Former Telecom Minister A Raja, the prime accused in 2G spectrum scam who was released on bail recently, arrived in Chennai to a rousing reception by party
workers at the airport on his first visit to his home state since his arrest in February last year. 

Party supporters thronged the Kamaraj domestic airport in good numbers to receive the Dalit face of DMK as a visibly happy Raja waved at them before boarding a car to meet his party chief M Karunanidhi.

Slogan-shouting and folk numbers played by a band greeted the MP from Nilgiris as the partymen carried placards hailing Raja as a "Bold" and "Bright Sun", DMK's election symbol. 

The supporters wore T-shirts with slogans hailing Raja and carrying the picture of party leader M K Stalin. "Raja had conquered Tihar jail", read the slogans apparently referring to his incarceration and release from the Delhi prison where he was lodged for 15 months after he was arrested by CBI.

The Andhra Pradesh government has refused permission to the Standing Committee of Home Affairs to visit Tirupathi and Tirumala on June 15.

The committee comprises 31 MPs across political parties and M Venkaiah Naidu, chairman of the Standing Committee wanted to oversee the security preparedness and review the arrangements of the National Disaster Management authority.

The Standing Committee also wanted the state chief secretary to present a power point presentation to the 31 MPs of the Andhra Pradesh Government . 

The Parliament Secretariat received a fax on Wednesday that the state government would be under the election model code of conduct as the Tirupathi and Tirumala assembly segments go to the polls on June 12. This seat was held by Rajya Sabha MP Chiranjeevi. 

Political observers feel that since it is Venkaiah Naidu is the chairman, he wanted to take his men, but in Congress ruled Andhra Pradesh that could hardly work.

So they found an excuse that the polls would have been held by the time the committee reached Tirumala. Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy does not want Naidu to take credit.

Ready fr IIFA rocks in a Shivan &Narresh outfit!Looking fwd to an eve of fashion n music.

-- That's Bipasha Basu for you, on Twitter.  

Read: PIX: IIFA begins with starry Shanghai premiere

Our sources in Delhi tell us that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi wants ally and DMK chief M Karunanidhi to be present when the Congress nominee for the Presidential Polls presents his/her nomination papers on June 16 to Returning Officer V K Aghnihotri in Parliament House.

This is what Sonia told Karunanidhi's son and senior DMK leader MK Stalin when he and TR Baalu met her on Wednesday at 10 Janpath.  DMK MPs have also been informally told to be in Delhi all through next week as Karunanidhi may be in the national capital.

Since Karunanidhi is an MLA, he is entitled to sign the nomination papers -- there will be14 sets of nominations papers for a Congress nominee and -- each ally will have a chance to propose the name.

Sonia Gandhi apparently considers Karunanidhi only next to Jyoti Basu and Jawaharlal Nehru as her mentors. It may be recalled that Karunanidhi in 2004 openly declared that Sonia Gandhi was not a foreigner and she stood the best chance to become the Prime Minister. And that, dear reader, is one of the reasons why Sonia respects each other. A feeling Karuna reciprocates.

Senior CPI leader A B Bardhan today accused the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of having taken the help of the feudal forces like the Ranvir Sena to wrest political power from his archrival Lalu Prasad and his party. 

"It is an open secret that Kumar had taken the help of the feudal forces like the Ranvir Sena and such elements to defeat the RJD and wrest political power in Bihar," Bardhan said.

To clarify, Bardhan said that Kumar had taken the support of forces like Ranvir Sena, but he did not wish to specifically name the Sena, an outlawed private militia of an upper caste.

The Central Bureau of Investigation today summoned Board of Cricket Control in India chief N Srinivasan in connection with an investment of Rs 135 crore that it says was made in Jagathi Publications and Bharathi Cements. These firms are owned by YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is currently being probed by the agency in connection with a disproportionate assets case. Srinivasan is also the managing director of India Cements, apart from being the owner of the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings.

More on rediff.com

BCCI chief and MD of India Cements, N Srinivasan, has said that he has done nothing illegal. Srinivasan has been summoned by the CBI for questioning in connection with the Jagan Mohan Reddy disproportionate assets case.

Srinivasan who is in Bangalore spoke to the meida outside the Karnataka Golf Association. "I will fully cooperate with the CBI because I have done nothing illegal."

"I have given detailed responses to the CBI. Whatever rights we were given are within the industrial policies of Andhra Pradesh and hence we are confident that India Cements has done nothing wrong. As far as the company is concerned we will cooperate with the CBI and they can examine anyone they want.

"We have already explained that we have purchased shares and also sold them at a high price and there is nothing untoward about this," he said.

