The Congress today taunted the BJP over the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's bete noire Sanjay Joshi saying the 'ritual of sacrifice' shows the 'dictatorial' functioning of the opposition party.

"BJP has set new standards and new benchmarks on internal democracy by this ritual of sacrifice even before the Gujarat Chief Minister can condescend to attend national executive of his party. Whether this is democratic or dictatorial is something that BJP needs to introspect," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in New Delhi.

26/11 Mumbai attacks cannot be compared with the Samjhauta train bombing, Union Home Secretary R K Singh told the media in Islamabad after the completion of the Indo-Pak secretary level talks.

Singh also said that India has provided additional evidence against JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and other perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks to Pakistan.

The BJP will hold a rally at Kamgar Maidan, Parel, tomorrow at 6 pm. The party will announce the action plan against UPA-II and the petrol price hike, says Mumbai party president Raj Purohit.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, who is the flavour of the moment, at the National Executive meet, will be there, apart from all senior party functionaries like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari. The two-day meet ends tomorrow.

Which means, major trafficjams on all roads that lead there.

Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore who is at BJP National Executive meeting being held in Mumbai says that party senior leader Rajanath Singh in a press conference at the venue addressed the issue of genetically modified crops.

Singh says GM crops should be banned. When asked if Gujarat, which is a major proponent of GM crops would implement it, he said the state is seeking a moratorium first and can consider banning it later. Singh said GM crops do not increase productivity.

@PatrickFrench2: My next book is about the Himalayas. Heading out to the eastern reaches. I may be gone for a while  

French is the author of several books, his latest being  'India: A Portrait'.

Read on rediff.com: People in India are more at peace with themselves

The Hyderabad court has rejected Jagan Reddy's anticipatory bail plea. Fearing a likely arrest, the YSR Congress Party leader applied for anticipatory bail in the Hyderabad CBI court, in the alleged illegal disproportionate assets case. The CBI has summoned Reddy to appear before it tomorrow.

India and Pakistan are hoping a meeting in Islamabad will continue to eke out small advances toward improving a battered bilateral relationship, this time with the progress on the granting of visas.

More on the WSJ

Consumers awoke this morning to a sharp rise in the price of gasoline. By next month, they may also be facing higher prices for two other everyday items -- imported cooking oil and pulses -- because of the weakness of the rupee.

Read the report on the WSJ

Bharti Airtel, India's biggest telecom services operator, said today that it had signed a pact to buy a 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm's fourth-generation (4G) broadband venture in the country for $165 million.Bharti will buy a 26 per cent stake held by two Indian partners in the Qualcomm broadband venture and the remaining by subscribing to fresh equity, the company said in statement, sending its shares up as much 6.9 per cent.

More on NDTV.com

According to BJP sources, Anshuman Mishra, the NRI who unsuccessfully tried to get a Rajya Sabha nomination from Jharkhand, lobbied on BJP President Nitin Gadkari's behalf in the latter's political battle with Narendra Modi.

Mishra tried hard to strike a deal for Modi's support to Gadkari's claim for a second term as party president.

Mishra called a contact in Ahmedabad -- one of the richest Gujaratis who owns thousands of acres of land and many industries all over Gujarat.

This Gujarati businessman bargained for Chief Minister Modi who is the key to his business empire.

As a result of the to-and-fro phone calls, it was decided that the only way Gadkari could buy peace from Modi was if BJP general secretary Sanjay Joshi -- Modi's bitter rival -- resigned from his post and the party.

In the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress had a chirpy ad campaign which showed a presumably middle-income family of three on a scooter. The wife gets orgasmic and tells her husband that they can save more because prices of everything have fallen -- specifically mentioning -- petrol, LPG, food prices etc. Watch

Ironically, these are precisely the sticking points, (apart from corruption and scams and zero governance) which is seeing the UPA-II floundering.

Amitabh Bachchan vents his ire on Twitter: @SrBachchan T 754 -Ruthlessly attacked for doing campaign ! Worked in silence, for result. 'Beware the fury of a silent man' !  

@SrBachchan  Thrilled to have worked silently to prove all negatives wrong !!

Bachchan is the brand ambassador of Gujarat Tourism department.

In his blog, he has written in January, "Off again to Gujarat tomorrow and into the second phase of the tourism campaign, which I must admit has turned out to be a magnificent success. The growth rate in tourism in Gujarat has been bigger and larger than the Government of India campaign Incredible India and that has made all those of us that were involved in the working of it, very proud.'

