Social activist Medha Patkar was arrested in New Delhi on Friday for failing to furnish probation bonds in a 24-year-old defamation case filed by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. The arrest comes after a court granted Patkar a one-year probation in April, but she failed to comply with the order to furnish bonds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual meeting with chief ministers to review preparedness and plans in light of the West Asia conflict, emphasising the importance of national unity and enhanced security measures.
Delhi government mandates 50% work from home for offices and private establishments under GRAP stage three due to severe air pollution. Essential services are exempted.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said the term "administration" with regard to powers of the lieutenant governor cannot be understood as the entire administration of Delhi.
The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary to make a dent into Nitish Kumar's traditional social support base of Kurmi and Koeri/Kushwaha communities.
The delayed timing of J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha's admission has more to do with deflecting the thrust of the Opposition attack on the prime minister and Union home minister during the monsoon session of Parliament, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The Delhi government will not be run from jail, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena said on Wednesday in the backdrop of statements by Aam Aadmi Party leaders that Arvind Kejriwal will continue as chief minister even if he is behind bars.
Gupta sought to draw the top city bureaucrat's attention to the procedure and protocol to be adhered to by the government officers while dealing with the members of the assembly.
'Samrat Chaudhury's limited independent standing within the party, his reliance on the central leadership for his elevation, and his lack of a personal mass base all point toward this outcome.'
The BJP has demanded the intervention of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in the renaming of the official 'CMO Delhi' handle on X to 'Arvind Kejriwal At Work', alleging that the change was made at the behest of the former chief minister. The party accused Arvind Kejriwal of misusing public funds for his own digital propaganda and demanded legal action against him. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) responded by urging the BJP to focus on governing Delhi instead of making "baseless allegations."
The Congress party has strongly criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks regarding the dropping of stanzas from 'Vande Mataram' in 1937, calling his statements shameful and demanding an apology. The party argues that Rabindranath Tagore himself suggested adopting the first two stanzas of the song.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal will reside in a Type-VII bungalow in Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, after the Centre's allotment following Delhi High Court's intervention. The allocation comes after delays and scrutiny regarding Kejriwal's previous accommodation.
The BJP will hold a legislature party meeting on Wednesday evening to decide the new chief minister of Delhi. The party won the February 5 assembly elections, ending the Aam Aadmi Party's five-year rule. The meeting will be held at the party's Delhi unit office and is expected to begin around 7 pm. The 48 BJP MLAs will choose the Leader of the House in the Delhi Assembly, who will become the chief minister. The meeting will be held in the presence of BJP's central observers, whose names are yet to be declared. The new chief minister, after being chosen by the party MLAs, will meet Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena at the Raj Niwas to stake claim to power. A grand swearing-in ceremony of the new government is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at Ramleela Ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries are expected to attend the ceremony. The names doing the rounds for the new chief minister include Parvesh Verma, Vijender Gupta, Satish Upadhyay, Pawan Sharma, Ashish Sood, Rekha Gupta, Shikha Rai, Ravinder Indraj Singh, and Kailash Gangwal. Many within the party believe that the BJP leadership could choose a "dark horse" as Delhi's next chief minister.
New Delhi looks to be testing Omar's endurance with unconcealed glee, never feeling shy to bite whenever a moment comes its way. After all, ruling the country's only Muslim-majority UT/state has been the BJP's burning desire, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it held a formal meeting with a Chinese delegation openly, given the "improved" relations between New Delhi and Beijing, unlike the Congress which, it alleged, "secretly" signed a memorandum of understanding with the neighbouring country's ruling party.
An order was issued to terminate 223 contractual employees of the Delhi Commission of Women after Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to a proposal on it, officials said on Thursday.
Saxena, who became the Delhi LG in May 2022, is an accused, along with three others in a case of alleged attack on Patkar for opposing the Narmada dam project.
The GAD order issued to various department heads and in-charges said that no files, documents, computer hardware etc. can be taken outside the Delhi Secretariat complex without the department's prior permission.
Lawyers were on strike against the LG's notification for the deposition of police personnel through video conferencing from police stations.
The choice that bypasses several other senior government leaders is likely to set a stage for another round of tussle between the AAP dispensation and the LG Secretariat.
Voting for the Delhi Assembly elections began on Wednesday, with prominent leaders like President Droupadi Murmu, Union ministers S Jaishankar and Hardeep Singh Puri, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi casting their ballots early in the day. Other notable figures who participated in the electoral process included Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, and Delhi Chief Electoral Officer R Alice Vaz. The election is a triangular contest between the ruling AAP, BJP, and Congress, with the AAP aiming for a third consecutive term. Polling is underway at 13,766 stations across Delhi's 70 assembly constituencies to decide the fate of 699 candidates. The results will be announced on February 8.
Heavy rains lashed Delhi, leading to a red alert, traffic snarls, and waterlogging. The IMD predicts continued rainfall.
Instead, they argue, three actors shaped the division, "Jinnah, who demanded it; the Congress, which accepted it; and Mountbatten, who formalised and implemented it."
The Delhi assembly which held 74 sittings over its five-year term, met for an average of 15 days a year. On the days it met, the assembly sat for an average of three hours.
Debutant legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi chief minister along with six ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the Bharatiya Janata Party's return to power in the city after more than 26 years.
He was appointed the national capital's LG in December, 2016.
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party termed the LG's orders removing Shah and Gupta from the boards of discoms "illegal and unconstitutional". The LG does not have the power to issue such orders, it claimed.
Atishi, who retained her Kalkaji seat, handed over her resignation to Saxena at Raj Niwas, officials said.
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Mukesh Ahlawat will be the new face in the Delhi cabinet headed by Atishi, who will be sworn in as chief minister on September 21, and four ministers will be retained, the party said on Thursday.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
Ahead of the G20 summit, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Thursday went on a final round of inspection of Rajghat, Pragati Maidan and other places to take stock of preparations for the mega event.
The cabinet of the new government led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi with a massive majority after over 26 years.
In the letter, the lieutenant governor said that in the past one week, a "gloomy face of governance" emerged in Delhi where "organised, structured and specialised administrative machinery" is yet again facing the "brunt" of "highhandedness" of the political executive.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday accused Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena and the Bharatiya Janata Party of disrespecting the 'Shivling' by installing fountains shaped like it in the capital ahead of the G20 summit.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has accorded sanction to prosecute author Arundhati Roy and a former professor in Kashmir under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly making provocative speeches at an event in New Delhi in 2010, Raj Niwas officials said on Friday.
Atishi alleged that the BJP had disrespected BR Ambedkar by removing his portrait from the chief minister's office.
Governors must be impartial, fair, and above narrow politics to uphold the values and spirit of the Constitution. But in a rapidly changing political culture where the unstated rule is to crush the Opposition, such values have no meaning. At stake are Constitutional values, federalism and governance, asserts Ramesh Menon.
AAP projects its affordable 'health model' as a success story. The BJP calls it a hoax.
