The Congress general secretary was joined by leaders like Ahmed Patel, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Randeep Singh Surjewala, besides hundreds of party workers at the India Gate on Monday in a show of solidarity with the students from Jamia Millia Islamia and several other universities across the country protesting the contentious amended citizenship law.
Pakistan represents 'strategic depth' in Mullah Omar's war with the US, then a staging camp for the conquest of India.
Among the notable absentees were Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's M K Stalin, Telugu Desam Party chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Senior Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the party has started discussions on the third alternative and any party that wants to be part of it must: 1. Uncompromisingly oppose communal forces. 2. Oppose the anti-people economic reforms. 3. Oppose all efforts to try to make India a subordinate ally to United States' imperialism.
The government may scale down security of Kashmiri separatist leaders, who snubbed members of all-party delegation on Sunday.
CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury has outsourced the planning of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme in West Bengal to IIM-A students. Students will be involved closely with the constituency's role in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. 4-5 students will work on this project and will be guided by faculty advisors. This project will enable students to understand the working of government and public policy.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is facing sedition charge, on Monday said he is a "bigger patriot" than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not want to upset Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti by arresting the "real traitors" in the JNU case.
In an article in the latest issue of its party organ People's Democracy, he said the Constitution, while protecting the right of the individual's choice of faith, also seeks to encourage scientific enquiry and spirit.
'The UPA must stick to the common understanding arrived at with Left parties that the Committee's findings will be taken into account before the government proceeds to operationalise this deal,' he said.
Contending that the Left has the right to express its views, he said, "I am hopeful the deal will come through and if not, it will be unfortunate for the country." To a question, he also said, "Anyway, we all are preparing for elections."
"Friday could be the last day before the government summons a fresh session in December, we want fresh session so we could bring no confidence motion against the government," Yechury said.
The Left parties have given notices of breach of privilege against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in both Houses of Parliament on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal.
CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta asked the government on Monday to reduce the tax burden on petroleum products and clubbed their consumption in the country.
Denying desisting from their stated position on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties on Tuesday asserted that they were ready for "any eventuality" even as they continued their engagement with the government to break the impasse over the issue.
To a question on continuing support to the government, Karat said he has just talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and it depends on what they decide.
Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has always played a key role in defusing tensions with the Left, were also present at the crucial meeting.
When contacted, Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Communist Party of India national secretary D Raja declined immediate comment, saying they could raise the matter in Parliament.
Ahead of the meeting of the UPA-Left Committee on nuclear issues on Tuesday, the CPM on Monday made it clear that it would not allow the government to proceed on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the Left parties are in favour of the much-delayed Women's Reservation Bill and maintained that it should be introduced in Parliament in its original form. He said parties like RJD and SP are opposed to the bill, as they have certain issues related to it. However, he said, these could be discussed in Parliament through amendments also.
Choosing the next Dalai Lama is too profound a tradition to be controlled by the Communists in Beijing.
The chief minister said he has certain compulsions as a politician.
"The WPI is not a true reflection of the burden put on the people through the rise in prices of essential commodities. It is a misnomer to use it as an index for measuring inflation," party leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters. Quoting the oft-repeated phrase 'statistics, more statistics and damned lies', he said the weightage of the basket of food items to calculate the WPI was 22 per cent as against that of steel products which was 25 per cent.
The ABVP on Friday demanded a fresh inquiry and sought an FIR against ASA and SFI leaders claiming that certain lines of Rohith's suicide note implicating them were struck off.
The country's premier B-school is all set to help MPs in effectively spend their grants so that maximum number of people can reap benefits. A group of students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has taken up a project to study the spendings and suggest changes for the Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) grant given each year to parliamentarians under the MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme.
'Modi's brilliance seems to be in combining Indira Gandhi's 'feel' for the Indian pulse and Narasimha Rao's cynicism.' 'By the time the Opposition leaders caught up with Modi over the 'surgical strikes', he had already moved on,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
Rahul Gandhi deliberately kept himself in the background, because he knew he is yet to achieve the stature to talk to a politician as senior as Deve Gowda.
The CPI-M said that it would pull down the government if it 'falters' on foreign policy and 'succumbs' to US pressure. "If it falters, we will pull down the government. We cannot afford to be drawn into the strategic tie-ups. We will not permit the government to succumb to the US pressure," party leader Sitaram Yechury said.
The bench will be headed by Justice N V Ramana and also comprise Justices S K Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, along with Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, had a fifteen minute meeting with Karat at the CPI-M headquarters on Thursday morning.
The Modi government and political parties on Monday roundly criticised Pakistan for the beheading of two Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir.
Of the 15 people who led the 132-year-old party post independence, four have belonged to the Gandhi-Nehru family.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj briefed them about the operation that destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
The police said 10 companies have been deployed outside JNU. One company comprises 70 to 80 personnel.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat have been keeping a low profile, but their interest for the presidential nomination has been debated upon by the media.
Amid reports that government is determined to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI(M) on Thursday warned that the Left parties would review their support to it in such an eventuality. "They have time till June 25 (the next meeting of the UPA-Left Committee) and they have to make up their mind by then. If they go ahead, we will have to reconsider our support," CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
To a question about stability of the government, he said, "Our agenda is the nuclear deal and the implications of the Hyde act on national sovereignty and interest."
Abhijeet Mahato, 29, an IIT alumnus who was studying for an engineering doctorate degree at the Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering in Durham, was found shot dead at his residence near the campus on Friday night.
Yechury briefed the prime minister about the deliberations of the CPI-M's central committee and the position taken by the party.
CPM general-secretary Prakash Karat had said that the government would have to face serious consequences if it went ahead with the nuclear deal.
