Corruption and bribery of members of the legislature erode the foundation of Indian parliamentary democracy, the Supreme Court said on Monday.
The Congress party in India has condemned the seizure of assets belonging to the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, and announced nationwide protests against the action. The party's general secretary, KC Venugopal, described the action as "draconian" and said it was a politically motivated attempt to silence the opposition. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, among others, on charges of money laundering in the case. The Congress has called for protests in front of ED offices across the country on Wednesday.
'He must have been aware of the consequences, that too against Mrs Indira Gandhi, who at that point in time was all powerful. The easiest way out would have been to dismiss the petition, but he didn't do that'
The lawmakers also hailed the strong strategic partnership between India and the US during a meeting with an all-party delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who briefed them on the cross-border terrorism faced by India and the country's strong and resolute stance in the fight against terror.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he will be attending the G7 Summit later this month in Canada and that he looked forward to meeting his newly elected Canadian counterpart Mark Carney.
'Skirmishes with officials in the Press Information Bureau were an everyday affair as the newspapers sought clearances from the media censors for publishing the next day's editions'
'...and the country should be impoverished completely.' 'Once this is done, the political class would take over and then play a part in real democracy where the army is under the control of the government, not vice-versa.'
Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy said the country wanted to know whether any aircraft were downed during the conflict, especially in the wake of the CDS' "admission".
Deputy Commissioner for the New York City Mayor's Office for International Affairs Dilip Chauhan made the announcement in the presence of Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Ramdas Athawale, who delivered the keynote address at a special event organised at the UN headquarters on Monday to commemorate Dr Ambedkar's 134th birth anniversary.
"India is going through a transformation that I haven't seen in my life happens so quickly," said Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal, who was the chief guest at India's 64th Republic Day celebrations hosted by the Federation of Indo Americans of Northern America on January 27 in Newark, California.
Modi said, "I can feel that the blood of every Indian is on the boil after seeing the pictures of the terrorist attack. I once again assure the affected families that they will get justice, and justice will be definitely done. The perpetrators and conspirators of this attack will be served the harshest punishment."
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier called out the remarks made by Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan podcast. "Mr. Zuckerberg's claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect," Vaishnaw had said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on January 13.
'What does Indira Gandhi want from me? At this age, what will I do to her?'
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday (local time) highlighted how India responded in a measured and calibrated manner towards terror bases and headquarters in Pakistan, following the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.
After the 1962 War with China, there was a demand to forge greater defence cooperation between India and the West. One such voice was that of Sudhir Ghosh, a distinguished MP, to tie up strategic cooperation with the USA immediately after the Chinese attack on India, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
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.
'I am the daughter of a martyr and had lost my father in Kashmir in 1994. I understand what drastic circumstances life brings in front of you.'
'If you want to win you need to perform.' 'Governments have found a way to buck anti-incumbency, but one policy intervention will not pay in all elections.'
In India, the Indian-American diplomat will also meet with senior government officials to discuss the deepening US-India partnership, the state department said in a release on Friday.
A cross-party delegation led by Congress MP Dr Shashi Tharoor is visiting key American nations to rally global support for India's counter-terror stance under Operation Sindoor, spotlighting regional stability and Pakistan-backed cross-border threats.
Prabowo was accused in the late 1980s of making a number pro-democracy activists mysteriously disappear and for human rights abuses in the provinces of East Timor and Papua and was denied a visa to the US.
'You can imagine for India what Shuks means not just to the billions of people in India but the entire Indian diaspora around the world.'
The Congress on Tuesday took strong objection to the criticism directed at it by the Indian envoy to Ireland while responding to an Irish daily's editorial, saying that attacking opposition parties openly in a manner like a 'party apparatchik' was 'disgraceful behaviour' and the ambassador should be sacked.
'He had to change them because he recognises that even with his popularity....could lead to a problem. So, democracy has this way of offering corrections and telling the ruling party or the prime minister that you need to take some steps to compensate for excesses'
The reality is that far from being friendless, India is better positioned in the world than at any point post-Cold War, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Describing the Women's Reservation Bill as a 'giant step' towards the empowerment of women, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said in the Rajya Sabha that the measure was not anti-minority and anti-Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe. Dr Singh also expressed 'profound apology' to Chairman Hamid Ansari for the disrespect shown to the Chair by members in the House over the past two days. "On behalf of the government, I owe you a profound apology," Dr Singh said to Ansari.
The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha is preparing his excuses for future defeats in the upcoming assembly elections, including Bihar, Fadnavis said in his articles published in the Indian Express and Marathi daily Loksatta.
'No Indian politician has been killed in India for upholding the Constitution except for Kashmiri mainstream politicians.' 'Yet they call us terrorist or militant.'
"If you see in the context of alliances and statistics, then this is the strongest alliance government," Modi said while addressing newly-elected MPs and leaders of the NDA from across the country following his election as leader of the ruling bloc ahead of his government's swearing-in on Sunday.
The high point of the 19 Shastri months was the 22-day war that he fought against great odds and won in principle, even if military historians often call it a stalemate. Pakistan saw a great opportunity to conquer Kashmir and lost. It was the last time they had the relative strength militarily and diplomatically to take Kashmir. Shastri's resolve buried that dream forever, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'We are too important to want to be paired with Pakistan but too intensely connected to it to successfully detach ourselves,' asserts Aakar Patel.
"This is not what my grandfather sacrificed years in jail for," Ro Khanna said.
The dastardly dimensions of the attack are gradually sinking in even as the Government of India announced its immediate diplomatic and other retaliatory measures. It is generally expected to be followed up with punitive military action across the LoC, sooner than later, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'We've moved from thousands killed yearly in Jammu and Kashmir to 127 last year.' 'Cross-border terrorism in Kashmir is being solved. We are winning it.'
India believes in sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas, sabka prayaas and walks ahead with it, Modi said.
In his post, an official claimed that Modi had said: "We saw her (Hasina's) disrespectful behaviour towards you (Yunus).
The Assam Cabinet on Sunday had decided not to register any case against the Congress MP or his British spouse, who the BJP has accused of having ISI links, but instructed the DGP to file an FIR against Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh.
On Jawaharlal Nehru's 61st death anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra recalls how India's first prime minister cultivated a unique role for the newly independent country on the world stage.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has questioned the Chief Justice of India's involvement in executive appointments, specifically citing the selection of the CBI director. He believes this practice undermines democratic principles and calls for revisiting the existing norms. Dhankhar also raised concerns about the "doctrine of basic structure", suggesting it has a debatable jurisprudential basis. He emphasized the importance of each institution operating within its constitutional boundaries and highlighted the need for coordinated autonomy. The vice president also discussed the need for a balanced approach to judicial review and the importance of judges focusing on judgments rather than other forms of expression. He stressed the need to revisit the current state of affairs to restore the judiciary's sublimity.
Gandhi also criticised the RSS for believing that India is "one idea".
