Minority education institutions may soon be exempt from the Right to Education in the country.
After spending nearly 50 years in a colonial bungalow at 24, Akbar Road, the Congress moved into a new office on January 15. Rasheed Kidwai, who knows the history of the Congress better than the Congress, looks back at the people who breathed life into this address.
The Congress on Thursday dubbed as an instance of "Mayawati's jungleraj" the criminal case filed by Uttar Pradesh police against Union Ministers Jitin Prasad and RPN Singh for allegedly assaulting Samajwadi Party workers during Rahul Gandhi's rally in Phulpur recently.
In an embarrassment to Digvijay Singh, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Thursday said there was existence of any record of the purported telephonic conversation between the Congress general secretary and slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday refused to react to R K Singh's allegations against him, saying he no longer considered the retired bureaucrat as being a former home secretary but saw him as a politician and Bharatiya Janayt Party man.
The Centre will amend the Ordinance on sugarcane prices if it affects the interest of farmers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday suggested that there was evidence against the kin of former Prime Minster Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani of alleged corruption and wrong-doing but Congress will never use that to embarrass them.
A controversy erupted on Saturday as Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said Rahul Gandhi does not have the temperament of a ruler.
'...spent 1/10th of his time at 24, Akbar Road...' 'He would have met thousands of party workers and ordinary Congress supporters who have love for the party.' 'Left of Centre intellectuals have shaped Rahul's values, but he lacks earthiness.'
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday expressed regret over causing 'embarrassment' to the party and the government with his newspaper article on Naxal menace in which he had criticised Home Minister P Chidambaram's handling of the issue."He (Chidambaram) has been my friend for a long time and still remains so. The timing of the write-up was such that the government and the party both faced embarrassment for which I express regret," he said.
In an apparent snub to party General Secretary Digvijay Singh whose recent statements led to controversies, the Congress has come out with an order asking party leaders to restrict to their area of responsibility while interacting with the media or speaking publicly.
Reflecting the growing bonhomie between the two parties, Congress has decided not to field any candidate against Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav, the Samajwadi Party candidate in the Kannauj Lok Sabha by-election.
The Congress has issued a directive to its leaders not to speak out of turn, in an apparent snub to party general secretary Digvijay Singh, but the party on Wednesday said it was done for the sake of discipline.
"The two parties always had a tacit understanding in Uttar Pradesh," Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told media persons when asked his views on the BJP and BSP describing party general secretary Rahul Gandhi's 'padayatra' in UP as a political drama.
On the eve of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's birthday on June 19, loyalists have once again raised the issue of Gandhi junior becoming the prime minister of India, a post for which there is no vacancy at the moment.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday denied that Anna Hazare would be given a treatment similar to yoga guru Ramdev if he goes on fast unto death from August 16 on the Lokpal issue.
The family of Congress leader Mahendra Karma, who was killed by Maoists in an attack in Chhattisgarh in May, on Friday said they continue to receive threats from the extremists and demanded security. Accompanied by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Karma's wife Devki, son Deepak and three other sons, met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and apprised him about the threats the family continues to receive from Naxals.
Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Vijay Goel today accused Congress leader Digvijay Singh of "helping Pakistani terrorists" by asserting that slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare spoke to him about threats from right-wing Hindu groups hours before the 26/11 terror attack.
After serving as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for ten years, Digvijay Singh has been entrusted with the responsibility of the Congress' affairs in UP. In an interview with Renu Mittal, Singh talks about the 'friendly fight' between the two parties in UP.
In an apparent rebuff to Amar Singh, Congress on Monday dismissed the sulking Samajwadi Party leader's claim suggesting that his 'DNA was Congress.'
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Indresh Kumar, whose name figures in the ATS charge sheet, claimed the case against him was "totally fabricated and a political conspiracy", but the Rajasthan chief minister rejected the charge.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who had created a stir with his remarks on Hindu terror, attacked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh yet again at the AICC plenary session at New Delhi on Sunday.
Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday for its stand on the coal controversy, the Congress alleged that there was a clear similarity between the anti-Bofors campaign and the present one on the coal blocks allocation. "Between 1985 and 1990, there was a campaign after the CAG report on Bofors against Rajiv Gandhi, with foreign journals also publishing articles. There is a similar pattern to it from 2009 to the present times," said Digvijay Singh.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday said that anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare's decision to go on hunger strike from August 16 must be preceded by an "agitation".
Party president Sonia Gandhi nominated Mukut Mithi (Arunachal Pradesh), Peerzada Sayeed (Jammu and Kashmir), Prabha Rau (Maharashtra), B D Kalla (Rajasthan) and Salman Khurshid (Uttar Pradesh).\n\n
Team Anna on Monday asked the Congress to make public expenses incurred for hiring choppers for the just-concluded assembly elections to five states, particularly for party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul. Anna Hazare and his close aide Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the expenses should be made public.
The Election Commission is examining whether Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma's remarks on the minorities sub-quota daring the poll body during a rally in Farrukhabad last night were a violation of the model code of conduct.
Close on the heels of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh hinting at the possibility of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh, Bhartiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath on Saturday also ruled out the possibility of the formation of any popular government in the state. "Let me tell you that no political party will be in a position to form the government," the sadhu-turned-politician told reporters.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday met All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi and invited him for two functions in Uttar Pradesh. The meeting comes in the backdrop of the senior leader's article in a newspaper criticising Home Minister P Chidambaram's approach to tackle the Naxal issue. It is, however, understood that Singh, who was the chief minister of united Madhya Pradesh (of which Chhattisgarh was a part) also explained the Naxal situation.
The Congress on Friday favoured a negotiated settlement to the Ayodhya issue saying all right thinking people should work for a compromise within the next three months in wake of the Allahabad high court verdict.
Harish Khare, media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, called the Congress a "status quoist party which does not believe in conviction", a remark which was instantly dismissed by party general secretary Digvijay Singh.
Social activist and member of Team Anna, Arvind Kejriwal, on Wednesday said that the attacks on Gandhian Anna and members of his team were aimed at diverting their attention from the core issue of Jan Lokpal Bill.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has said that Rahul Gandhi is the future of Congress.
Congress Legislature Party leader Ashok Gehlot will be sworn in as Chief Minister of Rajasthan on December 13, a Raj Bhavan spokesman said on Thursday.
Rahul Gandhi and Congress have to decide when he should take over as Prime Minister, the party said Monday.
Advocate Nandita Rao speaks to rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore about why she wants Baba Ramdev to come clean on how he built a Rs 1,100 crore empire, how he got huge plots of land in some Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states and why he is claiming to be apolitical when he is openly seeking support from the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Continuing his tirade against yoga guru Baba Ramdev, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has asked Baba to name the person who had secretly donated him a helicopter.
"If Sonia Gandhi admits in public that she does not like a vilification campaign then I would like to ask her why she hesitates to pull up her own colleagues who engage in such campaigns," said Justice Santosh Hegde, a member of the drafting committee of the Lokpal bill. Hedge threatened to quit on Thursday following statements from Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who had said that he (Hegde) had failed to control corruption in Karnataka.
Shooting off another letter to Anna Hazare on the eve of Hisar bypoll, Digvijay Singh, who is leading Congress' counter-attack, on Wednesday, raised the issue of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh support to the activist and cautioned him that those around him were keeping him in dark.
The Congress on Tuesday said that Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani's remarks that Anna Hazare's fast achieved more in four days than what the opposition had in two months was a "sad reflection on the opposition party".
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