A day before Rajasthan goes to polls, the ambivalence of Jats, the traditional support base of Congress, is giving the party jitters while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner a significant chunk of their votes to stage a comeback to power.
The government has ruled out amending the RTI Act to give immunity to political parties from providing information after the recent CIC's landmark order brought them under the ambit of the transparency law.
Faceless Ambedkarite groups from across the country are running BSP's election war rooms, writes Archis Mohan.
'The mood in Beijing is already nervous and feverously watchful.' 'Developments in China will be scrutinised as intensely and nervously as the ones in Washington,' says Claude Smadja.
Campaigning for the first phase of the five-phased assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is in full swing as the top leaders of various political parties are criss-crossing 15 constituencies which will go to polls later this month.
In a show of strength, Bharatiya Janata Party bulldozed the opposition - the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and estranged ally Shiv Sena -- to wrest power in the state.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Sunday cautioned voters that neither an Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance nor a united SP can check Bharatiya Janata Party and that only her party would render a crushing blow to Modi government by defeating the saffron party in Uttar Pradesh so that it does not take "immature" steps like the note ban.
To meet the target, agriculture must grow at 15% compared to average of below 2% over the past four years
Brushing aside opposition from the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and other parties in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa but did not give him any assurance on which way India will vote on a the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution for an independent international probe into rights abuses during the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The government favours a probe into the alleged bribery charges against some of its MPs.
The Congress demand for being accorded the status of Leader of Opposition to its group chief in Lok Sabha was on Tuesday rejected by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
With just eight days left for the winter session, Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minster M Venkaiah Naidu held consultations with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Deputy Leader Anand Sharma.
The Congress has never given India a PM who was a prisoner of his or her own image, said Rahul Gandhi at the party's MPs' meet.
A day ahead of the nationwide protests planned by the opposition against demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the move and warned unscrupulous people using the Jan Dhan accounts of the poor to launder their black money of strict action.
Amidst reports of Congress' confabulations with the Rashtriya Janata Dal for a secular alliance in Bihar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday took a dig at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the Congress preferring Lalu Prasad over him and said such an 'opportunistic' alliance was not a cause of worry for it.
Escalating its attack against Mani Shankar Aiyar, the BJP called his remarks "treasonous" and demanded an apology from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
A down-to-the-wire contest is likely in some of the seats in the high-stakes Rajya Sabha elections in seven states, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana, where the fate of candidates including senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal and senior lawyer R K Anand is being decided on Saturday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the formation of a seven-party rainbow alliance for the April 24 Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, in its first-ever such electoral venture in the state where the turf has been largely dominated by Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam.
'China's latest defence White Paper has been issued against the backdrop of the upgraded Sino-Pakistan strategic relationship which has impinged on India's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and Beijing's continuing intransigence on tackling the issue of the disputed border or intrusion by PLA troops,' says Jayadeva Ranade.
Seeking to reassert Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said secularism is a compelling necessity for a country as diverse as India.
'India is a huge market for Chinese goods. I don't think a war stands to logic when you have economic compulsions, but then Chinese are known to do illogical things.'
'China, which had earlier blockaded New Delhi's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group by citing the nuclear non-proliferation law, finds itself in an awkward position and international isolation.' 'India needs to pursue a policy of mediation between China and the Southeast Asian countries for regional security,' says Srikanth Kondapalli.
'India and China are at new inflection points, domestically and internationally. India needs to throw up a new leader whose vision is clear, experience laden with wisdom and articulation brimming with restraint and tolerance,' says Ambassador K C Singh.
Unfazed by the absence of leaders of the Left, the Janata Dal-United, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee along with some regional parties on Tuesday sought to put up a united face raising the pitch against demonetisation by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She said there were attempts to communalise the guru's teachings and this amounts to 'betraying' him.
The draft bill, approved by the Union abinet, seems to be much more favorable to the wishes of the people from Telangana than it is for those from Seemandhra, says Mohammed Siddique
The strong Bharatiya Janata Party-Telugu Desam Party combine in Seema-Andhra could upset the calculations of the YSR Congress in the region, but the TDP's biggest problem is rebellion from within. Vicky Nanjappa reports
'China's moves are of direct significance to India, which will closely monitor Chinese naval activity in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean not least because of Chinese maps depicting claims over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.'
A glance through the declared assets of candidates contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections reveals that future lawmakers of the country are rich, but not as much as their spouses.
The Congress party's traditional bastion among the tea workers in Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur Lok Sabha constituencies holds the key to the party's fortunes in the first phase polling on April 7 in Assam. The BJP has been trying hard to make inroads here.
"When the people of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) talk of Article 370, they talk of technical integration. We have to make them understand that we also want that Jammu and Kashmir should fully integrate with India emotionally," she said.
The counting for all five states will be held on March 11.
With infighting in state units showing no signs of abating, Rahul Gandhi is once again in the line of attack for not taking the initiative in tackling this rebellion and showing the way forward in the poll-bound states.
'After a strategic pause though, Beijing will revive its policy of slowly creeping towards acquiring sovereignty over the South China Sea.'
Pyongyang wants the world to recognise its nuclear capability, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
When it came to dealing with the media and academia, it has been a roller coaster ride for the National Democratic Alliance, observes Nitin Sethi.
In this exclusive conversation with Rediff.com contributor Rajeev Sharma, exiled opposition leader Ahmed Naseem explains why the world should care about democracy in Maldives.
Setting a new bench mark in transparency in politics, the Central Information Commission has held that political parties are answerable under the Right to Information Act.
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