It is Mallikarjun Kharge vs Shashi Tharoor for the much-awaited Congress presidential election. Octogenarian Kharge, the establishment's choice, and Tharoor, the underdog diplomat-turned-politician, filed their nomination papers on the last day on Friday, setting to rest the two-month-long speculation.
The noise inside Vande Bharat train is 100 times less than that in an airplane, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday after travelling in the indigenously designed train.
The Union home ministry has upgraded the security cover of industrialist Mukesh Ambani to the highest category of 'Z-plus' from 'Z', based on the review of his threat perception by central intelligence agencies. About 40 CRPF commandos will work in shifts to guard him, reports said.
Other PFI activists who were radicalised in IS ideology chose to travel to Iraq or Syria by taking a circuitous route via Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Iran or Turkey to avoid suspicion.
With this, the total number of such reserves in UP will go up to four, including the Dudhwa tiger reserve in Lakhimpur district, Pilibhit tiger reserve and Amangarh tiger reserve (a buffer zone of the Corbett tiger reserve) in Bijnor.
Digvijaya's entry in the race triggered excitement with some saying the veteran has the profile and is a bigger name than Tharoor - a factor that would be crucial if it turns out to be an "open contest" without a leader with the Congress chief's backing.
The announcement spar- ked fresh buzz about whether Gehlot will continue in the CM's post or will be eased out, and if his replacement will be his bete noire Pilot. It is felt that AICC may call another legislature party meeting in Jaipur.
Several Islamic groups in Kerala reacted cautiously to the PFI ban on Wednesday and reiterated their opposition to the outfit's extremist ideology, but at the same time asked the Centre to check "hate campaigns" of RSS and affiliates against the minority community.
TOI has learned that SDPI was spared as it is a registered political party, swearing allegiance to the Constitution of India. An officer said that SDPI, as long as it indulges in democratic activities by legal means, may not warrant a ban or crackdown. inside flap
External affairs minister S Jaishankar has raised the issue of the huge backlog of US visa applications from India with secretary of state Antony Blinken to which the top American diplomat said he is sensitive to the matter and has a plan to address it.Blinken blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for a backlog of visa applications from Indian nationals.
The bid to rope in Gehlot, who is in the eye of a storm over the boycott of the legislative party meeting in Jaipur on Sunday, have been on for two days, and the party seems to be using a mix of persuasion and sternness to nudge him.
Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday distanced himself from the alleged "parallel meeting" at cabinet colleague Shanti Dhariwal's residence in the run-up to the mass resignations that scuttled Sunday night's CLP meeting, saying that MLAs supposedly loyal to him gathered there without his knowledge and that he never intended to deviate from what the Congress high command wanted him to do.
The Army will soon induct 'loitering munitions’ amid the continuing military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh, while the force also cranks up long-range high-volume firepower with 'winterised' howitzers and advanced rockets backed by drones and weapon-locating radars along the northern borders.
Minister and Ashok Gehlot loyalist Shanti Dhariwal alleged a “100% conspiracy” against the CM by Ajay Maken and Sachin Pilot. Accusing Maken of approaching MLAs to campaign for Pilot as the next CM, Dhariwal said he had proof to back his allegation.
Former J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad launched his Democratic Azad Party with a nod to the "ideals of Mahatma Gandhi" in Jammu on Monday, exactly a month to the day he quit Congress with a critique of how the grand old party he had been part of for five decades "reached the point of no return".
The family of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari, whose brutal murder rocked Uttarakhand, cremated her body in Srinagar in Pauri Garhwal on Sunday evening. Earlier on Sunday, Ankita’s father refused to cremate her body, demanding the full post-mortem examination report. The post-mortem examination was conducted on Saturday by a panel of doctors from AIIMS, Rishikesh.
India can scale up production of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft to meet operational requirements and export orders, defence ministry officials said. The single-engine Tejas fighter is already the frontrunner to bag a Malaysian order for 18 light twin-seat fighter trainers despite strong competition from Chinese JF-17, South Korean FA-50 and Russian MiG-35 and Yak-130 jets.
