On making Congress scion Rahul Gandhi head the Congress coordination committee for the 2014 elections (with 18 more months still to go), the jury is undecided whether it was the best possible role for him. The last time Rahul did something worth taking note was back in 2009, when the party won 22 seats from Uttar Pradesh, much, perhaps, to its own shock. Since then, he is best remembere
A cash-strapped UPA government which hoped to raise over Rs 40,000 crore from the 2G spectrum auction was in for a shock when telecom companies decided to stay away from it. The government could just get Rs 9,407 crore from the auction. Angry over the high reserve price (of Rs 12,850 crore), the companies apparently ganged up to foil the government’s money-churning plan. While th
Bihar police found itself in a spot of bother on Sunday after actor Amitabh Bachchan took umbrage at his photographs being used without his permission in a police advertisement in Naxal-affected Kaimur district. A tweet from Bachchan, stating that he would initiate legal action, prompted Kaimur police to take off the posters in a hurry and also issue an apology Kaimur police was definit
BJP Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani shed a new light on the ideals of gender sensitiveness as protrayed in Ramayana when he said that Ram was a “bad husband”. Speaking at a function, Jethmalani said "Ram was a bad husband. Just because some fisherman said something, he sent that poor woman (Sita) to exile." On the contrary, books and stories have always portraye
The Akhilesh Yadav government is considering withdrawal of three criminal cases against BJP MP Varun Gandhi, including two arising from his alleged inflammatory speeches in Pilibhit during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign. Varun faces charges of creating enmity between people on religious grounds. Varun requested the UP government to withdraw cases aginst him saying the recordings had been
As Republican party nominee Mitt Romney has conceded his defeat and congratulated his rival democrat and president Barack Obama for his second term, Obama becomes the third consecutive president (officially yet to be announced) of the US to retain office after his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Starting from Clinton’s second term, when he visited India both the coun
In the wake of a face-off between Reliance Industries Ltd and the comptroller and auditor general of India, oil minister M Veerappa Moily seems to be trying hard to bury the hatchet. "I have already gone on record to say that it is a contractual relationship between the government and the respective contracting parties... Audit (of spending on oil and gas fields) is part of this (contractu
Even as the Manmohan Singh government spoke of economic reforms, the Congress party kept chanting a populist theme with social sector issues ranging like food security. On Sunday, however, it not only jumped the reforms bandwagon, it made a big show of it too. Has the party fully committed itself to reforms (some of which may not fetch votes) to the extent that the government will pull out all
More and more areas are opening up to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, but political parties are resisting to come under the transparency law. As the crucial player in the public space, there is an argument that they too must be included under the RTI Act. On Thursday, all major parties (except Congress, which is yet to make its stance public) told the central information commission
Most newspapers on Wednesday carried out a news item about a 21-year-old Gauri Bhonsle, an NRI from London, who had gone missing. She was supposedly rescued in Saharanpur on Tuesday but it later turned out that the news was hoax and close to the storyline of a television serial to be launched soon. In the serial, an NRI girl by the same name has gone missing from London. According to the report
The housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry is set to finalise the draft Model Property Rights to Slum Dwellers Bill. If enacted by states, it would for the first time give landless slum dwellers living in an urban area long-term legal entitlement to a “dwelling place.” Besides, the slum dwellers would also be given the right to mortgage their property and raise money from ba
Controversy over the source of funds to Nitin Gadkari`s Purti Power and Sugar Ltd has deepened. Investigations revealed that money flowed in from many companies registered all over India. The BJP has defended its president saying Gadkari is open to any investigation. Also, the party is mulling a second term for him. One is reminded of the then party chief, Bangaru Laxman, who was caught on came
Bahujan Samaj Party Rajya Sabha MP Rajpal Singh Saini has landed in a controversy after his statement, at a public meeting in Muzaffarnagar, that woman and children, particularly girls, should not be given mobile phones because it "only invites trouble." Supporting his statement, he said, “our mothers and sisters did not have mobile phones but did they die because of it”.
Thirty-five fresh cases of dengue were reported in Delhi on Sunday, taking the total number of cases this season to 652. The epidemic has only seen rise in the number of cases every year after year. Taking the NCR into account, numbers could be much higher. Does the government not have the wherewithal to tackle dengue? Or is it not doing enough to contain the menace?
After making a series of expose on corrupt politicians, Arvind Kejriwal was at the receiving end with his former aide and lawyer-activist YP Singh accusing him of suppressing the "Lavasa scandal" allegedly involving Sharad Pawar and his close relatives. Singh said both he and Kejriwal were members of the People`s Commission of Inquiry, a fact-finding committee on Lavasa. He said Kejri
India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal has leveled corruption charges against BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Kejriwal alleged that Gadkari`s factories have robbed the farmers of Vidarbha in Maharashtra of their land and water. IAC has alleged Gadkari colluded with former state irrigation minister Ajit Pawar to “illegally” acquire land meant for public use. Kejriwal sa
At a time when law minister Salman Khurshid is facing flak from all sides for bungling of funds in his family-controlled NGO, his cabinet colleague Beni Prasad Verma has come to his rescue, in a way Khurshid would never want. He defended Khurshid saying that Rs 71 lakh was too small an amount for a union cabinet member. "I believe Salman Khurshid could not have embezzled Rs 71 lakh,"
Though the amount of less than Rs 1 crore would be an insult to a leading politician, but that is the charge, and that is what the documents seem to reveal: that an NGO run by law minister Salman Khurshid`s family took money from the government but did not spend it on the disabled. Khrushid has produced his own set of evidence. Fine. Now that needs to be probed. And to make this probe fair
Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a students` rally on the Panjab University campus, raised the issue of drug addiction in the state. His statement that "seven out of 10 youth in Punjab are addicted to drugs" has created a storm. Harcharan Bains, advisor to Punjab chief minister on media and national affairs has called Rahul Gandhi a "national joke" and has asked him to apologi
Haryana leader of the Opposition Om Prakash Chautala has sparked off a controversy on the issue of rising crime against women in the state by backing khap panchayats` bizarre demand of lowering the marriageable age of girls from 18 to 16 years to curb the rising cases of rape. Backing the khap panchayat members, he said they are respectable and responsible citizens and that their demand is just