Bachchan had criticised for lending his name to Narendra Modi's Gujarat.

The couple's lawyer Satyaketu Singh countered the the CBI's arguments and said:

1. The murders could be the job of an outsider who had gained entry into the house. He argued that acquaintances of Hemraj may have gained entry into the house and later killed Aarushi when she tried to resist their intentions. Later, they may have killed Hemraj too, after he resisted Aarushi's murder.

2. He also denied the CBI's argument that the murder weapon was a golf stick. The CBI on Wednesday had said the injury marks of the two victims proved the use of a golf stick. In his arguments, Singh said that it was not possible to use a stick inside Aarushi's room which had little space and was cluttered, with a bed, a cupboard, a computer table and other accessories. The stick could have inflicted only a small injury of around 2cm and not bigger injury marks as claimed by the CBI, he added. He added that the possible murder weapon could be a "khukri', which could have been used to inflict injury because of its weight, and later to slash throats of the victims with its sharp edge.

3. Over the destruction of evidence, the lawyer said that the Talwars could have disposed of Hemraj's body, as Nupur's car was available and Rajesh's car was parked at the house of his in-laws' in the same housing society.

4. Hemraj's cell phone location was found to be somewhere in Punjab while the dentist couple were present at their house after the murders. It was not possible for them to move to Punjab to throw away Hemraj's mobile. He also refuted the circumstantial evidence against the dentist couple, saying the chain of events was not linked.

The CBI court in Ghaziabad has finally framed charges of murder, conspiracy and attempt to mislead the court against Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, the main accused in the murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.


Rajesh and Nupur Talwar will be tried for the murder of their daughter Aarushi and servant Hemraj. Rajesh Talwar will also be charged with destruction of evidence and misleading the probe. The formal charges will be filed tomorrow.

Rediff.com's Ganesh Nadar who is at the BJP's executive meet in Mumbai  says Gujarat CM Narendra Modi is expected to reach the city at 4.30 pm and the venue, approximately an hour later.

So all those heading to the airport or viceverca, get set for trafficjams.

Catch all the action at the BJP meet here.

In other news, in a U-turn, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today told the two-member inquiry commission probing the Adarsh housing society scam he is ready to appear before it on June 30. 

Chavan, an accused in the Adarsh case, also being probed by the CBI, had on May 22 sought exemption from appearance before the judicial panel, saying his evidence would have been relevant only on issues of ownership of the land on which the 31-storey building stands and whether it was reserved for Kargil widows and war heroes. The two issues have already been decided by the panel.

Tea makers will not sit back and relax as they see more and more Indian consumers turning to coffee, their rival beverage. Instead, they are planning a marketing blitzkrieg of their own.

It's not just that coffee retailers like Costa Coffee, Caf Coffee Day and Dunkin Donuts are committed to promote a coffee-drinking culture in this tea-loving country: Numbers suggest coffee is gradually catching up with tea.

More on the Wall Street Journal.

Calling for a united opposition to demand roll back in petrol price hike, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today asked people to stand together against the
government's move. 

"The Shiv Sena and NDA will start a nationwide movement against this hike. Even a call for Bharat Bandh on the issue will be acceptable," Thackeray said in his party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. 

Despite the UPA government hiking petrol prices 16 times in the last three years, people of the country elected the Congress, he remarked. "People should now wake up and bury the Congress. All opposition parties should unite and display public angst," Thackeray said. 

"The price hike has broken the back of the common man but petrol is filled in cars of Sonia Gandhi and her ministers with government funds. The common man has to buy all things on his own," he mentioned.

Guitar player and singer Phillip Phillips has won the American Idol talent show, with viewers casting a record number of votes. Phillips, 21, a shop worker from Leesburg, Georgia, was overcome with emotion as he ended the show with his first single, Home.

Read

@tweetae_ABHAY @PrabhuChawla Petrol in 70s. Vegetables in 60s. Rupee in 50s. Diesel in 40s. Death in 30s. Yup!    

@iamptk The Monk who sold his Ferrari knew about the petrol price hike!

@i_common_man I really love the way people are complaining abt petrol price Hike & effects on them ...d Aam aadmi ... Using I-Phone & Blackberry  

@karthik_s_r Aam Aadmi trending... We become celebrities only during the time of price rises :P

Petrol will be Rs 1.63 cheaper in Kerala after a sales tax cut. The Congress has asked state governments to cut tax on petrol. No diesel hike as of now.

