"Two women from Uttar Pradesh were raped and no complaint has been lodged so far. Local people know the culprits but they are frightened to name them," Abu Azmi said. Azmi alleged that the Congress, heading the coalition government in Maharashtra, is supporting Raj to secure its vote bank and ignoring his activities.Raj should be charged for murder and robbery as the MNS campaign claimed two lives and many north Indians were looted while fleeing Maharashtra, he said.
Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan led a walk out by party MPs in Rajya Sabha after she was refused permission to raise the issue of anti-north Indians campaign in Maharashtra of which her husband Amitabh Bachchan was the most visible target. Jaya strongly objected to Shiv Sena MP Manohar Joshi's comment that there was 'no anti-migrant drive' in Maharashtra.
"Shiv Sena is no different from Khalistan and Jammu and Kashmir militant groups, which are trying to create a rift between people along regional lines. The main aim of these forces is to split our country," Shiv Sena's North India chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal told media persons in New Delhi on Wednesday. "Bal Thackeray's role has been reduced to a mere puppet and he is acting according to his son's wishes," he said.
Black is the least opted shade when it comes to buying a four wheeler.
Chatterjee hit out at MPs for speaking out of turn and refusing to do their job. He also criticised MPs for not respecting the authority of the Chair. The Speaker was particularly dismayed at the comments of Shiv Sena MP Anant Gite, which Chatterjee felt were 'intended to divide the country'.
Although there is no indication of a genuine change of heart, what is probably happening is that the BJP is slowly undergoing a process of becoming acclimatised, as it were, to India's diversity.
Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi on Tuesday met top police officials in Mumbai and offered to court arrest and join any inquiry relating to offences registered against him on the issue of North Indians in Maharashtra. He, however, was not taken into custody.
The recent attacks on north Indians by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are a shrewd ploy of party chief Raj Thackeray to embarrass the Shiv Sena and usurp its core Marathi constituency, political observers in Mumbai say.
The vehicles were set afire while they were parked at the BMC Colony in Anand Nagar of suburban Oshiwara at around 3 am on Wednesday causing minor damage to the vehicles. The police, however, refused to associate the incident with the recent clashes targeting north Indians in the city.
Congress Member of Parliament and spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam and 20 of his supporters were detained on Tuesday, ahead of a protest march planned by them, to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's residence in central Mumbai. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's spokesperson Shishir Shinde was also detained by the police on Tuesday, party sources said. The police, however, refused to confirm the report.
The hotel has currently turned into a high security zone with guests living there moved out to other facilities of the Taj group.
'I am sure the BJP can find a highly educated, respected, non-controversial party man from the North East to be elected India's vice-president,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Due to hectic engagements with Telangana issue, Gandhi was unable to have an interaction with party MPs as there was no valedictory dinner meeting of the parliamentary party during the just-concluded winter session of Parliament, the last of the 15th Lok Sabha.
These restaurants should be on your bucket list this winter!
'In the hands of a majoritarian government, with utter contempt for the cultural plurality and diversity of our great nation, the pipe dream of making Hindi the sole official language takes on nightmarish proportions.'
The best recipes will be featured on Rediff.com
"The Mumbai scene cannot be repeated in Delhi because this is a cosmopolitan city where people from all parts of India live. Besides Punjabis, we have Muslims, Christians, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. You name a state and you will find a sizeable population from that state in Delhi. I am from Jamshedpur, which is now in Jharkhand, but I do not feel threatened," said journalist Rajiv Ranjan Nag.
"Those who seek to divide on the basis of religion, on the basis of caste or on the basis of the place one belongs to, I think they do not serve the cause of national unity or national progress," he said without naming anybody or a political party.
"Since Raj is fighting for the Marathi Manoos, we are ready to face any consequence..... but there is tension in the house," Raj's mother-in-law Padma Wagh told PTI. She voiced concern about Raj's son Amit, who is going to appear for his tenth standard examination next month. "I am worried about Amit because of Raj's likely arrest, as he has to appear for SSC exams next month," she said.
Karunanidhi asked Rajinikanth to talk to his "saint friends" in North India and convince them that the project would put the state on the path of development and therefore they should not protest against it
British food producers increased prices by 7.4 per cent last year -- the biggest annual increase since the country's National Statistics office began tracking them 15 years ago -- due to big jumps in the cost of producing bread, butter, eggs, milk and meat. In Russia, prices went up so sharply -- milk rose by some 30 per cent and bread went up 22 per cent - that the government froze prices towards the end of the year.
Sixteen Indian sailors, who have been living on a ship in Ajman port in Dubai for the past five months without salaries, can now hope to go back home.
The story of the Eicher group, promoted by the Delhi-based Lal family, may some day make a case study, not least for its agility in coping with the changing reality of doing business in India.
Cyclonic storm Ashobaa is expected to intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm and then move northwestwards during next 24 hours.
Anand Venkatramakrishnan tells us how he met Vandana Chaudhary.
One police officer's initiative has led to reuniting 92 people with their families.
The students said the suspension was not enough and said they wanted nothing short of expulsion.
After authoring a sweet success story by giving the management of its Kannan Devan tea gardens in Munnar, Kerala, to the workers, Tata Tea is planning to replicate the experiment in the North India plantation operations.
'Kamal Haasan always appeared to be quick to strike, but afraid to wound.' 'What he is offering the people of Tamil Nadu is not clear, but whatever it is, it will be a fresh element in the state's politics,' says Aditi Phadnis.
Addressing a galaxy of eminent personalities from different walks of life at the Imperial Hotel, the chief minister said that the Punjab government had instituted the Punjab Rattan Award to felicitate eminent personalities.
'After living in the US for over three decades, where I would spend Diwali nights with close friends and eat Indian meals, I have recently started to return home during the festival. But none of that old Diwali exists for me.'
What is worrying the Americans, the Britons, and others across the globe, is that the Muslim immigrants of today are showing absolutely no signs of even wanting to integrate.
Chhagan Bhujbal, son of a vegetable vendor, rose through the political ranks by hard work, determination and political opportunism. Now past ghosts have come to haunt him.
Continuing with its move to position itself as a beverage marketing company, Tata Tea is set to divest 80 per cent in its North Indian Plantation Operations, which is being spun off to a handful of investors and workers.
'He is 47 years old and not married. Since his son or daughter can contest for Parliament only 25 years after being born, the earliest, if he marries in December, would be 2043.' 'So this, pretty much, is the end of the road for dynastic rule in the party,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
