The central government on Monday issued a Gazette notification to extend the tenure of defence secretary, home secretary, director of Intelligence Bureau, and secretary of Research and Analysis Wing for a period of two years.
The Left parties have given notices of breach of privilege against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in both Houses of Parliament on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal.
Left parties and BJP launched an attack on the government on Tuesday over its move to open up retail trading to foreign direct investment saying this would shrink employment opportunities.
Sitaram Yechury, politburo member of CPM, on Friday warned the government against market volatility and FII activity.
"I do not answer hypothetical, speculative questions... This is purely imaginary at the moment," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
Government will hold consultations with leaders of the left parties, allies of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, on the issue of petroleum product prices even as Petroleum minister Murli Deora disfavoured increasing LPG and kerosene prices.
Party leader Rahul Gandhi dubbed the Union Budget as a 'zero-sum budget', saying it has nothing for the salaried, middle class and the poor.
External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh briefed the leaders on the high-profile visits at an hour-long meeting.
Gokhale has said that China used its "close connections" with the Left parties in India to "build domestic opposition" to the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist denied that the West Bengal government had anything to do with controversial Bangladeshi writer Talima Nasreen moving from her temporary residence in Kolkata to Jaipur.
Amid reports that government is determined to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI(M) on Thursday warned that the Left parties would review their support to it in such an eventuality. "They have time till June 25 (the next meeting of the UPA-Left Committee) and they have to make up their mind by then. If they go ahead, we will have to reconsider our support," CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury disagreed with recent opinion poll findings that the Left would receive a drubbing if the country went to polls on the nuclear issue.
Yechuri said the Indian government has recognised multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy as two pillars of Nepal's democracy and any deviation from that will not be in the interest of Nepal.
The Committee has asked the UPA government to stop arms supply to Nepal and not do anything to legitimise the king's "authoritarianism".
Yechuri also appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to adopt the pattern followed by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in key policies
A poser by CPI-M member Sitaram Yechury on whether Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited are deliberately not setting up towers to favour private companies left Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran seething with anger.
BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra expressed dissatisfaction with the prime minister's statement saying he should have instead allowed a 'sense of House' resolution on the pact.
The CPI-M on Tuesday warned the UPA government at the Centre would "face the consequences" if it went ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said the outcome of the discussion between India and IAEA regarding the nuclear deal would be conveyed to Left parties by the government on March 17 at the Left-UPA Coordination Committee meeting.
"Our agenda is the nuclear deal and not the stability of the government or an early or late election. We are opposed to the deal because we think it is not in the interest of the country," CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury told media persons in New Delhi. Whether government will go in for early elections is for them to decide, he said in reply to a question on the sidelines of the party Central Committee meeting in New Delhi.
Left parties on Tuesday asked the government to correct the "negative" aspects of its economic policy and prioritise the implementation of those aspects of the Common Minimum Programme
Addressing the protesters, opposition leaders attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal-United1 and demanded stringent punishment against those involved in such heinous crimes.
In a joint letter to the prime minister, the opposition leaders, including some chief ministers, have also demanded providing foodgrains to the needy, and giving Rs 6,000 per month to the unemployed.
Following a debacle in the West Bengal assembly election, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said he does not want to contest any future election in an alliance which has the Indian Secular Front (ISF) as a partner.
Sitaram Yechury said he believed there existed the need to set up a 'third alternative' to the Congress and the BJP.
Doctors said his condition was "critical but stable."
The 84-year-old priest-activist Stan Swamy, arrested under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the Elgar Parishad case, died at a Mumbai hospital Monday in the middle of his fight for bail on health grounds.
Apparently not giving up hopes on persuading the Left on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said at the India-Brazil-South Africa summit on October 17 that the process of evolving a 'meaningful consensus is still on.'
Senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that a section of farmers has fallen in the grip of a few people with "vested interests" and asserted that the government was working to address their misgivings about the reforms, which have drawn strong protests from a section of cultivators.
Mukherjee said that the demand of the Bhartiya Janata Party for a Joint Parliamentary Committee, as he told L K Advani and Jaswant Singh, was not possible.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said that there could be talks between the Left and the Congress once UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi returned from South Africa
In a joint statement, leaders of eight opposition parties extended their support to the farmers who are protesting the three farm laws.
'We demand immediate release of all public representatives of mainstream political parties and innocent citizens,' the resolution said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had been carrying on consultations with various political parties and individuals.
'The BJP's economic policy narrowed the employment potential. Go to any urban area, you will see closed \n\nfactories. The small sector belongs to the middle class, and their future is ruined,' says CPI-M leader Prakash \n\nKarat.
Around 1,200 protesters demanding scrapping of the amended citizenship act were detained on Thursday when they defied prohibitory orders imposed by the Delhi Police in Red Fort area. Internet, voice and messaging services by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance Jio were suspended in parts of Delhi-NCR, in perhaps for the first time that the national capital experienced such restrictions.
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