With the government of India inclining towards Union Defence Minister A K Antony's adamant stand that the controversial and contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act should neither be diluted nor withdrawn, the issue was not raised by either Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram, or even Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during Wednesday's all-party meeting on the Kashmir crisis.
Making light of Sunday's incident in Srinagar in which a shoe was flung towards his son, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Monday said it was 'wonderful' that he has joined the elite club of former United States President George Bush, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and other leaders.
Rival political parties crossed swords even as the BJP sought to delink the updation of the NPR and the proposed NRC and no end in sight for the ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Making light of Sunday's incident, in which a shoe was flung towards his son Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said it was "wonderful" that he has joined the elite club of former US President George Bush, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and other leaders.
Dr Singh, who discussed the situation with Home Minister P Chidambaram, directed speedy investigation so that "the culprits responsible for this heinous act are identified and brought to justice at the earliest," a PMO spokesman said.
The three-member panel of Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad met in New Delhi on Tuesday evening and "critically analysed" the pros and cons of the Delhi High Court judgement legalising gay sex.
The statement by Nandan Nilekani that the ambitious Unique Identification card will be for all residents of India including non-citizens on Friday triggered a controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding a statement from the government.
According to data culled by PRS Legislative Research, Singh has asked 13 questions in the Lok Sabha in its proceedings up to the last budget session, while the average is 69.
Stepping up its attack, the Congress party on Monday said that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan cannot escape responsibility for the "45 deaths" connected to Vyapam scam and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take "moral responsibility".
'Want PM Modi to leave election management and start corona management'
The government decided to table in Parliament on Tuesday the report of the Liberhan Commission that probed the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, a day after the leakage of the findings set off a political storm.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the demand for smaller states does not mean that new states would be created everywhere.
During the meeting, Home Minister P Chidambaram would bring in the Action Taken Report for approval before it is laid on the table of the House along with the Liberhan commission report. Pranab Mukherjee will chair the Cabinet meet in Dr Singh's absence.
The Congress Core Committee met on Thursday evening to discuss the Bhopal gas leak and to give directions to the Group of Ministers who would be meeting on Friday afternoon to find a way of breaking the impasse created by the court verdict in handing out punishment to the guilty, said highly placed sources.
'We demand immediate release of all public representatives of mainstream political parties and innocent citizens,' the resolution said.
The government said on Wednesday that charges against former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson were not watered down and even patted the Central Bureau of Investigation for standing on its ground to seek his extradition on serious charges despite the then attorney general opining to the contrary.
In his reply to the debate over the bill, the home minister rejected the charge that it is 'unconstitutional', 'divisive' or 'anti-Muslim'.
Political tributes poured in after the former external affairs minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj passed away into the ages on Tuesday night.
The Group of Ministers on Telangana is set to discuss the draft bill for the creation of Telangana on Saturday.
Singh, who headed the UPA coalition government between 2004 and 2014, turned 88 on Saturday.
When Modi's name was called out by the Secretary General for taking oath, Members from the ruling National Democratic Alliance thumped the desk greeting the Prime Minister with slogans such as 'Modi Modi' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the handing over of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur to a joint venture (JV) company for upgrading it to a multi-modal international passenger and cargo hub.
The Congress on Friday described the Centre's announcement to repeal three farm laws as a victory against injustice, and said arrogance had to bow its head before the peaceful satyagraha of farmers.
While no specific state-oriented sops were rolled out, a strong thread of political wellness ran through the Budget.
The Union Cabinet On Thursday approved a hefty 6 percentage point increase in the cost of living allowance, earlier called Dearness Allowance, from 16 to 22 per cent of basic pay. The new rates will be effective for 14 months from January 1 this year to February 2010, and the Centre will take a hit of Rs 6,020 crore
In this year's budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiked tax on petrol and diesel, raised import duty on gold, levied additional surcharge on super rich and brought a tax on high value cash withdrawals as she sought to spur growth with reduction in corporate tax and sops to housing sector, startups and electric vehicles.
Senior party leader P Chidambaram, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut expressed support to Priyanka, who has alleged that no notice or first information report (FIR) has been given to her even after her 38-hour detention and was not allowed to meet her legal counsel.
"I am free... Hope others political leaders would be released soon. Thank all parliamentarians who fought for my freedom. Will be able to take decision on future only after other leaders are released," Abdullah, the Lok Sabha member from Srinagar, told reporters from the terrace of his residence in Srinagar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's carping ally said the police assertion about security threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maoists was just a 'conspiracy theory'.
After a 6.5-hour debate, the upper house clears the bill. Amit Shah said the bill is not anti-Muslim and Indian minorities have nothing to fear from its passage.
Karti contended that the lookout circular was part of the Centre's 'political vendetta'.
SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia, facing arrest in an NDPS case, involving sale, purchase and manufacturing of drugs among other offences, was on Monday granted anticipatory bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The damage done to India's intelligence agencies and its ability to undertake covert operations is irreparable, says senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley
Is the 'caged parrot' at work again, asks Uttam Ghosh.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh puts it succinctly: "Arun Jaitley was every non-BJP person's favourite BJP-ite."
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over 10 hours by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper and was called to depose again on Tuesday, as his party protested across the country, alleging that the Centre was targeting the Opposition by misusing agencies.
BJP members of the panel who were present in the meeting room didn't sign the attendance register in protest leading to a lack of quorum required for holding the meeting.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on home in its report, which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, took stock of overall performance of ministry of home affairs.
The Congress on Wednesday dismissed as 'bundle of lies' the Bharatiya Janata Party's charge that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi gave any direction to the then Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Ishrat Jahan case.
With lakhs of these workers stranded on highways and inter-state bus terminus, the government stepped in and asked states and union territories to immediately set up relief camps for migrant workers and others who are returning to their home states or trying to do so during the nationwide lockdown period.
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