Congress president Sonia Gandhi returned to the capital early Thursday morning from abroad where she underwent surgery a month ago for an undisclosed ailment.
United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and India-origin PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi figure among the top 10 in the global list of most powerful women, in the league of leaders like Angela Merkel, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Gandhi also assured support of her party to the legislation, which she said would be a "significant" step forward in the empowerment of women.
Pulitzer prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld has opposed the ban on his controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi, describing the move as 'shameful'. "In a country (India) that calls itself a democracy, it is shameful to ban a book that no one has read, including the people who are imposing the ban," Lelyveld said. He was reacting to the ban imposed by the Gujarat government on his book, which reportedly talks about the sexual preferences of Mahatma Gandhi.
In his social media post in Hindi, Gautam had written, "For women, it is better to read the Constitution of India and the Hindu Code Bill instead of fasting for nine days during Navratra. Their lives will be free from fear and slavery. Jai Bheem."
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.
It is highly unusual to see a chief minister travel to the airport to receive a Cabinet minister, a protocol requirement usually reserved for the President of the Republic, the vice-president and the prime minister.
Speculation about Ajit Pawar's next political move started swirling last week when he suddenly cancelled his scheduled meetings and also made comments which were seen as being soft on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's camp.
Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till 2 pm after opposition members held protest in Parliament seeking a discussion on the issue.
The Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that 80 per cent of its leaders were arrested by Delhi police since Sunday, and questioned whether anyone can be detained for more than 24 hours.
Joseph Lelyveld, whose book on Mahatma Gandhi has infuriated many, tells Arthur J Pais how the controversy went viral.
Younger cheetahs that are habituated to management vehicles and human presence are preferred candidates for relocation to India, international experts involved in Project Cheetah have told the government based on lessons learnt from the initial experience in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park.
'Ajit Pawar and some other people felt it was better to be supporting the BJP and have a coalition with the BJP than support the Congress.' 'But Sharad Pawar did not want to be a party to this kind of an opportunistic alliance.'
'His assessment is wide off the mark from what is expected to be history's final verdict -- which is that Indira was the most unacceptable of all prime ministers because she was the only one who tried to throttle Indian democracy,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Forty years after the declaration of Emergency by Indira Gandhi, the Sunanda K Datta-Ray recalls life when civil rights were suspended and press censorship was in force
Fifty years ago today, December 25, 1972, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, one of the titans of India's freedom struggle, passed into the ages. Kalki Krishnamurthy, who penned the Tamil classic Ponniyin Selvan among numerous other novels, describes his first glimpse of the man who would become an august national leader and his cherished role model.
'Three decades of intensive discussions, protocols and Confidence Building Measures were jettisoned one fine morning in 2020.' 'The primary lesson that has been learnt is that that there is no reliability about the Chinese.'
'China seems more intent on creating a new world order rather than shaping the existing one.' 'India is of course, at this moment in time, aligned with the West-led order because of China's full-spectrum aggressive behaviour towards India.'
Eyeing the revival of the crisis-ridden party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party chief Sonia Gandhi described the march as a "landmark occasion" and hoped that the march would help rejuvenate the grand old party.
President Pratibha Patil has rejected the clemency petitions of three killers of Rajiv Gandhi whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2000.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had on Tuesday asked its state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to put in their papers after the party's drubbing in the recently held Assembly polls in these states.
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, whose relationship with the Gandhi family have been strained over the years, says in his mind there is no change in feelings about them and that there is "no anger, no angst" from his side.
'The IB and authorities knew I had given away all my property and had nothing in my name.' 'Even among police officers, they all respected me for this sacrifice which is rare these days.' 'They respected me from this point of view -- in this day and age few individuals live by ideals for the poor.'
Sharad Pawar on Friday evening announced that he was not stepping down as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party.
In remarks laced with sarcasm, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has said that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is an "innocent child" who reads from the dais whatever is given to him in writing.
Jaitley began his speech by saying that today is the auspicious day of Basant Panjami and that "spring is the season of optimism".
Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot arrived in the national capital on Tuesday amid a buzz of a likely meeting with the party high command that is grappling with the high political drama in the state.
India's primary failings have been in its inability to deliver health and education for all.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked the opposition on Monday to allow a debate on the Manipur issue to begin in Parliament but the deadlock persisted in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as both sides refused to budge from their stand, with Congress and its allies insisting on a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi first.
'Never in the history of Indian cinema did we have a distribution system for 240 countries, but we have it now.' 'And if we still keep catering to the B and C-tiers of our country, and not the whole world, then we are really being losers.' 'The visionaries of the industry must pull up their socks and say that now we will create for the world.'
Certain references and subjects being quietly dropped from the new NCERT textbooks without any notification has kicked off a political controversy with the Opposition accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of 'whitewashing with vengeance'.
The prime minister further alleged that the work of Congress while in power was mere pretentiousness.
'When I saw my name in the list, it was unbelievable.'
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will maintain the policy repo rate at 6.5 per cent during its upcoming June 8 announcement, considering the easing of retail inflation in April and the potential for further decline, indicating the effectiveness of previous policy rate actions, anticipate experts. Headed by Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das, a meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled for June 6-8. The decision of the 43rd meeting of the MPC would be announced on Thursday, June 8.
Bengaluru South Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya was trolled and criticised by a section of social media users accusing him of relishing dosa and promoting an eatery in his constituency, when many parts of the city have been reeling under torrential rains and floods.
Modi said the new Parliament reflected the aspirations and resolve of the "new India" to set and work towards achieving new targets.
United States President Barack Obama received the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize at a glittering ceremony at Oslo City Hall on December 10.In his speech after receiving the award, Obama justified the use of force against extremists to protect his country. But he added that the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King "must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey."
It is a question that his supporters must ask of the prime minister. It may be enjoyable for them to pass through this phase of going after other Indians. But once this has been achieved to satisfaction, then what?, questions Aakar Patel.
Singh, 91, rejected as "rubbish" the charge by critics the Rajiv Gandhi government's decision to ban the book was driven by appeasement towards Muslims.
Nowadays, our politics is habituated to sitting on a high pedestal, hobnobbing with world leaders, generating impressions of a superpower and returning to earth for the purpose of winning elections. In contrast, the yatra never left earth, observes Shyam G Menon.
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