The CBI is also likely to question Srinivasan tomorrow in Hyderabad  The allegation is that India Cements had invested Rs 135 crore in Jagathi Publications and Bharati Cements which are Jagan owned companies.It is also alleged that India Cements had received favours in the form of additional water allocation.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) today gave its approval to Madhya Pradesh government to dispose of 350 metric tonnes of Union Carbide toxic waste in Germany.  As per the decision, the Centre will pay Rs 25 crore towards the cost of airlifting the waste which will be removed within a year. 

Madhya Pradesh Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Babulal Gaur said that the GoM under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has asked the state government to prepare an agreement within two weeks' time. 

"The proposal has been agreed to. The waste will be disposed of in Germany. The cost of Rs 25 crore for airlifting the toxic material will be borne by the central government. The whole procedure of removing the waste will be completed within a year," Gaur told reporters after the meeting.

Nearly five months after the Park street rape case rocked the metropolis, the driver of a hired car was today arrested for allegedly raping a woman passenger. The woman hired the car yesterday to return home after visiting her husband who was in hospital. 

The police said the driver instead of taking her home to Entally drove to Rajarhat, which is barely populated, and allegedly raped her. The driver dropped the woman at Entally this morning and sped off. The woman then approached a traffic constable who took her to the Entally police station where she filed a complaint of rape.

In February, an Anglo-Indian woman was allegedly raped in a car while returning home from a night club in Park street , which led to tremendous public outcry. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had claimed that Park Street was a cooked up story (sajano golpo). Read

The defamation case against VK Singh has been filed by former Lt Gen Tejinder Singh, who has trashed allegations that he offered a bribe to clear a deal for 600 Tatra trucks.

The court had reserved its order for Friday after going through the file related to the issuance of the March 5 press release which had accused Tejinder Singh of offering a bribe of Rs 14 crore to the erstwhile Army chief.

Former Army Chief Gen V K Singh and four others have been summoned by a Delhi court in a criminal defamation case filed by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh.

Sanjay Joshi, a Maharashtrian, was a trained mechanical engineer and also taught engineering before deciding to pursue a career in active politics with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was sent to the Gujarat unit of the BJP by the Maharashtra unit of the RSS around 1988-89.

Read the story on Firstpost.com

Nearly two months after Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan was detained at a New York airport, the US has said that the VIPs visiting the country will have to go through the immigration procedures like everyone else unless they have diplomatic exemption. 

"For VIP arrivals, unless they have some type of, say, diplomatic visa or exemption, everyone would go through the same type of process. We don't want it to be seen as a hassle," John Wagner, Executive Director of US Customs and Border Protection's Office of Field Operations, Admissibility and Passenger Programmes, said. 

"We want people to understand the importance of it, and we are keeping people safe, and it's, we want people to have the confidence that it's safe and secure to come here, and part of those processes is to ensure that," he told reporters here. 

"So we do ask for the public's patience in helping us help them and make sure all those requirements are met," Wagner said when asked about the inconvenience Indian film stars or former Presidents faced at US airports.

No let up for Nitin Gadkari touching Baba Ramdev's feet, it seems.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Naik on Friday came out in full defence of party president Nitin Gadkari for touching the feet of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, saying it is the Indian culture to touch the feet of the elderly. 

When asked to comment on BJP leader Sangh Priya Gautam's letter to Gadkari questioning the need to show such respect to a man who is basically a medicine seller and not some spiritual guru, Naik said: "If we meet anybody, we fold our hands in respect. Baba Ramdev has his won identity in the society and that position is there because he is a saint and also leading a movement. Touching feet is the Indian culture.  

"So, there is nothing astonishing in what Nitin Gadkari-ji did. We always touch the feet of the elderly. I don't agree with this thinking," he added. Gautam has accused Gadkari of demeaning the post of BJP president.

More updates on the Sanjay Joshi story as it happens.

Meanwhile, the Congress top brass including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party President Sonia Gandhi today held consultations to chalk out a
strategy for minority sub quota in OBC reservation. 

The government has decided to challenge Andhra Pradesh High Court order that annnuled the Centre's decision to provide 4.5 per cent quota to backward minorities out of the 27 per cent reservation bracket for OBCs. 

However, there have been conflicting versions from two different ministries over the timing of filing a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court order.

The BJP at present seems to be divided in two camps with former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, openly taking on Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Patel has said that people of Gujarat are living in fear under Modi rule.

Patel's group is going to organise two major rallies in the state in the next few days to build up their campaign in the case. In what seems to be a retaliation, a complaint has been filed against Patel and his associates for promoting enmity
between different groups in a Junagadh court. 

Modi has also come under criticism from RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya, and BJP magazine Kamal Sandesh.

Joshi, who is a former RSS pracharak and was a general secretary of BJP, has requested Gadkari that he be "relieved from the party". This was accepted by the BJP president. 

