India needs another shot of difficult reform, of the kind only possible at gunpoint. Mr Trump holds that gun to our heads now. A drastic reduction in tariff protection, other elements of sarkari wet-nursing will force entrepreneurial India to become competitive again, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Accusing the party of not taking up seriously enough the issue of corruption, three Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday offered to quit as Members of Parliament.
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday said he did not see any pattern in the actions against Indian IT professionals in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Netherlands
Raut also highlighted that the party had goodwill toward the opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Sinha said the youth, farmers and the traders were dissatisfied with present policies of the saffron party.
He acknowledged that the peace process had found a large number of supporters among the public in both countries, which works to assure that the process would remain sustainable.
The National Democratic Alliance presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu on Thursday consolidated her lead after the second round of counting by getting nearly 72 per cent votes of the total votes of all MPs and MLAs of 10 states counted so far.
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
Against the backdrop of unhappiness among some senior leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party in the wake of controversy over denial of ticket to Jaswant Singh, party leader Yashwant Sinha on Friday said things could have been done more "gracefully" and "smoothly" to look "more natural".
Nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs will vote on Monday to elect the 15th President of India, with National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu having a clear edge over Opposition's Yashwant Sinha as over 60 per cent votes are expected to be cast in her favour.
India's opposition parties have sharply criticized the Union Budget, calling it inadequate to address the country's economic woes and accusing the BJP-led government of using it to woo voters in Bihar and Delhi ahead of upcoming elections. Leaders from the Congress, TMC, DMK, SP, and CPI(M) voiced their disapproval, highlighting concerns over inflation, unemployment, and the lack of substantial measures to support the agricultural sector and the poor. They also criticized the tax cuts for the middle class as insufficient and coming too late after years of high taxes and rising prices.
Stepping up further pressure, Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday demanded the immediate resignation of party president Nitin Gadkari and claimed three other senior leaders including Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha were with him on the issue.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha are among prominent leaders who have failed to find a place in party president Rajnath Singh's core team.
'Right time, right place, right business and I could see I was the right person. It was a now or never moment in a sense. If I didn't do it then, then when? There is little point in entering a business as an entrepreneur when someone else has proven the concept.' BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's son started ReNew Power during the UPA II government to focus on clean energy.
'The critical event signalling a new era for India was Dr Singh's 1991 Budget in which he quoted Victor Hugo to say that no power on earth could stop an idea whose time has come,' recalls T N Ninan.
The former finance minister also objected to the filing of a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against The Wire, which carried a story on Jay Shah's business.
Two days after the much-awaited team of office bearers was announced, Sinha on Thursday refuted suggestions that he was a contender for any post, but felt party stalwart and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha should have been included.
The Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly was asked about his decision to support Yashwant Sinha, a former Union minister, and not Murmu who is tipped to become the first tribal woman to occupy the top post.
'The government is using the agencies of the government to suppress the Opposition.'
The actor-turned-politician hit out at the BJP leadership, alleging there's no place left for dialogue in the BJP anymore and the party's top brass "doesn't value its own people and views opponents as their enemies".
'The first clear cut call for 'engagement with all stake holders including separatists' came, not from the political class but the men in uniform,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished observer on Kashmir.
The EVMs, officials explained, are not designed to register this system of voting.
Yashwant Sinha, who served as finance minister and external affairs minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, salutes Atalji.
Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has made a veiled attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of rescuing Uttarakhand victims from his state alone, saying no politician should be parochial in his approach while saving lives of the stranded people.
Every Budget proposal must be carefully evaluated and people should not be impressed by any last minute bonanza after suffering for four years, says Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.
'My one recommendation would be to first quell the violence and then encourage dialogue and build the trust among the different communities.' 'This is not easy but necessary, for violence cannot be the way forward.'
Taking a jibe at Yashwant Sinha, the finance minister said that he doesn't have luxury of being former finance minister.
Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha presented 5 Budgets each while Jaswant Singh presented only one Budget.
India's finance ministers have played a crucial role in framing policies and initiating reforms to boost the economy.
Leaders of several opposition parties including the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Left assembled at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday and discussed various issues facing the country, amid intense speculation about the possibility of a third front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Sena also suggested that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should join Pawar's effort to unite the Opposition, only then can a consolidated front gain real strength.
From the point of view of qualification, Murmu is probably educationally the least qualified among India's recent Presidents. But then, with the BJP in command, she will be required to do little but sign on the dotted line.
These meetings with Pawar has fuelled speculations about the possibility of opposition parties coming together to form a third front against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
With his recent utterances on Narendra Modi and L K Advani leaving many leaders in Bharatiya Janata Party red faced, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Thursday said he did not violate party discipline and stuck to his remarks.
With the tablet carefully kept inside a red cover with a golden-coloured national emblem embossed on it instead of the briefcase, Parliament will be her next destination after the call on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The Election Commission on Friday issue a 'certificate of election' to NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu who has emerged victorious in the presidential poll.
Yashwant Sinha's worry is actually not about the discourse being marred by the spurious communalism-secularism debate, it is in actuality, a fear of the BJP being devoured by Narendra Modi and consequently leaving mortals like Sinha lost in oblivion, says Apoorvanand
Farooq Abdullah requested the PM to consider the proposal, supported by opposition parties, reports Archis Mohan.
Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their respective party lines in the presidential election.
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