'When I met the prime minister, he asked me, "Dr Ganguly, what do you do with people in your company who lie to you?"' 'I said, "Prime Minister, we counsel them and give them a gentle warning. If they lie again, they are sacked".' '"This is my problem,'" Rajiv responded. "I can't sack people in government".' A revealing excerpt from former Hindustan Lever Chairman Dr Ashok S Ganguly's We Are Our Future: Reflections On Life.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray pens tribute to his uncle, Bal Thackeray, recalling their bond and the pain of leaving the family home after quitting Shiv Sena.
Assam Congress alleges CM Himanta Biswa Sarma's family grabbed thousands of acres of land, prompting a defamation case announcement. BJP denies claims as baseless.
An upcoming book by investigative journalist Chitra Subramaniam claims that senior Indian bureaucrats "tutored" Bofors officials in a secret meeting in 1987 on how to absolve then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of all blame in the infamous bribery scandal. The book, "Boforsgate," details how the meeting was held to cover up the alleged Rs 64 crore bribe in a Rs 1,437 crore deal for Howitzer guns, and how Indian officials provided advice on concealing information from investigators. Subramaniam's revelations are based on documents provided to her by the Swedish head of police investigating the Bofors case.
Journalist and author Chitra Subramaniam has demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) make public its findings from the "box of evidence" received from Switzerland regarding the Bofors payoffs. Subramaniam, author of 'Boforsgate: A Journalist's Pursuit of Truth', expressed concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the evidence, questioning who opened the box, when it was opened, and what it contained. She also raised doubts about the official narrative regarding the alleged bribe in the Bofors case, suggesting the sum of Rs 64 crore may not reflect the full extent of the corruption. Subramaniam also alleged that the CBI planted stories about Hindi film actor Amitabh Bachchan to derail the investigation and launched a political vendetta against the Bachchans. She recalled that Bachchan had come to her home and asked if she had seen his name. The CBI has recently requested assistance from the United States in the case, seeking information from private investigator Michael Hershman, who claims to have crucial details about the scandal. The Bofors scandal, a major bribery case involving the Indian government and the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors in the 1980s, pertains to allegations of a Rs 64-crore bribe in a Rs 1,437-crore deal for the supply of 400 155mm field Howitzers.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sent a judicial request to the United States seeking information from private investigator Michael Hershman, who has claimed to possess crucial details about the Rs 64-crore Bofors bribery scandal of the 1980s. Hershman, the head of the Fairfax Group, had previously expressed his willingness to share information with Indian agencies, alleging that the investigation into the scam was derailed by the then Congress government. The CBI's request comes after previous attempts to obtain information from US authorities yielded no results. This move highlights the continued efforts to uncover the truth behind the decades-old scandal, which has had a significant impact on Indian politics.
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
While naming him as the NDA candidate for the Vice President's post, the BJP had described him as 'Kisan putra', a move seen in the political circles aimed at reaching out to the politically significant Jat community which had participated in huge numbers in the year-long farmers' protests against agriculture reform measures unveiled in June 2020.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Rajya Sabha, India's upper house of parliament, witnessed its second-longest sitting in history on Thursday, lasting until 4:02 am the next day. The House convened to clear the Waqf (Amendment) Bill and approve the statutory resolution on the imposition of President's Rule in Manipur. The longest sitting in Rajya Sabha history occurred on September 17, 1981, when the House sat until 4:43 am to pass the Essential Services Maintenance Bill.
'They want to keep the pot boiling all the time.' 'The BJP wants to set a political narrative that the Gandhis are doing wrong things.'
After the Chinese People's Liberation Army troop buildup at the Line of Actual Control, the border separating India and China, the Indian Army has beefed up the 1,300 km-long LAC in the eastern sector in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.
The Congress kept sheltering Quattrochi, and the BJP was more intent on shielding the Hinduja brothers. The fact is that the two roads crisscrossed, and neither the truth prevailed nor did the law take its course, says Mohan Guruswamy.
He was colourful. He was dramatic. He was The Master of His Craft. There never will be an editor as versatile as Pritish Nandy, notes Nikhil Lakshman.
There is a vital difference between Bofors and Rafale, explains Shekhar Gupta.
The CBI had moved the trial court seeking permission for further probe in the matter saying it had come across fresh material and evidence.
The artillery pounds targets and keeps the enemy's head down, preventing them from firing at attacking troops.
The Indian Army is enhancing the combat prowess of its artillery units along the frontier with China by procuring an array of weapons systems, including an additional batch of 100 K9 Vajra howitzers, swarm drones, loitering munitions and surveillance systems.
Questioning the Congress's stand on caste census, the BJP leader made certain remarks on Gandhi's caste that triggered the uproar and had Congress members trooping into the well of the Lok Sabha. "Anurag Thakur insulted me and I don't want any apology from him. Abuse or insult me as hard as you can but don't forget we will pass the caste census in this Parliament for sure," the Leader of the Opposition said.
Nothing that Sten Lindstrom says now is new, says T N Ninan
President Pranab Mukherjee called the Bofors scandal a media trial that could not be proven in any Indian court
The order was passed by Justice R S Sodhi while hearing a petition filed by Europe-based Hinduja brothers seeking\nthe discharge of the case.
A website recently carried his interview claiming that when Fernandes wanted to see the file, Vajpayee asked him to keep his hands off.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the government is examining the decision of the Income Tax tribunal in the Bofors case and will decide the future course of action later.
CPM said the Bofors gun deal was "an important case highlighting corruption in high places" and did not deserve such an end.
Speaking at a joint rally of Mahayuti partners in Mumbai, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis supported Shinde's claims, stating that the NDA leaders did not pay enough attention to the lies spread by the Opposition during the campaign.
'We were against politicisation of the defence acquisition process. It was a question of capability of the air force'
"Three 155 mm howitzers (Dhanush) have been handed over to the army recently for user's trial," GCF's Joint General Manager and PRO Sanjay Shrivastava told PTI today.
'Sweden claimed inability to track the payments through Swiss bank accounts after making a half-hearted request for Swiss assistance,' it said.
When Sten Lindstrom, who led the investigation in Sweden, says there was no evidence that Rajiv took the money, he is saying something established long ago, says T N Ninan
It said it was not convinced with the grounds of the CBI to condone over 4,500 days' delay in filing the appeal. The CBI had filed the appeal on February 2 this year.
The CBI filed the appeal against the May 31, 2005 decision of the high court by which all accused, including Europe-based industrialists Hinduja brothers, were discharged from the Rs 64-crore pay-off case.
On the tenth anniversary of the Kargil conflict, the gun that did so much to facilitate that victory -- the 155 mm Bofors FH-77B -- could be staring at a major setback. With India's artillery modernisation programme already stalled, the plan to refurbish and upgrade India's old 155 mm FH-77B Bofors guns also seems headed for failure.
"I knew what I was doing when I leaked the documents to you. I could not count on my government or Bofors or the Government of India to get to the bottom of this." Sten Lindstrom, former head of Swedish police who led the investigations into the Bofors-India gun deal, explains why he chose to turn whistleblower to Chitra Subramaniam-Duella, in an interview published on the website hoot.org
Editor-in-Chief of daily 'Dagens Nyhetter' Peter Wolodarski also claimed that Indian envoy to Sweden Banashri Bose Harrison warned that the planned state visit by the President was at risk of being cancelled.
The advocate said he was compelled to file the petition against the high court judgment as the CBI failed to approach the apex court with a special leave petition within the 90-day deadline for filing an appeal.