This new development comes as a shot in the arm for Modi as he did not want Joshi to have any role in the party. Both the BJP and RSS have been divided on the manner in which Joshi had to resign from the National Executive as Modi put this as a condition for him to attend the Mumbai conclave. 

Since then, the BJP and RSS mouthpieces have written for or against the two leaders. While BJP mouthpiece Kamal Sandesh and RSS mouthpiece
Panchajanya hit out at Modi, another RSS mouthpiece Organiser spoke in Modi's favour.

Times Now says that Sanjay Joshi has quit because of differences with Narendra Modi. Joshi asked Nitin Gadkari to relieve him of hi responsibilities in UP. Gadkari has accepted his resignation. The RSS is likely to 'rehabilitate' Joshi into its fold.

Early hours yet, but the BJP says it has never asked Joshi to quit. It was his own decision to resign from the party. 

Update on Dimple Yadav's unopposed election to the Kannauj seat.  

The Congress had opted not to contest the election in  Kannauj saying it did not field its candidate even in 2009 elections and the BSP had decided to keep away from the bypoll alleging the ruling party of continuing with its tradition of
nepotism by fielding Dimple.

In a volte face, BJP which had decided against contesting the by-election had announced the candidature of Jagdev Yadav shortly before the 3 pm deadline for filing of nominations. Yadav, who had failed to reach the returning officer's
office in time to file the papers and later alleged that he was stopped by SP workers at two places. 

35-year-old Dimple filed her nomination papers on Tuesday. She had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Congress' Raj Babbar in the by-polls for the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat in 2009.

At the Aarushi-Hemraj murder trial being held at the Ghaziabad court, the CBI which is probing the case has sought examination of three of its witnesses which include a UP electricity department official Rajesh Kumar and a state police cameraman Chunni Lal, who had taken the photographs of crime scene besides forensic expert A D Saha.

Stay with us for all the details of the trial.

Sanjay Joshi has requested BJP President Nitin Gadkari to relieve him from the party and his request has been accepted, say BJP sources. During the party conclave in Mumbai last month, Joshi was forced to resign from the Bharatiya Janata Party's National Executive.

It was only then that Gujarat CM Narendra Modi then decided to attend the two-day meeting which he had earlier planned to boycott. Party chief Nitin Gadkari, who had brought Joshi back into the executive, announced the end of a "small controversy" and declared that he and the Gujarat strongman will work together to strengthen the party, setting the stage for deliberations in the executive.

His resignation today comes just as posters indirectly targetting Modi, while promoting Joshi have been put up in Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat. This is the second poster of its kind to be put up, after BJP president Nitin Gadkari sacked Joshi from the party's national executive under pressure from Modi.

This one has the BJP's logo and reads 'Perform Rajdharma, Prajadharma and partydharma.

Former Lok Sabha speaker and NCP leader P.A. Sangma met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran Lal Krishna Advani on Friday to seek support for his candidature for the coveted post of President of India.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik have so far backed Sangma's candidature as presidential candidate. In a coordinated move, Patnaik and Jayalalithaa had on May 17 announced their joint support for Sangma. 

Sangma, who has been campaigning for a tribal president, had earlier urged the leaders of various political outfits to also support him. I would like to appeal to leaders of all political parties to support the cause of tribals as Madam Jayalalithaa and Mr Naveen Patnaik has done. I appeal to all political parties," he said.

Two professors have come under fire for criticising West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee government's economic policies. 

Two professors - Shampa Sen and Devashish Sarkar - who had criticised the state government's economic policies on a recent television show, have been issued a show cause notice by higher education council.

The notice criticises both the professors and asks them to explain their stand. It further says that they cannot talk about the government's policies in such manner.

Bangalore Chinnaswamy stadium blast accused Qateel Siddiqui was today strangled to death inside the high-security Yerwada jail in Pune by his fellow-inmates. Siddiqui was also wanted in the German Bakery blast in Pune and was arrested by the Delhi police last year.

The incident happened at 10:30 am today, his postmortem is on.

Facebook users are now spending less time on the social networking site, with just two out of five people signing into their profile every day, according to a survey.  

A poll released by Reuters and Ispos revealed that six months ago, one out of two users visited every day. The poll, covering 1032 Americans, also found that 34 percent of users surveyed were spending less time on the site, with only 20 percent saying they were spending more. The news about user engagement comes months after the site switched to a "Timeline' form and just days after the company's botched IPO.

Life was much simpler when apples and blackberries were just fruits, goes the old joke. Today, the mobile devices that take those names for many have blurred the lines between work and after-work, adding to the already hectic work schedules of corporate professionals.

Read more

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin has vowed to turn the guns on Pakistan if it stops backing jihadis in Jammu and Kashmir who, he claimed, were fighting "Pakistan's war". 

