Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party leader Birender Singh on Monday threatened to quit the party if does not sever ties with the Jannayak Janta Party, which he accused of indulging in rampant corruption in the state.
The government on Tuesday introduced a constitutional amendment bill reserving 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, reviving a proposal pending for years and blending history, politics and societal imperatives on the first day in the new Parliament building.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday decided to withdraw some amendments it had proposed to the Right to Information Act after protests from civil society, which was also backed by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. A meeting of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, decided to withdraw the amendments which had sought to restrict disclosure of file notings only to social and development issues under the transparency law.
Unfazed by the protests against the Act, Shah challenged protesters to oppose the legislation as much as they can. He also asked students who are opposing the legislation to read it properly and understand its meaning.
A meeting of the Congress top brass is scheduled for Saturday evening amid talk that a decision on the removal of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and shifting of beleaguered Law Minister Ashwani Kumar is on the cards.
Congress on Friday backed to the hilt Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, in the wake of an allegation by civil society activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan that he was hugely favoured by realty major DLF.
'Given that the RGF is a family-controlled trust, why would the Congress defend it every time someone accuses it of wrong-doing?' asks Virendra Kapoor.
Congress in charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that the one who does not follow the ideology of the Congress has no place in the party and the decision to sack Gudha was a collective decision.
The Union Minister for Culture Ambika Soni, under whose control the Archeological Survey of India falls, was in Japan.
'BJP has started a very dangerous game of political vendetta. It will pay a costly price. There is deep desire on the part of the BJP to take political advantage of certain legal issues.' Congressmen react to party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul being taken to the court in the National Herald case.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
In a politically-significant move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reconstituted a government committee on commemoration of the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru which will be headed by him, replacing his predecessor Manmohan Singh.
What would Parliament be without these nine ladies?
The Union Cabinet is set to discuss the Group of Ministers' report on Telangana and also consider the Telangana Bill clause by clause.
Senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that a section of farmers has fallen in the grip of a few people with "vested interests" and asserted that the government was working to address their misgivings about the reforms, which have drawn strong protests from a section of cultivators.
Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu and Godse was Hindutvadi, the Congress leader said.
Speculations were on Thursday rife about the Congress planning to make three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit the party's chief ministerial nominee for next year's assembly election in politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, once its stronghold.
'I do not think Rajiv Gandhi at that stage had any influence on his mother. Indira Gandhi relied totally on Sanjay and she looked upon him as a dependable son.' 'What really affected people and eventually Indira Gandhi was the sterilisation drive. She lost so badly in north India because of these drives.' 'She is the one who has given this aura of 'the family' to the Gandhis.' The second and final part of veteran journalist Coomi Kapoor, whose book The Emergency: A Personal Account was published recently, to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com about Independent India's darkest phase.
Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Monday.
Congress party will hold a protest rally called Zameen Wapsi Andolan in New Delhi on Wednesday.
It is clear to any observer that the BJP risks its demolition drive boomeranging on itself. Except for one unpredictable factor in the works -- Rahul Gandhi himself, observes Shyam G Menon.
Antony, who headed the digital media cell of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, slammed the Congress leadership for working for a "single family" instead of working for the country.
By filing his nomination as Congress president on Friday, Shashi Tharoor has shown he is no 'quockerwodger' -- a word he introduced into our lexicon which means someone acting on the instructions of an influential third party.
Several protests -- some peaceful, some violent -- erupted across India on Monday against the police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia and the controversial citizenship law as students and political leaders took to the streets, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi called these protests "deeply distressing" and appealed for peace.
Launching a blistering attack on Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh over law and order situation, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday reminded people of the May 25 Maoist ambush in Bastar that had wiped out almost the entire Congress leadership.
'This move rendered the chiefs of important investigative agencies to the status of daily wage earners. It undermined the autonomy and independence of the agencies.'
The Congress has not found the answers to many niggling questions on Telangana, but the party has already chalked out a political game-plan in the new state, says a correspondent in Delhi
Dikshit, who served as Delhi CM for three terms, is said to have been sounded by the Congress high command for a leading role in Uttar Pradesh.
After having gone out on a limb over the creation of Telangana, the UPA government is expected to go for the kill and do whatever it takes to pass the bill in Lok Sabha. But the question remains whether the Congress would really be able to push the bill in the noise and confusion. Renu Mittal reports.
The meeting was convened by the Congress. Six major parties -- the DMK, the SP, the BSP, the TMC, the AAP and the Shiv Sena -- choose to stay away. The BJP took a swipe at the absence of major opposition parties at the meet and also said that their anti-CAA resolution must've made Pak happy.
The Union minister asked Gandhi to "follow the law "and secure acquittal from a higher court.
The leadership styles of the two Gandhis being different, the party appears to be pulling in different ways. While Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving Congress president, seems more predisposed to holding the government accountable on issues of probity, the younger Gandhi is more keen on taking up battles that ensure immediate victories.
Hooda said he accepts the decision taken by the party high command and will make all efforts to form a Congress government in the state.
It was also the shortest speech by Sitharaman, who had delivered the longest speech last year. Her first Budget speech in July 2019 went on for around 137 minutes and in 2020, it went on for more than 160 minutes and was cut short after she felt unwell.
The Maharashtra HM had said on Tuesday that the Mumbai police will probe allegations by actor Adhyayan Suman that Ranaut took drugs.
"The government is wrong. It is wrong because it is clueless," Chidambaram said. "It is unable to look for the obvious clues because it is stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralised control of decision-making in the Prime Minister's Office."
Ever since Nitish embarked on the slippery path of trying to unite the Opposition against the BJP, he has repeatedly rebutted suggestions that the exercise was aimed at bringing himself centre stage. The problem is: It is not enough if he says so. Others have to say so as well, especially Congress, observes Aditi Phadnis.
It is thanks to the policy of liberalisation conceived by Manmohan Singh and enforced by P V Narasimha that the Indian economy has now become the world's 5th largest economy by nominal GDP, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
Priyanka to shift base to Lucknow when the COVID-19 situation improves
Kumar leaves in the midst of assembly polls in five states and ahead of the February 20 election in Punjab.
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