Christmas seemed to have come early for Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha with party workers bursting crackers and distributing sweets as trends for the Jharkhand assembly elections showed the Congress-JMM alliance ahead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. "People have voted for change," Congress spokesperson Pranav Jha told reporters at the Congress office, anticipating a victory for the opposition alliance. Elections were held over five phases between November 30 and December 20.
The Congress' attack came after former prime minister Manmohan Singh's daughter, Daman Singh, accused the minister of getting a photographer against the wishes of the family.
The Congress in Karnataka on Wednesday found itself in a tight spot after a video showed a purported conversation between the party media coordinator M A Saleem and former Lok Sabha member V S Ugrappa attributing the Congress state president D K Shivakumar's involvement in a scam when he was a minister.
Hitting out at actor Kangana Ranaut for describing India's Independence in 1947 as bheek or alms, the Congress on Thursday said her remarks amounted to 'treason' and demanded the government take back the Padma Shri bestowed on her recently as she has 'insulted' the country's Independence movement.
In the most candid admission of Team Anna's political ambitions, Arvind Kejriwal has said a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party people's front will be put up in the 2014 polls, which will be backed by Anna Hazare and his team.
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Monday met Kashmir separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and briefed him about the issues discussed between India and Pakistan during Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's visit to Islamabad.
Ahead of the Parliament session, beginning Monday, the government is apparently aiming to build a consensus to deal with its biggest neighbour as well on Kashmir issue.
A multi-tier security cover has been put in place in the city for the swearing-in tomorrow of the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed-led BJP-PDP government.
Congress leader Saifuddin Soz is presently in an eye of the storm due to his book 'Kashmir: Glimpses of History and the Story of Struggle.' Soz, the former president of Jammu and Kashmir Congress committee, has also been in the National Conference. He was also a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government. PTI-Bhasha spoke to Soz on the issue of breakup of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Peoples Democratic Party alliance in Jammu and Kashmir and the prevailing situation in the Valley.
He claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party people were alerted beforehand about the demonetisation. "How can one explain the BJP people in West Bengal depositing crores in high-denomination notes just before PM's announcement on November 8?" Rahul asked. "BJP workers were seen holding up bundles of the new Rs 2000 notes, as seen from images on the Internet, before Modi announced this decision," he told reporters in suburban Bandra.
With his swearing-in, the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post has ended.
"The friendship between China and Pakistan appears to be very strong but the day is not far when China too gets affected by Pakistan-backed terrorism," Singh, who is in Gorakhpur to take part in a function at the Gorakhnath temple, told media persons on Monday night.
An article published in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Saamana, said that Mehbboba's links with separatists in Kashmir have always remained a debatable issue.
BJP spokesperson Khalid Jehangir, in his stern message, warned the extremists not to threaten any Kashmiri.
Efforts to revive the Bharatiya Janata Party-People's Democratic Party coalition in Jammu and Kashmir have hit a roadblock with BJP making it clear that government cannot be formed on the basis of conditions.
Protests broke out in several areas in Jammu on Thursday against raising of Pakistani flags and pro-Pakistan slogans at the rally held by separatist leaders in Srinagar on Wednesday.
Pandemonium prevailed in Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Monday as banner-waving members of the legislative assembly of opposition National Conference and the Congress stormed the well over beef ban and other issues.
Congress asked the government to clear its stand on whether it intended to hold talks with Pakistan.
He said it would have been impossible for parties with 'opposing political ideologies' to form a stable government.
The governor said he wanted polls to take place in the state and an elected government to function.
'It is time to not merely assert that Kashmir is an internal problem, but begin to act on it,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Kashmir belongs to us all, even if we differ with each other.' 'Statesmanship demands that we sit together and let the left, right and centre of the political spectrum converge on the solution,' says former MP Tarun Vijay.
Some unlikely celebrities are behind multiple campaigns to fight the fake news menace.
'People want to blacken my face for showing "leaders in a bad light".' 'People want to show loyalty to the party.' 'There's no end to it.' 'How many people should I show the film to?' 'Where do we draw the line?'
She said Modi has the mandate to take bold decisions on the lines of Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the resolution of the problems in and around Jammu and Kashmir.
She said her party has been consistently advocating dialogue, both with Pakistan and all sections of the society within the state, including the separatists, for a permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue.
'For two months, Jitan Ram Manjhi kept a low profile. Once he was put in a place of power even though he had not acquired it himself, he thought he deserved it. He thought he must promote his own political career. Secondly, all those who were opposed to Nitish Kumar, either within the party or outside, started supporting him,' says Professor Prabhat Ghosh, director of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna.
'This is a new phenomenon,' says Shekhar Gupta. 'Does it point to the rise of egomania, and could it also be a reason our politics is broken and Parliament non-functional? Where our biggest leaders talk not to, but at each other.'
'A change of government will bring about a lot of changes because everything is frozen for the last two years. So, the frozen energies of India will be released.' Swadeshi Jagran Manch convenor Swaminathan Gurumurthy discusses the Modi phenomenon with Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
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