"We are fighting Pakistan's war in Kashmir and if it withdraws its support, the war would be fought inside Pakistan," said Salahuddin, who also heads the Muttahida Jihad Council, a grouping of terrorist organisations based in Pakistan. 

Continuing his flip-flop, social activist Anna Hazare made a U-turn and gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on corruption charges against
him. 

Addressing a rally here last night as part of his tour to create awareness about a strong Lokpal, the anti-corruption crusader softened his stand on the Prime Minister and instead appeared to blame Sonia Gandhi, without naming her. 

"Manmohan Singh is an honest person and there is no direct proof of his involvement in corruption. However, there is a certain remote control which dictates decisions to him and so there is an air of suspicion around him," he said.

Hazare had recently said that he had no faith in the Prime Minister and his associates had targeted him on alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks.

Two million of the world's poorest children could be saved by introducing routine vaccination programmes against diarrhoea and pneumonia, says Unicef.

Read

Close on the heels of Parliamentarians going up in arms over a cartoon concerning B R Ambedkar in NCERT books, another such row erupted today with MDMK leader Vaiko protesting against depiction of the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu in Class XII books. 

In identical letters to HRD minister Kapil Sibal and NCERT Director Prof Sinclair, Vaiko said "the cartoon in the textbook depicts students (of Tamil Nadu) as if they were ignorant and indulged in violence." 

"This (anti-Hindi) agitation is a glorious chapter of Tamil Nadu's political history.  But the cartoon in the textbook depicts students as if they are ignorant and indulged in violence. This is a total distortion of history and hurts the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu, maligning the historic Dravidian movement," he said.

Pakistan today reacted strongly to US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's remarks questioning its actions in tackling terrorism, saying the sharp comments only added an "unhelpful twist" in the already oxygen-starved ties. 

Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman said the remraks have further reduced the space for narrowing bilateral differences, that have been hit by a series of conflagrations in the recent past. 

"This kind of public messaging from a senior member of the US administration is taken very seriously in Pakistan, and reduces the space for narrowing our bilateral differences at a critical time in the negotiations," Rehman said in a statement.

Panetta had said in Kabul yesterday that the US was losing patience with Pakistan on the issue of militant safe havens on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.

Barack Obama is said to have made a rude joke about his wife Michelle and oral sex at a Beverly Hills fundraiser for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Leadership Council on Wednesday night.

Talking to some 600 supporters at the event, Obama referred to Ellen DeGeneres, the stand-up comedian and television host and a lesbian. "I want to thank my wonderful friend who accepts a little bit of teasing about Michelle beating her in push-ups but I think she claims Michelle didn't go all the way down,' the Daily Mail quoted him as saying. The crowd erupted into a "bawdy laughter'.

It remained unclear, however, whether Obama uttered a deliberate double entendre about his wife having oral sex with a lesbian or whether he simply stumbled into using a phrase that was misinterpreted.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram may have failed in his bid to avert a trial in a case challenging the validity of his election in 2009 from the Sivaganga parliamentary constituency.

Read the editorial on The Hindu.

Rahul Bose @RahulBose1 Fantastic stuff @maheshbhupathi & sania mirza! Mahesh, what a great 21st birthday present! (if anyone says 38, ask them to watch you play)

Here's why: French Open: Bhupathi-Mirza win mixed doubles title

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will lead a high powered Indian delegation to the US next week for the third India-US Strategic Dialogue that will focus on human development and enhancing people to people relationship. Krishna, who will arrive here on June 11 on a four-day visit, will co-chair the dialogue with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

While the Strategic Dialogue in itself is scheduled for June 13, a series of high-level official and non-official meetings have been scheduled for next week, officials said. 

They, however, remained tight-lipped on what would be the outcome of this annual top-level talks between the two countries which by all accounts would be the last one with Clinton as the Secretary of State.

The trial of Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case will begin at a Ghaziabad court today. The court will begin examining the prosecution witnesses in the double murder case.

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Rajesh and Nupur Talwar would have to face trial in the twin murders of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, prompting the "deeply disappointed" dentist couple to vow that they would "nail the killers and that justice would one day prevail."

In a first, Punjab may allow conjugal visits in state jails.Punjab's head of prisons Shashi Kant has sent a proposal to the state government seeking permission to allow select male inmates to have sex with their partners in a designated area of the jail. If the proposal is cleared, Punjab will become the first state to allow sex in prison.

Read the report on the TOI.

The mystery of an unknown Sikh onQueen Elizabeth's Royal Barge that sailed down the Thames to mark the monarch's diamond jubilee has been solved. An investigation by a British tabloid has found that the man was a sex offender who spent four years in a British prison.But the mystery about who invited Harbinder Singh Rana, 52, remains. 

Read the report on the TOI