The manner in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has used his good and clean image to provide a protective umbrella to the corrupt makes him equally culpable, says Sanjay Kapoor.
Dalbir Kaur, sister of Indian citizen Sarabjit Singh who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail since 1990, said she was upset with the Indian government for not showing timely concern towards her brother. "If the government had shown its concern in time, my brother would have been standing with me," Dalbir said on Sunday evening.
How would P V Narasimha Rao, who brought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to politics, have dealt with the crises confronting the UPA government? Veteran political commentator Kalyani Shankar assesses Narasimha Rao's likely responses.
Former Telecom Minister Sukhram, who was on Saturday awarded five years imprisonment by a Delhi court after being convicted of taking Rs three lakhs as bribe to give a lucrative contract to a private firm in 1996, was attacked inside the Rohini court complex in New Delhi.
If the government of the day would like to set in place a smooth and well-planned changeover and facilitate the incoming chief to chalk out his action plan well in advance, the announcement of a successor needs to be done early, observes Colonel K Thammayya Udupa (retd).
Dismissing criticism of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao over the Ayodhya issue, two top officials who worked closely with him said on Monday that he tried his best to prevent demolition of Babri mosque and to ensure rule of law.
Yet another book has levelled an allegation that P V Narasimha Rao had connived at the demolition of Babri Masjid claiming that the late prime minister had sat in a puja when the kar sevaks began pulling it down and rose only when it was over.
Why should the Congress party be hitched to the Nehru-Gandhi family like train compartments to the engine was how the late P V Narasimha Rao reacted to the suggestion that Sonia Gandhi be made the Congress chief after the assassination of her husband Rajiv Gandhi in May, 1991.
Former Telecom Minister Sukhram, convicted for taking Rs 3 lakhs as bribe to give a lucrative contract to a private firm in 1996, today pleaded for leniency in a Delhi court on grounds of his old age while the Central Bureau of Investigation called him a "habitual offender" and sought maximum punishment for him.
Former Telecom Minister Sukhram has been held guilty by a Delhi court of misusing his official position when he was in the P V Narasimha Rao cabinet and giving undue favour to a cable supply company in a 15-year-old case.
Security to controversial politician Matang Sinh, who was arrested by CBI in connection with Saradha scam, has been finally withdrawn.
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday it will examine whether the immunity granted to lawmakers from prosecution for taking bribe to make a speech or vote in Parliament and state legislatures extends to them even if criminality is attached to their actions, as it began reconsideration of its 1998 judgement in the JMM bribery scandal that rocked the country 25 years ago.
While the government stifled PSUs' operational autonomy, competition from the private sector hit their market share.
In his report, Justice Liberhan said the senior police officers were at hand to ensure that their men toed the line and that the demolition of the disputed structure was allowed to go ahead with "military precision as orchestrated by the leaders present at the spot and carried out by their henchmen."
On August 17, the Rajya Sabha for the first time will take up a case of impeachment of a sitting judge of the Calcutta high court, Justice Soumitra Sen. An impeachment motion will be moved by Communist party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves on Saturday on a four-day visit to South Korea where he will seek to strengthen ties with his Asian economic partner and also participate in the Nuclear Security Summit. During his visit to Seoul, Dr Singh is scheduled to hold talks with President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday to forge closer economic ties. This will be the second official visit by an Indian prime minister to South Korea after the visit of P V Narasimha Rao in 1993.
New Delhi's defence establishment has quietly put in place India's own counter-measures to woo and bolster China's neighbours as a long-term strategy, says Nitin Gokhale.
'I wonder how people who come to power through democratic means turn out this way.' 'But people of India are strong, and those who think they can hoodwink people, are mistaken.' 'You can fool some people for some time, but not all people, all the time.'
Former telecom minister Sukh Ram on Wednesday moved the Delhi high court challenging his conviction and sentencing by a trial court for taking Rs 3 lakh as bribe to award a lucrative contract to a telecom firm in 1996.
Former Telecom Minister Sukhram was on Saturday awarded five years imprisonment by a Delhi court after being convicted of taking Rs three lakhs as bribe to give a lucrative contract to a private firm in 1996.
Revealing the stand of the outfit in the aftermath of the arrest of most of its top leaders in the past few months, spokesperson Mithinga Daimary also said that given the (changed) political situation in the region and the world, sticking to the armed struggle could prove suicidal.
As the old Parliament building hosted a session one last time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday bid a poignant farewell recalling the country's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru's iconic 'tryst with destiny' speech for continuing to inspire everyone and another predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 'governments may come and go' remark.
Rao has only received contempt from his party colleagues. Being one of the most successful Indian prime ministers from a non-Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is not something that Congress-wallahs can accept easily.
At a function to commemorate the 125th Foundation Day of the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi paid glowing tributes to former premiers Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but made no reference to P V Narasimha Rao, who was prime minister between 1991 and 1996.Gandhi sought to give credit to Rajiv Gandhi for the economic liberalisation in the Narsimha Rao regime when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has proved that he was the real heir to the political legacy of his father late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
The government on Thursday said there were no records of calls made by home ministry officials before the exit of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson from India in December, 1984 and on the 'safe passage' assurance reportedly given to him. A day after Congress leader Arjun Singh sought to point fingers at P V Narasimha Rao for the exit of Anderson, an accused in the Bhopal gas disaster case, Home Minister P Chidambaram also gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi.
Congress leader Arjun Singh finally broke his silence over the Bhopal gas tragedy on Wednesday during a rare appearance in the Rajya Sabha. The septuagenarian leader, who was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh when the Bhopal gas tragedy took place, arrived in a wheel chair soon after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad initiated a discussion on the issue. "I felt that Union Carbide CEO) Warren Anderson should be arrested," he said.
The flyover was built over a period of about three years at a cost of Rs 600 crore.
Senior Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, are accompanying Rahul Gandhi to the court.
Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had done a lot of groundwork for constructing a Ram temple at Ayodhya but he could not carry his mission forward as the Congress lost power in the 1996 general elections, claims a new book by one of his close confidants.
Former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao was keen on building a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, but his attempt derailed after losing the elections, a senior aide has claimed.
Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao had no knowledge of the plan to demolish Babri Masjid and he believed in the assurance given by top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders concerning the march to Ayodhya in 1992 by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and security at the disputed site, Rao's former media adviser PVRK Prasad said on Sunday.
Though religion is no longer the hot topic, the government should be on its guard
The wax statue of Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar will be unveiled at Madame Tussauds Museum in April, the first Indian sportsperson to be featured in one of London's famous tourist attraction.
'Politics is a game of public perception and my father felt that by his long disappearances, Rahul Gandhi was losing the battle of perception.'
A copybook President, R Venkataraman, who passed into the ages on Tuesday, skilfully guided the country through a testing period of coalition politics in its nascent days that saw three prime ministers in two years.
India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Bribery can never be a subject matter of immunity and parliamentary privilege is not meant to place a lawmaker above the law, the Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court which reserved its verdict on reconsideration of its judgment of 1998 when it held that MPs and MLAs enjoy immunity from prosecution for taking bribe to make a speech or cast a vote in legislature.
From a hard core Leftist in the late 1960s to being the liberal face, Palaniappan Chidambaram combines in him the qualities of a bold reformer, experienced administrator and a taskmaster in whatever assignment is given to him.
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