The occasion at Congress party headquarters on 24, Akbar Road in New Delhi was that of celebration, one that is rare with the party these days. However, what prevailed was confusion, chaos and mayhem.
The Congress on Monday joined other opposition parties, including the DMK and the PMK, in boycotting the June 27 by-election.
Communication, dated February 17 to all state governments, said the CPI (Maoist) planned to capture attention once again
The BJP MLAs, who had staged a demonstration outside the assembly during the first half and marched to the Raj Bhavan during the lunch hour, were summoned by the speaker when the House reassembled at 2 pm.
Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former defence minister AK Antony, senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma also took part in the protest sporting black bands.
'He is not the leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha. He is just an MP.' 'In the order of precedence of the Republic of India, Rahul Gandhi is at 21st position,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The old Parliament building, an architectural splendour and a historic landmark that guided the destiny of India for nearly a century and whose illustrious legacy will now be consigned to the pages of history, was inaugurated on January 18, 1927 by the then Viceroy Lord Irwin.
With only weeks to go before the state assembly elections, the Congress's Karnataka unit is desperately trying to hush up its perpetually squabbling leaders. Senior Congress leaders like Siddaramaiah and Dr Parameshwar have directly appealed to their party workers to fight the elections in a united manner, but they are in no mood to listen.
The Congress, Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham and other opposition parties had wanted to raise several issues in the Upper House but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow them and adjourned the House till 2 pm. After the Chair did not allow them again when the House met, they boycotted it for the rest of the day.
Catch all the action from the Upper and Lower House of Parliament.
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.
Non-government activists Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze, who are widely regarded as architects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), boycotted its fourth anniversary celebrations at Vigyan Bhavan, on Tuesday, as a protest against the manner in which the programme had been implemented.
Taking the floor test for the fourth time, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday won the vote of confidence in the state assembly amid empty Opposition benches following walkout by Congress and boycott\\nby the Janata Dal-Secular.
The Telangana Rashtriya Samiti, spearheading the Telangana statehood movement, rejected a fresh appeal by Home Minister P Chidambaram to participate in Thursday's meeting to discuss the Justice Srikrishna report, even as Congress held hectic parleys with its leaders from Andhra Pradesh on ways to deal with the situation.
No major glitches in electronic voting machines were reported and the voting passed off peacefully with high security observed at the 3,360 critical booths in 493 locations where more than 25,000 police personnel, nearly 13,000 home guards and 100 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed, officials said.
The prospect of an upset worries the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh as it faces a threat from a rebel candidate in the biennial election to Rajya Sabha slated for Friday.
Teachers bodies of 40 central universities and Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India had also come out in support of the agitating students saying it is an issue of "indiscipline" and not "sedition".
It was a unique celebration; there is no other instance where Harijans were feted to celebrate India's Independence, says Prakash Bhandari.
An escalation in confrontation looms large over the winter session of Parliament beginning on Tuesday with the National Democratic Alliance deciding to target Home Minister P Chidambaram on the 2G issue and boycott him. The Opposition also plans to rake up a spate of issues including price rise and black money.
The senior politician's arrest was formally recorded after he was brought to Thiruvananthapuram via road from his residence and thereafter, he was produced before a duty magistrate who granted him bail.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Dismissing allegations that a letter written by him to Union HRD ministry led to the suspension of the five scholars, Dattatreya sought to clarify that he merely forwarded a representation given to him by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Rajya Sabha is likely to adjourn sine die after taking up five bills on Wednesday, the sources said on Tuesday. The Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla said, will meet at 6 pm on Wednesday instead of the usual 3 pm.
The issue of missing files relating to coalgate paralysed proceedings in Parliament on Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding an immediate response from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, even as the government said it will leave no stone unturned in tracing the documents.
'Have you met anyone who said "I will not boycott Chinese products"?'
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
"Karnataka has always forged inclusive economic development and we must not allow such communal exclusion- If ITBT became communal it would destroy our global leadership. @BSBommai please resolve this growing religious divide," Mazumdar-Shaw said.
The DMK feels its genuine gestures have had no bearing on the governor's politico-administrative conduct, which is 'more political and politicised than administrative and Constitutional', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Harivansh, a Janata Dal-United MP, is likely to get the support of 126 members in the Upper House, which has an effective strength of 244 MPs, sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party said.
After an all-party meeting boycotted by the Congress, Chhattishgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Thursday said his government is working on a comprehensive short and medium-term plan to deal with Naxalism and asked the state's main opposition to help the administration in the task.
The Congress hit out at the BJP, demanding the immediate arrest of those who have defamed India at the international level instead of enacting a "drama of action".
The crisis in the ruling Uttarakhand Congress persisted as 17 of the 32 party members of Legislative Assembly supporting Union Minister Harish Rawat, abstained from taking oath in Uttarakhand assembly on Thursday.
The session will begin with the address of the President to the joint sitting of the two Houses on Friday morning followed by the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.
The Telugu Desam Party and other opposition parties have gone for the jugular as the ministers in the dock were all key portfolio holders under YS Rajashekhar Reddy regime. Mohammed Siddique reports.
This divisiveness is upsetting social cohesion and can throw the bright young people thronging to Bengaluru with billion dollar ideas in their creative minds off balance, warns Shekhar Gupta.
Modi told the leaders that Tomar was just a phone call away for protesting farmers and the agriculture minister had conveyed the same to farmer leaders earlier this month.
Trinamool Congress has refused to attend the all-party meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday, to seek suggestions for expediting relief work in cyclone-affected areas, dubbing the whole exercise as 'suspect'.The chief whip of the TC parliamentary party in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay told PTI that the whole exercise was 'suspect' as the meeting will take place so many days after the cyclone hit Bengal.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar was on Friday re-inducted as Maharashtra deputy chief minister after a government white paper on irrigation gave him a clean chit even as the Opposition Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party boycotted his swearing-in ceremony, terming his comeback as a "farce."
The boy from Kanpur kept his audiences in theatres, on television and lately on social media platforms engaged with vivid societal sketches, be it about travelling in Mumbai's famous locals or lampooning queues at wedding buffets.
"My department is being singled out publicly. I always regard him as my elder I always listen to him."
