The most impassioned speech in the Lokpal debate in the Lok Sabha today was made by the young parliamentarian from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Jayant Chaudhary. Chaudhary, the grandson of former Prime Minister Charan Singh and the son of Ajit Singh, was the only parliamentarian to go against the general trend of criticising Anna […]
Two German mountaineers missing in Afghanistan since last week found to be killed in the Salang Pass near the capital Kabul. Though the Interior Ministry Spokesperson, Sidiq Sediqi, has not yet confirmed the report, the Governor of the Parwan province,Abdul Basir Salangi, talking to the RTN confirmed the death. He said that the bodies have […]
Idea Cellular, the telecom operator part of the Aditya Birla group, has cut its 3G data rates across the country, five months after it launched such services. NOTE: Most of these plans have been withdrawn as of 23 May 2012 While the launch tariffs were in line with the tariffs charged by its main competition […]
Days after launching the first of the new line-up of powerful candy-bar Blackberry phones, online e-tailer Letsbuy has now become the first to launch the Blackberry Torch 9810, first slider Blackberry phone built on the new platform. The Blackberry Torch 9810’s price in India is Rs 29,749. The Blackberry Torch 9810 is one of the […]
Just days after Twitter indicated its interest in the search market, the messaging platform is now spreading its wings towards the social networking scene. Under a pilot project covering a small (lucky) portion of its user-base, it has introduced two new ‘tabs’ that increasingly turns the Twitter experience more ‘Facebookish’. The tabs, that replace the […]
The Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said she has received 7 to 8 proposals from the members of the house to hold discussions on the Lokpal issue. However, most of the requests, including those from senior congress leaders like Jagdambika Pal and Sandeep Dikshit are calling for a no-vote discussion, while two private members have […]
Minutes before the Parliament starts a debate on veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare’s demands on Jan Lokpal, the 74-year-old sent a clear signal that he is willing to fight on if the legislature tries to wriggle out of the situation. Speaking on the 12th day of his marathon fast, he tried to lay to rest the […]
Team Anna has dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s proposal to widen the scope of the Lokpal bill, calling it a “five year plan” and impractical. Some even called it a possible delaying tactic. Most of Anna Hazare’s supporters are not impressed by Rahul Gandhi’s seeming earnestness in tying the Lokpal issue with a lot of others such […]
Members of Parliament expressed their frustration and anger at being tarred as corrupt by the popular movement led by Anna Hazare. Leading the attack, senior leader of the Janata Dal (United) party, Sharad Yadav urged the protesters to remain civil and choose their words carefully. “Please keep your words within limits and we shall also […]
Congress leader Sandip Dixit, son of Sheila Dixit, refused to support Anna Hazare’s demand to include the lower bureaucracy within the investigative powers of the Lokpal. He was the first speaker from the Congress party speaking on merits at the Parliamentary debate on Anna Hazare’s three demands today, inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee. While he supported […]
Five major political parties have offered their full support to the three demands raised by the Anna Hazare group yesterday, movement leader Arvind Kejriwal said. The three demands are 1) Entire bureaucracy must be within under the Lokpal’s scope, including the lowest level clerk or peon 2) There must be a citizen’s charter associated with […]
Congress General secretary and son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi has made a statement in the Parliament today on the ongoing anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare. Rahul Gandhi, widely seen as Congress’ Prime Ministerial candidate after the term of Manmohan Singh, thanked Anna Hazare for “articulating” the anti-corruption sentiment of the people. “The real […]
The Editors’ Guild, one of the most powerful media organizations in the country, today approached the Information and Broadcasting ministry to seek sweeping reforms in the country’s defamation laws. The guild urged the government to repeal provisions of the current defamation rules under which editors of newspapers and TV channels may be put in jail […]
The Parliament will not give a binding directive to the standing committee to go by the consensus that may emerge at the end of discussions today, according to the statement made by Pranab Mukherjee to start off the discussion in Lok Sabha today. Kicking the discussions off, Pranab Mukherjee, the senior most Congress leader, said […]
The Bhartiya Janata Party, which had expressed its great displeasure after the Congress Party ‘back-stabbed’ it with a surprising statement by Rahul Gandhi, has been persuaded not to insist on a vote on Lokpal bill tomorrow. According to Parliamentary Affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, the BJP and the government have agreed to have a simple […]
The Shiva Sena, one of NDA’s biggest allies and a major player in Maharashtra, has declared its full support to the three demands raised by Anna Hazare. Anant Geete, Shiv Sena MP from Raigarh in Maharashtra, expressed his party’s “total support” to the three points — bringing all bureaucrats under Lokpal, installing a citizen’s charter […]
The CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharya has taken a nuanced position on the three demands of Anna Hazare in the Lok Sabha debate today. Acharya was the first speaker from the left parties to speak on the matter. He dismissed the Government’s version of the Lokpal bill, calling it useless, but refused to fully support the […]
Even as minutes remain for the beginning of the debate in the Indian Parliament on Anna Hazare’s three demands for Lokpal, uncertainty remains over whether or not there will be a vote on the three specific demands. A vote-less discussion is likely to simply postpone the current conflict and agitation by a few weeks or […]
India will get a new media regulator in less than a month, Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said at a CII conference on Friday. The minister said that industry-government body meant to recommend the structure of the new body has finalized its proposals and the same are about to be forwarded to the Cabinet. […]
Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has lent strong support to passing a “strong and effective” Lokpal bill as soon as possible. She also lent support to Anna Hazare group on all three questions which were subjected to debate in the Parliament today. 1) On the issue of including the Judiciary, […]
