, he first joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and served the organisation diligently. He then joined the BJP in 1987 and was handed the tasks of carrying out rallies. He was the instrumental force in ensuring that Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister in 1999. Rediff.com tries to piece Modi's life from childhood to the moment he grabbed headlines and showed promise of being the next prime minister -- the time he was elected as Gujarat's chief minister for the first time in 2001.
The RSS, which has been building pressure on BJP to end its internal bickerings and is favouring younger leadership, feels it was a blunder to project Advani as BJP's prime ministerial candidate and making the party's poll campaign Advani-centric.
Khurana, a party strongman in Delhi till a few years ago, has sent a letter to Advani containing his demand.
The RSS has been at loggerheads with Advani ever since he praised Jinnah as a secular leader during his recent Pakistan visit.
What has gone against Advani is the sense that he is desperate to become PM, says Neerja Chowdhury
Modi had won the last election in Gujarat with the active support of RSS and its allies like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. However, with the organisation deciding to remain aloof this time around, things might turn out be different for the BJP.
With his analysis of the reasons for the Bharatiya Janata Party's electoral defeat making waves in the party and upsetting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the party and L K Advani on Monday distanced themselves from the comments made by Sudheendhra Kulkarni, a close aide of his. In his article, Kulkarni had written that the BJP performed badly in the elections as there was infighting and disarray in the top leadership, and suggested that the RSS had undermined Advani.
The RSS has been at loggerheads with Advani ever since the latter praised Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah during a recent visit to that country.\n
Making official what was behind the scenes so far, a senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader on Sunday said Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani had been conveyed the Surat conclave feeling that he should make way for someone els
NASA in its space missions has documented the existence of a bridge on two occasions. The latest one was through Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard space shuttle Endeavour launched in February 2000.
JD(U) spokesman Shambhu Shrivastwa said that both parties should respect each other's ideology.
Khurana had only a month ago written to Advani demanding his resignation. He had alleged that the party had deviated from its ideology and was being run like a 'private limited company'.\n
Advani will be joined by senior Janata Dal-United leaders George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav.
Rashriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat had the final word on the crisis that gripped the Bharatiya Janata Party since Lok Sabha polls, declaring not to allow any Delhi-based leader become the party president and asserting that Lal Krishna Advani would quit as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha 'according to the schedule agreed by him.'
Former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudarshan and former Bharatiya Janata Party president Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday attended a function to release a book, which severely criticises former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, who had asked the top Bharatiya Janata Party leadership to sort out problems in the wake of Lok Sabha debacle, on Tuesday seemed to suggest that the party may need a 'surgery' or even 'chemotherapy' treatment, a view rejected by BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Saturday alleged that there was a "well-orchestrated conspiracy" by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak sangh behind the ink attack on yoga guru Ramdev. He further claimed that the NGO activist who carried out the attack was "anti-Congress" and has links with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The RSS is aggressive on the demand for making its singing compulsory in all schools, including madrassas, while the saffron party states that the issue relates to respect for the national symbol.
Describing expulsion of Jaswant Singh as a "painful but necessary" decision, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday answered his criticism on Sardar Vallabhai Patel saying the first Home Minister had banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at Jawaharlal Nehru's behest.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj declined to comment on the reported suggestion by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to groom young leaders for the saffron party. "The BJP has to decide about it. This is not a question of what we think they have to manage. This is a universal truth that young generation must replace, but when and where they have to decide," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in an interview.
Ayodhya demolition a well-planned conspiracy: Centre
On Thursday, the Madhya Pradesh police gave him a clean chit.
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