The CBI on Saturday filed two FIRs and conducted pan-India raids at 59 locations in 21 states on the basis of inputs given by the Interpol's units in New Zealand and Singapore regarding online circulation and distribution of child sexual abuse material. The raids were carried out after around 75 individuals were traced and identified using internet protocol details records analysis of their devices.
Rajasthan CLP will meet on Sunday, in what appears to be an exercise to pick the successor of CM Ashok Gehlot, the putative AICC president. The core issue is if Gehlot will have to relinquish the CM’s post, and if Sachin Pilot will replace him. Pilot is also the choice of the leadership. But the party has to negotiate the CM’s preference, and the legislature party in which Gehlot has an absolute support.
Former Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot on Friday reached Jaipur from Kochi amid hectic lobbying in the Congress for the chief minister's post after Ashok Gehlot announced his decision to contest the Congress national president's election, and rushed to meet the Speaker and party MLAs. It is learnt that the party top brass has asked Pilot to stay put in Jaipur and meet MLAs till a final decision is taken.
China is using “coercive economic tools” to achieve its security aims in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) while also not adhering to international laws and displaying a lack of transparency in its ongoing efforts to establish overseas military bases, a senior US defence official said.
The govt is unwilling to accommodate Congress' request to let it retain the helmsmanship of the department-related standing committee (DRSC) on home affairs in Rajya Sabha. The decision to withdraw Congress' leadership of the DRSC on home affairs in the RS and IT and communications in LS is being done "as per the existing strength of the parties" and in light of its numbers in RS coming down since 2019, sources said.
PFI has assiduously followed a multi-pronged operational strategy that aims to communalise the nation's polity, encourage and enforce Taliban brand of Islam, heighten existing social divisions, dislodge moderate mainstream Muslim organisations from the collective mind of the community and maintain a trained band of volunteers for physical actions, according to a dossier on PFI prepared by the NIA in 2017.
Ashok Gehlot is likely to be the next president of Congress but will have to step down as chief minister of Rajasthan. Gehlot, who had on Wednesday declared his intent to continue as Rajasthan CM even if he was elected as Congress chief, gave up his insistence after Rahul Gandhi declared that the new party chief would have to adhere to the “one man one post” principle.
The Karnataka government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that enforcement of uniforms may prevent students from wearing any kind of religious clothing, including hijab, but it would not amount to stifling one's rights to freedom of religion or expression. Hijab is not an essential religious practice in Islam and students are free to wear it outside their schools, it said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of allegedly "taking out money from the pocket of the common man" and giving it to his "crony capitalist friends" one of whom was the second richest man in the world. Gandhi, the Wayanad MP, further accused Modi of "clearing the way for big businessmen" by "smashing" the small businesses.
nion civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Tuesday he will initiate an inquiry into allegations of Lufthansa deplaning Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann in Frankfurt because he was “drunk”. Scindia has sought a detailed report from the German carrier.
Despite the troop disengagement at a ‘friction point’ in eastern Ladakh earlier this month, the overall threat from China has not receded in any way and it is fast extending to other domains in addition to the land borders, the country’s military brass warned on Tuesday.
he Karnataka government on Tuesday argued that its February 5 order asking educational institutions to enforce prescribed uniforms was secular in nature as it banned all additional religious clothing by students irrespective of their religious affiliation, be it hijab or saffron shawls.
Emphasising lack of uniformity in approach and differences of opinion on how to proceed and analyse mitigating circumstances, while awarding death sentence to a convict by courts, the Supreme Court on Monday referred the issue to a five-judge bench Constitution bench for a comprehensive and authoritative adjudication.
Cinema halls have made a comeback in Kashmir after they died out in the decades of separatist terrorism. J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated a multipurpose theatre each in the south Kashmir districts of Shopian and Pulwama on Sunday, while Srinagar’s first multiplex will open on Tuesday with Aamir Khan’s latest release ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’.
Allegations about a girl student of Chandigarh University recording and sharing with her boyfriend “objectionable videos” of fellow boarders at the hostel plunged the Mohali institute into a spiral of fear, rumours and unrest since late Saturday, culminating in the duo’s arrest on Sunday even as the authorities clarified there had been no privacy breach.
Copyright @ 2013 ATC __News.
