Although the credit for acquiring the technological skill must be given to India's outstanding nuclear scientists, the decision to go nuclear was a political one that entailed clarity of vision, courage and resolve, points out Rup Narayan Das.
Hectic political activities continued for the second consecutive day in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka on Thursday, as party's national general secretary in-charge of the State Arun Singh started meeting leaders and legislators individually, in the backdrop of speculations over replacing Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.
The Jat vote is crucial in winning at least 40 assembly seats in Western UP, which has been in the grip of a widespread farmer movement, reports Nitin Kumar.
The AAP swept the municipal bypolls in Delhi winning four of the five seats while the Congress bagged one and the BJP drew a blank, prompting AAP chief and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to assert that the victory is an indication of the expected outcome of the MCD elections next year.
The last two I-T teams left the premises, one each in Odisha and Jharkhand, carrying with them a number of seized "incriminating documents" and data cloned from electronic gadgets in the early morning hours.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had said on Saturday that it would invoke the stringent National Security Act and Gangster Act against those accused in the killing of the 46-year-old man.
The Congress alleged that the money-laundering law has been weaponised to target and humiliate people, and urged the Supreme Court to decide soon on the matter concerning the National Herald-Associated Journals Limited case.
Incidents of arson and vandalism were reported on Saturday after stones were pelted at the rally when it was passing through a Muslim-dominated locality, according to police.
A first information report (FIR) was registered in Jaipur on Saturday night against a TV news anchor, Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson Rajyavardhan Rathore and others for allegedly spreading falsehood by doctoring Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's comment in Kerala to appear as if it was a remark on the Udaipur tailor's murder.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday lashed out at opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties over Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's remarks against 'Sanatan Dharma', accusing them of insulting 'Sanatan Dharma' for votebank and appeasement politics.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said he replaced India with Bharat in his Twitter bio to reflect his 'journey' from the Congress to Bharatiya Janata Party, in a dig at the opposition coalition.
Uddhav Thackeray and his followers have the option to stop riding a tiger and commence work around a more meaningful and enduring political ideology. It is an option Eknath Shinde's side may not have, supported as they were by the BJP, to maintain continuity of the old Sena, argues Shyam G Menon.
Special police teams have been formed to trace the assailants who hacked to death Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu unit general secretary V Ramesh, even as a state-wide bandh has been called by the party on July 22 to protest the murder.
The top guns of all the major political parties were on a campaign blitz across the state in the past few days, even as the ruling BJP has been striving to break the 38-year-old pattern of alternating governments and retain its southern citadel.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said pollution levels declined in the national capital due to government initiatives as he announced a 15-point winter action plan to curb pollution.
The fact that Home Minister Amit Shah recently met Raje was a marker that Delhi will be compelled to take her more seriously than it would care to. Like B S Yediyurappa, she's a regional chieftain who can't be discarded at will, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The protesters who had gathered under the banner of the Joint Forum for Restoration of Old Pension Scheme and National Joint Council of Action said they were worried about their post-retirement future.
Targeting the Congress, the PM said those who ruled Madhya Pradesh for a long time did nothing else other than corruption and crime.
'If the BJP thinks it is going to overnight transform Bengal into Madhya Pradesh, sorry, that's not going to happen because I have faith in our ethos and culture.'
It does not stop here, though. According to field information, state ministers, AIADMK candidates and campaigners are asking BJP cadres accompanying them not to carry party flags at common rallies and also avoid their saffron shawl on those occasions. BJP cadres are also asked to stay out of the common campaign when it enters a minority-dominated areas, especially of Muslims, and re-join later, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The accent on 'making the south feel wanted' was the reason why P Muralidhar Rao, who was dropped as general secretary, was partially reinstated in the central apparatus as prabhari in charge of Madhya Pradesh. 'Pressure from the RSS was brought to bear on Rao's return,' a source said. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
"We want to make it clear that we have no relations (with LJP), and we do not like this politics of spreading confusion," BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar said.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said he would build new leadership in the party and asserted he gets more energy to work when such situations come up.
Under the stewardship of the then TMC national general secretary Mukul Roy and North 24 Parganas TMC district president Jyotipriyo Mullick, he joined the party and quickly ascended in power, becoming a close associate of Mullick.
Even as the row over the power disruption at President Droupadi Murmu's programme in Odisha's Baripada continues, the chief district medical officer (CDMO) of Mayurbhanj has suspended a pharmacist for taking photos with the President's helicopter, an official said on Monday.
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
The BJP polled over 56 per cent of votes, more than the combined vote share of the Congress (22.5 per cent) and the AAP (18.1 per cent).
A team of Mumbai Police which travelled to Delhi to serve a summons to suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma in connection with a case regarding her controversial remarks about Prophet Muhammad could not find her, an official claimed in Mumbai on Friday.
Marandi returned to the BJP after 14 years and the party now wants him to lead the state unit. But a generation of new leaders isn't familiar with him, explains Radhika Ramaseshan.
Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said it will not criticise the Congress general secretary as 'he is still learning and speaks what his team tells him to do' but took exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling the National Democratic Alliance government in Bihar a failure.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
At the meeting, many parties urged the Congress to publicly denounce the ordinance but the Congress refused to do so, claimed AAP, adding that the grand old party's "silence raises suspicions about its real intentions".
While there was a brief respite from the incessant downpour on Tuesday, collaborative efforts from the defence, national, and state disaster response forces took the lead in executing rescue and relief operations.
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress on Friday alleged that Facebook was being used as a weapon by the Bharatiya Janata Party to spread hate and fake news in the country and demanded that a joint parliamentary committee probe be conducted on the issue and laws be enacted to restrict Facebook and WhatsApp.
RLSP leaders feel insulted after getting no response from the BJP on their demand for a 'respectful seat sharing formula' for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The BJP welcomed the CBI move, claiming that it had been saying all along that Kejriwal was the 'mastermind of the liquor scam'.
While police is on the lookout for six people, including local BJP leader Dhirendra Pratap Singh, two have been arrested. Police have detained five others in the case. Besides the eight accused, the first information report also mentions 20-25 unnamed accused of which three people who were later identified as Munna Yadav, Raj Pratap Yadav and Rajan Tewari were arrested on Saturday, Additional SP Sanjay Yadav said.
Opposing a dialogue with Pakistan till it stops 'exporting' terror into Jammu and Kashmir, a Bharatiya Janata Party delegation led by Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina at an all-party meet in New Delhi on Thursday said those seeking engagement with the neighbouring country should meet the victims of violence to understand their pain.
