Kashmir is a flashpoint that can trigger a fourth war between Pakistan and India any time, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said, seeking an early settlement of the issue.
Using the hashtag 'Janta Maaf Nahi Karegi' (people will not forgive) in a tweet, Modi attacked Sam Pitroda, who looks after Congress's overseas affairs, for reportedly saying that post the Mumbai terror attacks, India could have responded with air strikes, but "according to me that's not how you deal with world."
The competition for the worst or most perilous 10 years has always been between the 1960s and the 1980s, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'The root of the Kashmir problem lies in Partition. To solve the issue, we have to begin from there and settle it forever.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to chair a meeting with all political parties from Jammu and Kashmir on June 24 as part of the Centre's initiatives to bolster political processes, including holding assembly elections, in the union territory, officials said in New Delhi.
Jairam Ramesh said the Congress has to be the "fulcrum" of any Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections as it is the only political force with a pan-India presence.
'When I started this, I just took it as an ordinary yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Slowly we understood that this yatra has a voice and feelings'
She said she was an "Indian citizen and a law abiding citizen" and has not broken any law. "But, even to issue the two-year passport, the Official Secrets Act has been invoked against me. This Act is usually invoked for espionage," Iltija claimed.
'If unity is not going to be based on values and principles, how will we achieve it?'
The Congress is planning to call a meeting of Opposition parties in May. It is possible to keep all possibilities open in case Karnataka yields a hung House, leading to a recalibrated Opposition.
Addressing a gathering at the Delhi border as the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Gandhi entered Delhi, he said, "They spread hatred, we spread love and embrace all Indians".
People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday that she will not contest elections until 'both the constitutions' of India and the erstwhile state are made applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.
Saeed said Pakistan government has added insult to the wounds of Kashmiris by welcoming Singh.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday launched a veiled attack on Congress leaders and said he gave sweat and blood for the party unlike those who are spreading 'falsehood' through social media.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders K C Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.
Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday returned a hung verdict with the Peoples Democratic Party as the dominant one that can tie up either with the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party to form the government. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand the BJP and its allies headed for capturing power.
'You won't find such an apathetic indecisive party in the world.'
In the last 9 years, the BJP govt has marked some anniversaries and events with more zeal than Congress-led governments.
It is often alleged that half the Indian Army is based in J&K. It is bewildering why there has been no rebuttal or clarification of this issue from the central or state governments, or from the army itself, wonders Ajai Shukla.
China on Thursday voiced its opposition to India's reported plans to hold the next year's meeting of G-20 leaders in Jammu and Kashmir.
India said Ankara should learn to respect the sovereignty of other nations and reflect on its own policies more deeply.
'As PDP chief, Mehbooba has every right to raise issues in her party's interest.'
The bus came under fire from terrorists in Zewan in Pantha Chowk area this evening, police officials said.
The protesters first assembled at the Sheikhpora area of Budgam district, in central Kashmir, and then tried to proceed towards the airport but were stopped by a posse of police personnel, they said.
Bajwa said that this desire for peace must not, in any sense, be construed as a sign of weakness.
The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
This is probably for the first time that curfew is in place on the day of Eid festival ever since militancy broke out in the state in 1990.
'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is a 'booster dose' for the Congress and a 'decisive and transformational moment' for the politics of the country, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said in Guwahati on Friday.
Addressing BJP workers at a felicitation function after the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in Bihar elections and various bypolls, he asserted that the only mantra for his party's victory was 'Sabka saath, sabka vikas and sabka vishwas' and also launched a veiled attack on the West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress, saying those who cannot challenge the saffron party democratically have resorted to 'murdering' its workers to realise their goals.
"Trust is something that has been missing from both sides (Delhi and Srinagar). Successive prime ministers -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- made promises but the trust deficit has persisted," he added.
Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
Mehbooba has also met with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress's loss in the three states in the North-East, a region it had dominated for decades, shows there is a lot left to do to reclaim its political turf despite the Bharat Jodo Yatra which it had touted as a successful experiment in mass public outreach.
The seven seats -- Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura -- went to poll on September 5.
'Wisdom demands Modi moves to restore the critical institutions of the State and dial back on the cult building around his persona,' say Sonali Ranade and Shealja Sharma.
.jpg)
Ruling out any third party intervention on the Kashmir issue, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor said had Pakistan acted in the spirit of the Simla accord the question of external mediation would not have come up.
It is not unlikely that ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP government comes up with more imaginative schemes aimed at constituency-building. The party under Modi's leadership has a more modern thinking in such matters unlike its rivals, which are still steeped only in ideology, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dozens of vehicles, with the tricolor hoisted on each of them, were part of the rally which passed through Gupkar Road and the activists raised slogans outside the residences of National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti there.
His fresh attack came a day after he said the government is coming up with 'excuses' to stop the Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir yatra, which is currently in Haryana and will enter the national capital on Saturday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD-U launched a frontal attack on ally BJP, asking it to rein in 'loudmouth leaders' whose 'arrogance' had cost it an old partner like the Shiv Sena.
