They stated that when a soldier fights for the nation, he does so not as a Hindu, Muslim, or any other religion, but as a patriot.
The first session will commence in the third week of June with the oath-taking by the newly elected candidates as members of the House, the sources said, adding the oath-taking is likely to continue for two days, following which a new Speaker will be elected.
The two parties had fallen out with each other in October last year when the RJD unilaterally decided to contest by-elections for two assembly seats, evoking strong protest from the Congress which vowed to go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections which will be held a year later.
The Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam is all set to withdraw its five Union ministers from the United Progressive Alliance-2 by the weekend to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. The step is expected to be taken to put UPA-2 on notice if India voted in favour of Sri Lanka in Geneva where the United Nations Human Rights Council is currently in session.
The Centre has granted absolute powers to the Delhi lieutenant governor to constitute any authority, board and commission such as the Delhi Commission for Women and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The meeting was attended by 26 participants including Chief Ministers and Lt Governors of UTs, he said while briefing the media.
'Ladakh has become a hollow UT.' 'Bureaucrats from Delhi rule Ladakh and there is no attention paid to the grievances of the people.'
Badal, who served as the finance minister in the previous Congress government, said, "Seven years ago, I merged the People's Party of Punjab with your party. I did so with immense hope and an expectation of being integrated into an organisation with a rich history that would allow me to serve both the people of Punjab and its interests to the best of my ability."
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has initiated the process of registration of all MBBS doctors eligible to practice in India on a recently launched portal, as a part of which all medical practitioners will have a unique ID.
Senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, who is already cabinet minister, will be without any porfolio.
The Samajwadi Party said those facing corruption charges have been inducted into the Union Council of Ministers.
Union Textiles Minister K Sambasiva Rao on Thursday resigned from the Union Cabinet protesting bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, fuelling speculation that he may join Bharatiya Janata Party.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is likely to reshuffle the Union council of ministers after January 14. Congress President Sonia Gandhi has already held two rounds of consultations with Dr Singh. The reshuffle could see some Cabinet ministers going to the Congress to oversee party work, while others may see their portfolios change.
Many changes are likely in the BJP and government in coming weeks.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the Modi Shuffle.
Among the names being mentioned for inclusion as ministers are Tejasvi Surya, the 29-year-old MP from Bangalore South, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the 35-year-old MP from Ladakh, Locket Chatterjee, the 45-year old MP from Hooghly, and Dilip Ghosh, MP from West Medinipur and president of the BJP's West Bengal unit.
After the rebuke from his party, Shashi Tharoor on Thursday came under attack from Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who said he has no right to continue in the Union Council of Ministers after his 'insulting' remarks about economy class travelers. "I believe that in a democracy, people are God. To refer to them as cattle is an insult to them. And I believe that such a person has no right to be a Union minister," he said.
The Prime Minister's Office has also prepared a detailed backgrounder about each member in the Union Council of Ministers.
Leaders of the JD-U, which has two ministers in the Union government, insist that the resolution also spoke of "special package and other types of help" and that Bihar could still get a lot from Narendra Modi government.
The United Nations considers requests from countries to change their names as and when the world body receives them, a top United Nations official has said, amid a row over President Droupadi Murmu's G20 dinner invites referring to her as 'President of Bharat' instead of 'President of India'.
The India-US nuclear deal was aimed at ending India's nuclear isolation and nuclear apartheid, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
It would be the highest level visit to India by any Pakistani leader in recent years and a possible opportunity to break the ice between the two nations.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna 'belongs to that school of legal luminaries who give the highest primacy to facts.'
Singh, considered close to RJD president Lalu Prasad and his family, was charged with raising slogans against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on February 13, during a heated exchange in the House.
The Congress on Wednesday gave a notice on moving a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi-led central government in the Lok Sabha over the Manipur issue.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a post on X that his 18-year-long stint in public service has come to an end.
The 'top leadership' of the National Testing Agency is under the scanner over alleged irregularities in competitive exams National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and National Eligibility Test, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday even as he denied any paper leak in the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-University Grants Commission NET, which was postponed a day ago.
Government sources said Modi will also chair meetings to review the aftermath of the Cyclone Remal, especially in the north east region hit by natural disasters.
Stressing that while framing any policy, there is a need to look at it from India's strategic point of view, Modi said there were instances when notes from the national security council were not given due importance.
A strategist and a quintessential political leader with grassroots connect, Rajnath Singh is credited with expanding the Bharatiya Janata Party's organisational network in the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s and the subsequent decades.
'We are not secessionists, we want to coexist with our countrymen but not on the terms that will strip us off our dignity and a right to peaceful existence.'
It will be for the first time in nearly nine years India's external affairs minister will travel to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remained frosty over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
He further commented on the current state of public discourse, saying a "mob rule" is being created wherein politicians capitalise on certain incidents and assure people of the death penalty for culprits even though only the judiciary has the power to pass legal verdicts.
'We are in a dilemma if the central government supports this ethnic violence and Biren Singh.'
The already-strained ties between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena further dipped on the eve of the union cabinet reshuffle with the Sena representative unlikely to make an entry at the Centre.
In March, the United Kingdom's then sports minister Lucy Frazer called on sporting bodies in the country to reassess their rules on transgender athletes competing in women's sports to ensure fairness.
becoming a TV baron and now inducted into the Union cabinet in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's second rshuffle, Rajiv Shukla's story has been that of rise and rise, writes Sharat Pradhan.
Strengthening the portfolios of the home minister and the finance minister is a message that should not be missed, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Justice Khanna, who will serve as CJI for a little over six months, will demit office on May 13, 2025.
