Terming the "dismal performance" of Congress in the assembly polls as the "second consecutive defeat" of Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said the Congress had made the elections a prestige issue.
In one of the most powerful speeches Mrs Sushma Swaraj, deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha from Bhartiya Janata Party, demanded that government of India should send two separate delegations to Sri Lanka and Australia to express their solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian students who are being targetted in Australia.
Addressing the gathering at the Malleshwaram grounds in Bengaluru, Sushma said she was proud of the work that her party had done in the state.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will make a statement in Parliament on December 14 on the recent developments in India-Pakistan relations.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday supported his colleague Sushma Swaraj's stand against the appointment of Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas, saying he could not have been chosen for the post as he had cases pending against him. "This controversy started even when I was the Leader of the Opposition," he said.
Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Nitin Gadkari and Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said the BJP-Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) alliance in Haryana was as firm as a rock and was here to stay.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Saturday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a special session of Parliament for amending the existing law to provide death sentence for heinous crimes against women.
As protests against the gang-rape incident turned violent, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Sunday called for an all-party meeting and made an appeal to youths not to resort to violence, saying this is not the solution.
With Home Minister P Chidambaram stating that the Palmolein case against P J Thomas was discussed by the central vigilance committee selection panel, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said she would not file an affidavit on the issue in the Supreme Court as there was 'no dispute on facts now'. "The home minister has now admitted that I had raised the Palmolein case and recorded my disagreement precisely for this reason," Swaraj said.
Sushma Swaraj called on Pakistan PM Sharif, amid efforts by both countries to revive the stalled dialogue process to improve ties.
The public would tend to believe that retired IPS officers appointed to head the investigation division of the NHRC would not be fair and impartial, points out B Raman
'This is how Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar treated the Leader of Opposition,' Swaraj tweeted.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement in Hyderabad asking for a vote-on-account led to unnecessary speculation, she said.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday expressed profound grief over the death of the 23-year-old gang rape victim, and demanded that speedy justice must be meted out in this unfortunate case.
The leaders would meet again later in the day to clear the remaining eight names.
Political heavyweights on Sunday kept away from a Buddhist meet which led to diplomatic tensions between India and China and an indefinite postponement of their border talks.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Islamabad on Tuesday on a two-day visit during which she will hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz and attend a multilateral conference on Afghanistan.
Referring to Swaraj as "didi" (elder sister), Irani expressed her shock at the untimely death of the former Delhi chief minister.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has been under attack from the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, on Tuesday reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Parliament and walked with one hand on her shoulder, ostensibly to win support for the passage of crucial Bills.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday presented a cream-coloured south silk sari to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who in return gifted the famous Bangladeshi Jamdani sari to the visiting Indian leader.
Taking strong objection to Gandhi's remarks, Swaraj tweeted: "Rahulji - Advani ji is our father figure. Your words have hurt us deeply. Please try to maintain some decorum of your speech."
The seven-hour-long debate on the Lokpal bill witnessed some interesting arguments and counter-arguments on Saturday in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, while initiating the debate, Mukherjee said that the nation was at a "cross-roads" in view of Hazare's campaign. He asked the Parliament to consider the Gandhian's three key demands within the Constitutional framework and by preserving Parliament's supremacy. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj had a go at Rahul Gandhi.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday visited Tihar jail to meet two former party members of Parliament and L K Advani's ex-aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, currently under judicial custody in the cash-for-votes case, to express solidarity with them.
Police on Wednesday arrested seven Bharatiya Janata Party activists as they made a vain bid to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, which had been turned into a fortress to foil the party's plan.
With her remarks on Arun Jaitley regarding Reddy brothers threatening to snowball into a major row, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Saturday stepped in to virtually snub Sushma Swaraj, saying any debate on the choice of ministers in Karnataka in the media is "totally unnecessary".
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday conveyed India's security concerns to her North Korean counterpart Ri Su Yong in New Delhi, emphasising the significance of peace and stability in the Korean peninsula for the country.
Suspended Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday mounted a fresh attack on party President Nitin Gadkari, accusing him of dragging the party on a suicidal path and took potshots at Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj over the appointment of new CBI Director.
Sushma Swaraj urged the SAARC nations to focus on culture, commerce and connectivity.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha fields a range of questions from media persons in New Delhi
The Congress on Tuesday sought to make more trouble for the government on Lalitgate issue, putting forth six demands including making public minutes of a meeting it claimed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had with United Kingdom High Commissioner James Bevan in which she had favoured grant of travel documents to Lalit Modi.
The high court had on Friday allowed the Special Investigation Team to go ahead with the investigations in the riots cases and question the chief minister who had so far had avoided joining the investigations.
Her husband Swaraj Kaushal tweeted a screenshot of a post by a Twitter user who asked him to 'teach' the minister 'not to do Muslim appeasement'.
India is likely to become a hub for printing Asian editions of technical and speciality magazines, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj has said.
The government on Wednesday rejected the Congress demand for resignation of Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani over 'Lalitgate' and 'fake degree' controversies, saying "our ministers do not do all that their (the United Progress Alliance) ministers used to do".
Stepping up attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party over Asaram Bapu controversy, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Sunday targeted Narendra Modi, asking why he has not taken action on the report of a judicial commission which probed the mysterious death of two boys at the godman's Gujarat ashram.
With the Andhra Pradesh High Court granting conditional permission, the way is now clear for the ABVP to organise its 'Rana Bheri' rally in support of a separate Telangana state on Saturday, which will be addressed by senior party leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj.
Slamming the government, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj termed as "untruth" its claim that the charges against Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas was not brought before the high-powered selection committee of which she was a member and said she would approach the Supreme Court in this regard.
Bharatiya Janata Party workers have begun their attempt to cross into Jammu from Lakhanpur in Punjab.
China on Wednesday said it attaches 'great importance' to Sushma Swaraj's visit to Beijing.
Nine Indian sailors who were in a jail in Iran on charges of smuggling have been released and will reach Delhi on Wednesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed.
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