'Starve us to death, that's the government plan'. Read the report on rediff.com.

J-K chief minister Omar Abdullah reacts to the Interlocutors Report:

@abdullah_omar Will take a few days to examine the report, discuss it with senior colleagues & then react. Thanks for your patience.

State department says there is 'no basis' for Shakil Afridi's 33-year sentence for his part in fake CIA vaccine drive. Read

@omar_quraishi Is it just me or the timing of Dr Shakeel Afridi's conviction is a bit too coincidental - right after an unsuccessful Chicago summit

Here's what's happening at the BJP conclave.

Actor John Travolta, who is fighting accusation of sexually assaulting male masseurs, is facing fresh  trouble as his old cross-dressing photos have surfaced. The 'Pulp Fiction' star appears in full drag in the photos published in National Enquirer where the 58-year-old actor is wearing a white dress, brown belt, fur stole, earrings and a necklace. The actor is also seen wearing full makeup, including thick black eyeliner, pink lipstick and a blonde wig pulledback into a ponytail,, the Daily Mail reported.

See 

Under the political component, the Interlocutors report deals with Centre-State relations and internal devolution of powers and suggests a road map listing confidence-building measures that includes review of Disturbed Areas Act and re-appraisal of application of controversial AFSPA.

On Centre-state relation, the report calls for review of all Central Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India extended to the state after 1952 Delhi agreement. 

"This does not mean a pure and simple return to the pre-1953 situation. The clock cannot be set back. Instead, the Group wants such a review to take into full account the changes that have taken place over the past six decades," the
report said.

The report, which contains the "roadmap to a political solution of the Kashmir issue", has been awaited for over six months. It was submitted by the three Centre-appointed interlocutors, noted journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and former Information Commissioner MM Ansari last October.

The J-K Report also recommends review of AFSPA.

The  J&K interlocutors report is out. It calls for:

-- A review of all Central Acts and Articles of Constitution extended to the state after the 1952 Delhi Agreement.

--  Jammu and Kashmir's status to be termed as 'special' as is the case with several states under Article 371.

--  If state government is dimsissed, Assembly elections should be held in 3 months.

-- For internal emergency, prior consultations with the state government is required.

-- No more Central laws and articles of Constitution of india to be extended to Jammu and Kashmir by Presidential order.

BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who was in the thick of controversy for his anti-Muslim hate speech during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections is undergoing an image makeover or so it seems.

Rediff.com's Prasanna Zore reports from the BJP's national executive at Mumbai.

A beaming Varun, who is in Mumbai to attend the meet said, "We are Amar, Akbar and Anthony", pointing towards himself, former Rajya Sabha MP S S Ahluwalia and BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, as photographers asked them to pose together.

Ahluwalia, fresh out of his defeat in the recently-held elections to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand because of party infighting in the state too seemed to be in his element as he burst out laughing following Varun's quip.

When this correspondent asked Varun who is who amongst the trio, he quipped "I'm Akbar, he (Ahluwalia) is Amar and he (Naqvi) is Anthony.

With days to go before the retirement of General V K Singh, Army Headquarters has issued a show-cause notice to a top Lt General who is tipped to be Army Chief in two years. This came two months after General V K Singh had recommended a CBI probe against the same officer, which was turned down by the government.

Read

Also see: I would like to be remembered as somebody who tried to change things. (Gen VK Singh's definitive interview with rediff.com)

A minute-by-minute update of all that is happening at the BJP conclave in Mumbai by our correspondent, Ganesh Nadar.

Read

Luke Pomersbach's family believes that he is the victim of a sting operation, as American national Zohal Hameed, who had alleged that the Royal Challengers Bangalore player had molested her at a five-star hotel in New Delhi, has dropped all charges.  

Hameed's lawyers said both parties have reached an out of court settlement.   RCB's Director Sidhartha Mallya tweeted late on Wednesday night: "So glad that all charges have been dropped and Luke can return Down Under A FREE MAN!'  

George Pomersbach, Luke's father said: "The fact of the matter is that Luke has been caught up in a definite scam or a sting, whatever you want to call it."

US national Zohal Hamid moves Delhi High Court seeking quashing of FIR against Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach in a molestation case.

