Anna Hazare warned his followers at the Raj Ghat not to respond in kind if the Government uses violence today. “There is a possibility that the Government may do something, but I want my followers to remain peaceful.. We have another four hours to go. Do not respond to violence through violence,” Anna said. The […]
Like many citizens of this country, I was shocked to wake up on Sunday morning and find that the Government had lathi-charged what I thought was a rather harmless satyagrah going on in Ramlila grounds. Like most of my fellow-citizens, I was quick to condemn the violation of our constitutional right to peaceful agitation — […]
Anna Hazare, the 71-year-old Gandhian has said the Janlokpal movement will support Baba Ramdev and his agitation as long as his credentials remain as strong as they are now. His comments have come as many, including some who support Anna Hazare, have characterized the Baba as someone on the political right — alongside the Rashtriya […]
The CNN-IBN channel has claimed that the National Commission for Women — a statutory rights body — has prepared a report in which it points to women being stripped and people being burnt by Uttar Pradesh policemen during the recent farmers’ agitation. Claiming to have seen the NCW report prepared after the Commission’s visit eight […]
A prominent CPI leader from the Muslim community, M Rahmatullah, has quit the Left and joined Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League, accusing the Communists of losing touch with the minorities. Rahmattullah also accused the CPI of being part of a “new politics” that neglected the Christian and Muslim minorities of Kerala — an obvious […]
UP Chief Minister Mayawati has hit back strongly at the comments made by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in Varanasi today and yesterday. In a strong, point-by-point statement read out by the UP cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar — the top state bureaucrat — Mayawati urged Sonia Gandhi to take her concerns for loss […]
The state elections of 2011 has been remarkable for a variety of reasons — the fall of a 34-year old Communist government in West Bengal, the resounding signal sent by the Tamil Nadu electorate that corruption will not be condoned and the not-quite-there victory of the Congress in Kerala. While the first two have been […]
J Jayalalitha, who is being sworn in as Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister, is unlikely to join the Congress-led UPA at the Centre any time soon, according to sources in Chennai. While Sonia Gandhi has already invited the AIADMK supremo for ‘breakfast’ and congratulated her on her victory over Congress ally DMK, the feisty former-actress […]
The 16 Karnataka MLA’s, who were disqualified by the Karnataka Speaker after they switched sides from BJP, have again lent their support to the party, according to BJP state unit. The BJP Karnataka unit has faxed their claim to the Karnataka Rajbhawan, claiming that they continue to have majority in the Assembly. The MLAs too […]
On the second day of his official tour of Afghanistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to reassure the Afghani lawmakers that India did not want to ‘impose’ its views on the country, and was interested only in ‘friendship.’ In his brief address to the join session of the two houses of Afghani Parliament, Singh mentioned […]
Tense faces abounded at the Congress offices in the state after it was able to post just a 2-seat majority in an election that was supposed to be a walk-over. Oommen Chandy, the chief ministerial candidate of the UDF (headed by Congress) and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said the party will hold an enquiry into […]
Partisan politics has come to haunt the Paliamentary Committee set up to probe the 2G spectrum scam. Congress today demanded the removal of Yashwant Sinha, former finance minister and BJP leader, on the grounds that he has a ‘prejudiced mind.’ Congress alleged that Sinha has decided the issues even before a single sitting of the […]
The second ‘Freedom on the Net’ (FOTN) report by the Washington-based Freedom Institute has expressed concern over the decreasing freedom of expression on the Internet in India. The Institute, which put India in the company of states like China, Egypt and Iran which saw a deterioration of freedom of expression on the Internet since the […]
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chawan flatly blamed ‘outsiders’ for “instigating” trouble at Jaitapur, the site of a proposed Nuclear plant by French company Areva. Chawan said the dangers from the 10,000 megawatt nuclear plant have been exaggerated by those with vested interests and those who are ideologically opposed to all nuclear power. “The agitations are […]
Darjeeling born and Harvard educated Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangey has become the new Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile. The result for the elections of the 15th Parliament in exile was announced today in Dharamshala, the capital of the Tibetan government in exile. . For the first time the role of the prime […]
Full text of Ambassador David Mulford’s 2005 cable on the ‘Congress Culture’ SUBJECT: CONGRESS CULTURE DEFINES SONIA GANDHI’S ROLE Classified By: DCM Robert O. Blake, Jr. for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) 1.(C) Summary: Since the Congress-dominated government has been in power, there have been widespread allegations by the opposition BJP and media commentators that party […]
Watch out of Pranab Mukherjee’s Bengali accent — this was the warning from the US embassy Delhi to their headquarters in Washington just before the then defence minister was to visit the country. The detailed biography of Pranab Mukherjee, India’s current finance minister, also reveals the man behind the persona and comments on his tiff […]
Warning against ‘agents of the Congress and the BJP’, the Aam Aadmi Party has called upon social activist Anna Hazare to give up his fast and join the electoral movement. “While expressing our full support for the cause for which Anna is fasting, we call upon him to give up his fast and join the […]
Santosh Koli, one of the 11 Aam Admi Party candidate for the Seemapuri assembly constituency in Delhi, has recovered from her critical condition after an accident last week. Koli and her co-worker were hit by a car on their way to their office a week ago. AAP said Koli, a long time member of Arvind […]
How much does Facebook care about Freedom of Expression? This is the question a group of liberals in the southern Indian state of Kerala are pondering over after their ‘Free Thinkers’ group has been ‘made unavailable’ by Facebook repeatedly. The group was among the top 20 or so from India until it was blocked by […]
