If you love India, you cannot weaponise religion to stay in power, asserts Ramesh Menon, author, Modi Demystified: The Making Of A Prime Minister.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday said she was considering BJP's breach of privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for announcing outside Parliament the rejection of the demand for setting up of JPC in the IPL and phone tapping issues.
Charges and counter-charges over links with Maoists flew thick and fast between the Opposition and the government on Thursday as the Lok Sabha began discussion on the Dantewada Naxal attack.
Former Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi is likely to become the next chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee while Yashwant Sinha will replace him as head of the Standing Committee on Finance, BJP sources said.
Charging that the Budget had ignored the 'aam aadmi', on Thursday said the government failed miserably to address price rise and inflation that would bring down the economic growth rate.
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Chairman Yashwant Sinha wants the government to first introduce goods and services tax (GST) at the central level and set example for states to implement the indirect tax reform.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday used her trademark 'bahi-khata', a ledger wrapped in a red-coloured cloth, to carry Budget documents as she arrived in Parliament House to present her third straight Budget. Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers. She used the same last year and again on Monday.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his handling of foreign policy, Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said India has completely reversed its position on terrorism emanating from Pakistan, and warned that the mention of Balochistan in the joint statement would 'trouble' the country. Initiating a debate on the 'Issues arising out of Prime Minister's recent visits to foreign countries', BJP leader Yashwant Sinha also targeted the government.
The statement by Nandan Nilekani that the ambitious Unique Identification card will be for all residents of India including non-citizens on Friday triggered a controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding a statement from the government.
Bhartiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh said that the party should jointlytake responsibility for victory or defeat. "If any individual must own up the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, I as the president of the party I accept the responsibility," he said while making opening remarks at two day meeting of the national executive at Parliamentary Annexe in New Delhi on Saturday.
Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda, Deputy Chief Minister Raghubar Das and former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha are the front-runners for the post of Jharkhand chief minister, a decision on which is likely to be taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary board on Monday.
Bharatiya Janata Party's actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Saturday said all was not well within the party, as senior leaders had been left out of the new team of office-bearers, constituted by party chief Nitin Gadkari. "All is not well within the BJP as senior leaders like Yashwant Sinha, C P Thakur and Shehnawaz Hussain have been ignored in the new team," the MP told reporters.Sinha suggested that the BJP chief should take a fresh look at the new team.
After staging a walkout from the Lok Sabha in protest against an "inflationary" Union Budget, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said its members would oppose it when put to vote.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday presented his fifth budget in Parliament on Friday but Morarji Desai holds the record of doing so 10 times.
The Bharatiya Janata Party walked out in protest when Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar refused to allow former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha who wanted to know whether the statement of external affairs minister S M Krishna had broken the protocol by saying that unless Pakistan government takes action against Hafeez Sayeed, master mind behind the Mumbai bomb blast, there was no point in carrying forward any kind of dialogue with Pakistan.
Expressing his dissatisfaction over Dr Singh's reply on the discussion over the Indo-Pak Joint Statement, former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha told rediff.com the facts given by the prime minister in the Lok Sabha are at variance with what happened at Sharm-El-Sheikh.
Accusing the ruling United Progressive Alliance of losing grip of the situation in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has suggested that the government should call off composite dialogue with Pakistan as that country has not responded adequately to India's demands.
With raging dissent in Bharatiya Janata Party coming out in the open, a senior party Member of Parliament on Wednesday said that the points raised by veterans like Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Jaswant Singh should be given due importance.
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
"The BJP is totally opposed to the extension of President's Rule in Karnataka, based on specious procedural grounds of the commission not being in a position to complete the procedural work. We earnestly hope the commission will rise to the occasion and find administrative solutions for resolving this problem," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday demanded an immediate session of Parliament to move breach of privilege motion against the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "misleading" the two Houses on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Opposition BJP on Thursday said it is willing to consider supporting the government in expediting economic reforms if the Prime Minister takes the initiative.
Reacting to the Interim Budget 2009-10 on Monday, the Bhartiya Janata Party claimed that the United Progressive Alliance government had failed to live up to the promises it made to the nation under its common minimum programme.
'The finance minister has messed up the economy.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party has convened a meeting of the party's core committee to discuss the resignation of senior Maharashtra leader Gopinath Munde. Senior leaders including L K Advani, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley are expected to participate in the meeting.The BJP leadership had called Munde and Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari to Delhi. Gadkari had arrived in New Delhi and Munde was expected to arrive late on Monday.
In a bid to stop the party leaders' infighting in public, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday issued a gag order on its leaders and functionaries from talking to media, formally or informally.
"I am glad." That is how former external affairs Yashwant Sinha reacted to Prachanda's resignation as Nepal Prime Minister. Sinha was addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday.
'It's a fact that the Government of India was misleading Parliament and the people. We were saying what the letter is saying. We were saying all along that these are the conditions, but the government is even now saying that 'we have the right to test'. It's like saying that I have the right to murder, it's only that I will have to suffer the consequences. The consequence of murdering somebody is death penalty, so is India prepared to accept the death penalty?'
Senior leaders of Bhartiya Janata Party feel that the Congress is adding fuel to the fire that is devastating the party in last couple of weeks.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's plan to pip other parties in declaring candidates for the Lok Sabha elections by the end of January has come a cropper. The party on Monday declared 18 candidates, including former union finance and foreign minister Yashwant Sinha from Hazaribagh and former Union minister Karia Munda from Khunti in Jharkhand.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to keep the finance portfolio for himself drew sharp criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party which said it was too vast a ministry to be adjunct of the PMO.
(Excerpts from former BJP vice-president Yashwant Sinha's letter to party President Rajnath Singh)
'We are seeing an era where only what Modi wishes is going to happen.' 'A clear message has now been sent to others that if this fate could befall on Nitin Gadkari, then just think what could happen to lesser mortals.'
The All India Tennis Association has convened an executive committee meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to find ways to douse the simmering controversy which rocked Indian tennis after top Davis Cuppers revolted against captain Leander Paes.
Former FM Yashwant Sinha has opined about the impact of a weak dollar on the Indian economy and the present FM's stand on it.
Addressing media persons in Varanasi, Sinha claimed that an industrialist was working out a deal between the two, but refused to identify him.
Yeshwant Sinha has been made vice president. Arun Jaitley is secretary of the party's Parliamentary Board.
Honour the committment or just forget about the coalition," declared senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha in Bangalore on Monday. "There is no further scope for negotiations on power transfer," he added.
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