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 […]
M Karunanidhi, the leader of the DMK party whose daughter Kanimozhi was sent to jail today, had indicated that he will not take any drastic action against the Congress or its alliance. The move has come as a relief to the Congress party which was afraid of its ally dropping out of the governing United […]
The ruling Congress Party has called on Pakistan to come clean on whether its government institutions support terror or not. Responding to the revelations made by former terrorist David Headley in a Chicago court, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said Pakistan will be forced to come clean as the trial of Headley and Tahawwur Rana progresses. […]
Obama has reiterated that the US and the UK intend to forge a long term partnership with the people of Afghanistan, hinting that the two countries will stay in the region longer than anticipated. According to earlier announced time-table, the US was to start pulling out of Afghanistan by June of next year, raising concern […]
Congress party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan defended Rahul Gandhi’s statement that there seems to have been killings and rape by policemen at the Bhatta Parsaul village in UP during the recent farmers’ stir. The statement, made by Rahul Gandhi when he and a delegation of farmers from the village were meeting the Prime Minister, have drawn […]
A late 2008 diplomatic cable from the Islamabad embassy of the US has shed new light on the thinking inside the Pakistani establishment about Kashmir, Balochistan and the bombing of Indian embassy in Kabul in the same year. According to the cable, which described a high-level meeting between the US Assistant Secretary for South and […]
After remaining absent from the telecom scene for seven years, Mukesh Ambani too has now jumped into the ongoing ‘telecom war’ over the abolition of termination charges. In doing so, Ambani’s Infotel Broadband — the holder of the only pan-India wireless broadband license — has lodged itself of the opposite side of big incumbents like […]
Though the Government and Civil Society members of the Lokpal bill drafting committee disagree on the fundamental structure of the planned institution, the civil society members can be credited with having won major concessions from the government. Among the assurances that have been secured by the civil society members from the government side include the […]
The US President Barrack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron said they will increase pressure on Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi till he leaves, though Obama was slightly less hawkish on the attacks. “The President and I agree that we should be turning up the heat on Libya.. On Britain’s party, we would be looking […]
Home minister Chidambaram has accepted the responsibility for the ’50 most wanted’ goof up involving the listing of the arrested Wazhul Kamar Khan in a list given to Pakistan. “The Mumbai police did not formally communicate the news of the arrest to the CBI when the arrest took place [in August 2010,]” Chidambaram said. He […]
Indian public opinion would force the Indian government to take military action against Pakistan in case of another attack like Mumbai, home minister P Chidambaram told the Americans in 2009, according to leaked US diplomatic cables. Chidambaram also blamed Bangladesh and Myanmar for providing sanctuary to insurgents in the North East and called Myanmar “totally […]
State-owned mobile and fixed line telecom operator BSNL has accused the telecom regulator of “over-reaching” the judgments of the Supreme Court and the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) by questioning the need for inclusion of capital expenditure in call costs. It said it is “shocked and surprised” at the move by the Telecom […]
Officials of the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, said the tiny country had to “understand the needs” of its bigger neighbors like Iran and Saudi Arabia to survive and can only go so far in helping the US in the region. A cable leaked by Wikileaks reports the UAE Central Bank […]
Maharashtra home minister RR Patil has said that the state government will take responsibility for the security of Mumbai terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab from now on. The step has come after the state government received a Rs 10 crore bill from the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) — one of India’s para-military forces — […]
According to sources, the Maharashtra police is exchanging fire in an ongoing encounter with a group of Maoists in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. Around 250 Maoists are expected to be holed up in a forest. Initial reports suggest that the fire fight is happening in a forest near Halewara village in the district. The […]
India’s defence minister AK Antony has reacted to the Wikileaks’ revelation that parts of the Pakistani government were in touch with the terror groups who bombed the Indian embassy of Kabul in 2008. Antony said the biggest hurdle to better relations between India and Pakistan was the links between high officials in Pakistan and terror […]
Reports emanating from Kabul says that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar has met his end. According to TOLO TV, a Kabul based news channel Omar has been killed in Pakistan. “Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan, ” TOLO television said in its news bulletin. However,there is no independent confirmation about […]
Many senior Pakistani military officers seemed out of touch with Western reality and are steeped in myths — particularly anti-American ones — while being in awe of the Chinese, according to the experiences of a US Army Colonel who was studying there. Colonel Michael Schleicher, who was attending a senior level course at Pakistan’s prestigious […]
The wikileaks cable has given a rare glimpse of the hard-nosed practicality of Pakistani administrators. Speaking to the Bryan Hunt, Principal Officer at the US Consulate in Lahore, Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of the Punjab province, even joked about using ‘long beards’ — a sign of devotion — to charm the people. Sharif was talking […]
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 […]
