The resolution of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind asking Muslims not to recite 'Vande Mataram' is "unacceptable" and will be "counter-productive", said Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat are understood to have discussed the economic slowdown, the political situation and the CPI-M's position as a general election approaches.
"It is further clarified that the underlying theme of the reply to the question on Indo-US relations was the high expectation India had from the Obama Administration with a hope being expressed that it would be possible for India to make the new Administration appreciate India's positions and views on the region, including Kashmir," the Media Adviser's statement said.
In an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna says Indians will continue to be a target for terrorists, in Afghanistan and at home, and that he's convinced the United States fully shares India's concerns on fighting terror.
Lieutenant General Avadesh Prakash, who is facing a court martial in connection with the Sukna land scam, has alleged that Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had not applied his mind before changing his decision to initiate proceedings against him. He also said the fresh court of inquiry ordered by the Armed Forces Tribunal would help bring out new facts and clear his role in the entire case.
India and Pakistan were close to sealing an agreement on Kashmir and other contentious issues between the two countries when President President Pervez Musharraf was in power. "...I had told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he had agreed, of course. It was his turn to come to Pakistan and we had decided that if he comes and there is no signature on at least one out of those three, if not all the three, it would be a total flop and that must never happen," he said.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, foreign minister of Pakistan, spoke to Karan Thapar on issues ranging from the spread of Taliban to the investigations into the Mumbai terror attacks and the trust deficit between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh's biography of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, out on Sunday, promises to be much discussed.
In an interview to Karan Thapar on his Devil's Advocate programme on CNN-IBN, he said, 'What happened after that was bad and that lead to lot of turmoil in Pakistan, certainly. But if you say whether that was a mistake? No. I took action which was absolutely constitutional and legal.'
"I certainly accept that our image in India has taken a beating. I don't think that if you go through the intensity of the negative media coverage in India and not take a damage," he told Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate programme on CNN-IBN.
Independence or accession to Pakistan is not a viable option for the people of Kashmir, says National Conference chief Omar Abdullah while noting that essentially a political solution needs to be worked out for the ills plaguing Jammu and Kashmir.
"What I am aware of is that after the receipt of the dossier by Pakistan, the Pakistan government has reverted to us and asked number of questions to which answers have been provided," National Security Advisor M K Narayanan told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.
Pervez Musharraf, ex-military president of Pakistan, looks back on some high points such as Kargil and his own ouster in a talk with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme, to be telecast on Sunday. Edited excerpts
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani appears to have got it wrong when he contends that he spoke to former United States Ambassador Robert Blackwill, seeking Washington's help, to end the 1999 Kandahar hijack crisis. Blackwill, while responding to Advani's contention made in his memoirs My Country, My Life, said he was in the US during the Kandahar crisis and had come to India as Ambassador two years after the hijack crisis.
Prachanda also insisted that elections to the Constituent Assembly in Nepal be held in November or December, failing which his party would walk out of the government and launch a peaceful agitation.
"At present on paper there is autonomy but in reality every key position is occupied by Chinese who have no idea of past events, of Tibetan culture or Tibetan habits or mentality," he said.
India regards Pervez Musharraf as an "elected President" of Pakistan and a "credible interlocutor" with whom it will continue to do business, says National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi cut short a television interview at his Ahmedabad residence on Friday after he was repeatedly asked questions about the post-Godhra riots in 2002. Modi terminated the interview to CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme midway when questioner Karan Thapar asked if he had any regrets about the Gujarat riots and also about his image as an anti-Muslim. Modi removed the microphone from his shirt and told Thapar that he cannot continue.
Admitting that he had earlier fought a case for Bina Ramani with regard to the custody of her children, Jethmalani denied that he had charged the key prosecution witness with resorting to falsehood in the Jessica Lal murder case.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has indicated that his government would consider if Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh could be pardoned. He said Sarabjit's case was being reviewed by the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Law-Justice and Human Rights. Gilani added that he has advised President Pervez Musharraf to stop the execution of Sarabjit. Sarabjit, accused of terror attacks in Lahore in 1990, has been languishing in Pakistani prisons.
Ahead of new inflation data to be released on Friday, the finance minister told a television channel that he cannot guess the inflation figure, but "will remain in double digit for some more weeks." "I don't know. I can't guess the figure," P Chidambaram told Karan Thapar in an interview for the Devil's Advocate programme to be telecast on CNN-IBN.
The new civilian government in Pakistan has to take the Army on board before implementing its ideas on the Kashmir issue, Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said.
Dr Ramadoss also played down the controversy over AIIMS Director P Venugopal.
Asked to react to the criticism that her writings were aimed at grabbing attention through cheap titillation, she said, "I don't need publicity. It's a dangerous thing to say.
"I questioned myself. We got independence 60 years ago and yet we are living in the British times. We follow the same British manuals which have been left behind," the actor said.
According to Nariman, journalists should be fearless and expose corruption in judicial system if there is solid evidence to prove that.
Pranab Mukherjee also said that the government has not been indicted in the Bihar case.
J&K: Musharraf offers to join fight against terror
Fernandes says he feels let down by Nitish Kumar.
Fernandes said that if he had not provided army aircraft to Justice Pukhan and other commission members, he could have been blamed for not cooperating with the probe panel.
"While there may be scope for improving the grammar and the language, let us get to the substance of the issue," he told Karan Thapar in an interview for CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate show.
"If Pakistan thinks that only the Hurriyat represents the people of Kashmir, then there is something fundamentally wrong with their understanding of realities in J&K."
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), on Thursday, warned the government against any breach of the Common Minimum Programme and indicated that it would not hesitate to withdraw support if the CMP was not implemented sincerely.
'Even if tomorrow some American comes here and wants to become President or Prime Minister, we will pursue it,' said Venkaiah Naidu.
'My statements are on record. There is no change in my stand,' the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief told Karan Thapar's 'Hardtalk' programme on BBC.