What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend...
Top Congress leaders held deliberations on Saturday at the first meeting of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC) focusing on preparing a comprehensive road map for ensuring the party's victory in the upcoming assembly polls in five states and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At least four Opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed to have received messages from Apple warning them of "State-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones and posted the purported screenshots on their X handles.
'It does two things that even our erstwhile colonial masters did not deem fit for their subjects: The Bill does away with any checks or balances on the exercise of interception and surveillance powers, including any penalty whatsoever for unauthorised interception, opening, scrutiny, or destruction of postal materials.'
The Congress's central election authority has issued a directive that all AICC general secretaries, state in-charges, secretaries and joint secretaries would cast their vote in the party's presidential polls either at their home state or at the party headquarters in New Delhi and not in their assigned state.
On Monday, December 20, Congress MPs produced a telling placard in the Lok Sabha revealing how many days Modi has attended Parliament's winter session.
Amid cheers and slogan-shouting by party workers, Sonia Gandhi walked besides her son Rahul Gandhi and other leaders for a few kilometres in Karnataka's Mandya district. And there were several Kodak moments.
Tharoor also said the Congress must decentralise authority and truly empower the grassroots office-bearers of the party.
Amid suspense over who could take on Shashi Tharoor in the Congress president polls, party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Tuesday said AICC treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal has got nomination forms collected, adding that it may be for someone else.
Voting began on Monday in the Congress presidential polls as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor face-off for the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief.
Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
Tharoor thanked the judge, and said it was "an absolute torture for last seven-and-a-half-years" and that it was a "great relief".
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday met Sonia Gandhi and expressed his intention to contest the upcoming AICC chief polls, while the Congress president conveyed that she would stay "neutral" in the elections, sources said.
Tharoor said the Congress should stand up for its foundational principles.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, known for his penchant for rarely used, difficult-to-pronounce English words, on Friday threw in another head scratcher -- floccinaucinihilipilification.
The youngest in the CWC is 31-year-old Neeraj Kundan, who is an ex-officio member of the body as the president of the National Students Union of India, the students' wing of the party.
Counting of votes began on Wednesday in the Congress presidential polls in which senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor faced-off for the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief.
On Wednesday, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit will swear Bhagwant Mann as Punjab's first AAP chief minister at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of iconic freedom fighter Shahid Bhagat Singh.
A parliamentary panel on Friday questioned top Twitter officials over a whistle-blower's revelations on its India operations, and gave them a dressing-down as their replies on issue of data security and privacy were "not satisfactory", sources said.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a veiled dig at Azad who was conferred with the award.
The BJP leader linked his claim to the beginning of construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya following a Supreme Court judgment, and the abrogation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution.
In his 'last appeal' to the over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who constitute the electoral college to pick the next All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief, Tharoor noted that from his conversations over the last few days he gathered that many of them may have concerns or hesitation about change.
For those having any 'fear or doubt' in their mind, Tharoor said, the party has made it clear that it will be a secret ballot.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed confidence that the NDA will get more than 400 seats and the BJP will win at least 370 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor were also present with the PM as he interacted with the students inside the train.
A total of 20 forms were received during the nomination process. Four of them were rejected as signatures were repeated or did not match, he said.
A day after Congress leader Gourav Vallabh taunted Shashi Tharoor over his probable All India Congress Committee president poll bid, the party on Friday urged all its spokespersons and communication department office bearers to refrain from commenting on any colleague contesting the elections.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did remarkable and energetic campaigning for the party, and "from my point of view, I don't think that the Congress per se can be faulted because on the grounds of one person's campaigning", Tharoor said.
Amid the row over a new set of unparliamentary words, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Sunday said he would treat the list as indicative rather than definitive, and 'speak normally' in the House and see whether it is applied in a 'draconian manner' to stifle meaningful criticism.
It is widely believed that Gandhi has put his foot down to blunt the Bharatiya Janata Party's allegation of "dynasty rule" in the Congress.
'Demand apology from the Congress Party for insulting the people of India's North East & Tribals'
This is the fifth consecutive day that the Parliament has been adjourned without transacting any business since the second part of the Budget session began on Monday due to uproarious scenes in the House.
Senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, in the race for the post of Congress president, not only possess contrasting demeanour but have had an equally disparate political journey.
While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
Even as the race for the Congress president's post is hotting up, its veteran leader and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh on Friday said he is not interested in becoming the party chief.
Several BJP leaders in the past have raised a demand for changing the name of the country from "India" to "Bharat".
Certain references and subjects being quietly dropped from the new NCERT textbooks without any notification has kicked off a political controversy with the Opposition accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of 'whitewashing with vengeance'.
The Delhi police on Thursday approached the high court challenging a trial court's 2021 order discharging Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in connection with his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death case.
Tharoor and six journalists were booked by the Noida Police for sedition, among other charges, over the violence during the farmers' tractor rally in Delhi, officials had said.
Salman Rushdie has been honoured with the PEN Centenary Courage Award as the Mumbai-born writer made his first in-person public appearance since being stabbed and severely wounded in a knife attack at a literary event in New York last year.
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