The BJP flags, Aam Admi Party (AAP) caps and placards bearing the names of AISA or AIDWA are the most common sight at any demonstration — be it outside the Delhi police headquarters near ITO crossing or Sonia Gandhi’s residence at 10-Janpath or home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s residence — over the last three days or so to protest police laxity and callousness following
A five-year-olf girl was raped and tortured by her neighbour in East Delhi. A candle and a bottle were recovered from inside her. It has just been five months since the December 16 gangrape of a student in the national capital shook the conscience of the entire country. Does the latest rape suggest that our society is indeed a brutal one?
Within minutes of a blast outside the BJP`s office in Bangalore on Wednesday morning, Congress leader and former union minister of state for home affairs Shakeel Ahmed tweeted that the blasts could help the BJP in the assembly elections in Karnataka. The BJP reacted immediately, terming the tweet insensitive and callous. The tweet itself might have been insensitive but do you think the saffron
The supreme court has set a six-month deadline for the translocation of Asiatic lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh. Will this be of any help for the thriving of the species? Does it make sense to shift them from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh?
Faced with slowing growth and rising joblessness, the CPI(M)-affiliated Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has demanded that the eight-hour work day be reduced to seven hours every day. That is, make it a 35-hour work week instead of the existing weekly 48 hours. Reducing the weekly working hours from 48 to 35 was one of the key proposals agreed by CITU`s all-India conference that concluded i
Gujarat chief minister used the occasion -- an address to the women`s wing of FICCI -- to reply to Rahul Gandhi`s speech at CII on Friday. Curiously, the run-up to the 2014 elections has witnessed the American-style speechmaking. In that case, has Modi scored over Rahul today? Also read:
The supreme court recently ruled against the use of red beacons by VIPs and said that the first right of way should only be exercised for emergency services like police, fire trucks, ambulances, etc. However, all of us have stopped at least once to allow a bureaucrat or a politician or a member of the judiciary of the higher courts through. Most of us would know at least one case of the abuse o
Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, the star campaigners for their respective parties, have begun the campaign for 2014, with speeches and addresses at various fora. Rahul’s speech at CII on Thursday is bound to be compared with the speeches Modi have been making (and will make at Ficci on Monday). Has Rahul matched Modi?
Addressing the annual general meeting of industry chamber CII in the national capital, prime minister Manmohan Singh on April 3 said India can get back to the high growth path of 8 percent even while dealing with problems like corruption, bureaucratic inertia and difficulties in managing coalition. He said the government will further relax the FDI policy and take steps to bring down inflation.
Giving in to the mounting pressure in Tamil Nadu against Sri Lanka, the IPL Governing Council, on Wednesday, withdrew Sri Lankan players from IPL matches that will be played in the state. The move comes after Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to the PM refusing to host players from the island nation in protest against the alleged war crimes taking place there. She had thre
Two days after the dramatic pull-out of the DMK from the UPA, a four-member team of the Central Bureau of investigation landed at the residence of DMK treasurer MK Stalin, the son of party supremo M Karunanidhi. While initial reports said the CBI visit to Stalin’s house was in connection with an old case of the directorate of revenue intelligence, television reports later quoted s
On Tuesday, Maharashtra assembly dipped to a new low when a group of its members led by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi MLA Kshitij Thakur caught hold of assistant inspector of police Suryavanshi on the first floor of the Assembly building and rained blows on him. Suryavanshi had reportedly fined a vehicle carrying Thakur, allegedly for overspeeding on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link on Monday when the Vasai ML
The DMK on Tuesday announced that it had pulled out of the UPA government citing the government’s stance on the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka as the main reason. The DMK chief M Karunanidhi has also made it clear that the party would not even support the government from outside, however, offering to reconsider the move if the government passed a stronger resolution in parliame
Hitting back at a resolution passed in the Pakistan National Assembly condemning the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, India has called off the hockey series to be played with Pakistan in April. The series, which was scheduled to be held in India from April 5, has been cancelled after Hockey India received directions from the ministry of external affairs on Friday to do so in l
Government has decided to fix the age of consent to 16 years. It has also said that the definition of rape will now be seen in context with crime against women and will be different from other sexual offences. Overriding the objections raised by the ministry of women and child development (WCD) on the age of consent, the GoM has decided to stick to 16 years instead of 18. The GoM is of the view
The Italian Foreign ministry on Monday sent a formal communication informing the Indian government that the two Italian marines, undergoing trial in India for allegedly killing two fishermen off the Kerala coast, will not return to India. Italy has said that their decision was based on the failure of the Indian government in responding to their requests seeking a diplomatic solution to the case
The main accused in the Delhi gang rape case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself with his own clothes inside Tihar Jail in the wee hours of Monday. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered to ascertain how Singh managed to kill himself despite being under a “suicide watch”. Singh, one of the six accused in the case, was the driver of the bus in which the 23-year
As Pakistan PM Raja Pervez Ashraf is all set for a ‘private’ visit to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s iconic dargah at Ajmer, the government has stepped up its preparation to welcome the foreign dignitary but has ensured that it does not go overboard in doing the same. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid will be hosting lunch for Ashraf but has clarified that it will strictly
Expressing its displeasure against the government’s lack of clarity on its stand on Sri Lanka, Congress’ biggest ally DMK on Thursday staged a walkout as external affairs minister Salman Khurshid addressed Parliament. Sri Lankan defence forces have been accused of engaging in war crimes against Tamils during the civil war that ended in 2009. The situation in the island nation c
In his address to the Parliament, PM Manmohan Singh, who seemed to be in an unusually aggressive mood, attacked the Opposition BJP challenging them that the party would fail to emerge victorious in the 2014 elections as happend in 2009. Lashing out at the BJP for using “choicest abuses” against the Congress party at their national council meet on Sunday, Singh said the average econo