Too little time to begin all over again, and too much time to continue in the same set ways. Into its fourth year, the second edition of the United Progressive Alliance government is in a make-or-break phase. 

Read the editorial on The Hindu.

The talk in BJP circles is that Modi had threatened to resign from the National Executive if Joshi was retained in the body where he is an invitee member.
Gadkari did not want to give any handle for Modi to stay away from the Mumbai meet, which is expected to pass a resolution seeking a change in BJP constitution giving a consecutive three year term to the party chief, sources said.

After a gap of six years, Joshi, who has been a former party general secretary, was asked by Gadkari to assist the party in the UP assembly polls. In 2005, he was forced to resign following a controversy over a CD purportedly showing him in poor light. 

This decision had not gone down well with Modi who has never seen Joshi eye-to-eye. Modi had all these years stiffly resisted moves to bring back Joshi, who was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak' nominee in the party in the position of general secretary (organisation).

Also read our 10:43 am post: The REAL story behind Sanjay Joshi's resignation

First visuals at the BJP National Executive meet show Sushma Swaraj, LK Advani, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley on the podium. The meet has just begun.

Gadkari says he will work together with Modi and the differences between the two have been resolved.

Apparently, Modi has agreed to attend the two-day meet after Nitin Gadkari spoke to him today. In fact, BJP leader Sanjay Joshi, the bete noire of the Gujarat chief minister, resignation ahead of the party national executive meeting, is seen as a move by the party president to broker peace with Narendra Modi.

Just in: Gujarat CM Narendra Modi will be attending the BJP's National Executive Meet in Mumbai, says the party's Mumbai unit president Raj Purohit.

Last week, a confident Purohit had said, "Modi is the member of the national executive and all the members have been invited. He is our esteemed leader and we are confident that he will come."

He said the two-day event will be a 'no-frills' affair due to severe drought situation in Maharashtra. Earlier, national executive meetings in Mumbai were held in five-star hotels. The conclave will be held this time at the Yeshwantrao Chavan Pratisthan, which is headed by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in South Mumbai.

Party president Nitin Gadkari also confirmed that Modi would be present.

A treat for readers on The Hindu. First, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, responds to columnist and senior journalist P Sainath's opinion piece: The austerity of the affluent. Read Ahluwalia's response.

Also see: The Riddler On The Roof  (Basically, everything you wanted to know about Montek)

The Home and Interior Secretaries of India and Pakistan began crucial two-day talks here today, with the discussions expected to focus on a relaxed visa
regime and the prosecution of the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks blamed on the Lashkar-e-Toiba. 

The Indian delegation led by Home Secretary R K Singh and the Pakistani team led by Interior Secretary Khwaja Siddique Akbar gathered at a hotel in the heart of Islamabad for the talks. The last round of talks between the Home and Interior Secretaries was held in New Delhi in March last year.

The Rupee continues to fall today, hitting another all-time low of 56.38 against the US dollar. Yesterday, the rupee crashed below the psychological level of 56 against the dollar to yet another all time low on heavy demand for the American currency from importers, especially oil refiners, amid foreign fund outflows and weak equities.

On Rediff.com: Rupee has fallen by over 202% vs US$ since 1990! Read

The government may now consider a hike in diesel and petrol prices as well. Yesterday, the government hiked the price of petrol by Rs 7.50 per litre.

Join the protest on Zara Bol.

Yesterday, writer Mahasweta Devi resigned as chairperson of an autonomous body for promoting Bengali literature, supposedly in protest against the manner of selecting the Vidyasagar award recipient.

The body, known as the Bangla Academy, falls under the information and cultural affairs  (I&CA) department, which is handled by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The award is named after 19th-century social reformer Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar.

Sources said the award committee, set up by Mahasweta Devi herself after becoming chairperson, proposed the names of Shibaji Bandopa-dhyay and Shankar Prasad Chakraborty for 2010, reports Hindustan Times.

The academy sent both the names to the I&CA department for approval.

A high-powered committee, set up for selecting the winner from proposals sent by various academies and comprising intellectuals and government officials, chose Bandopadhyay.

However, it remains unclear whether the committee consulted Mahasweta Devi before selecting Bandopadhyay.

Mahasweta Devi described the incident as the biggest humiliation in her career.

The Raman Magsaysay and Gyanpith award winner faxed her resignation to the chief ministers office at around 5pm on Wednesday.