Timeline Refresh
The two submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Sources say that the two ministers resigned after Congress President Sonia met Dr Singh and asked him to force the two to put in their papers.
The law minister is under fire for asking to vet a Central Bureau of Investigation report on its coal investigation before it was submitted to the Supreme Court, while the railway minister is caught in a controversy involving his nephew, who is under arrest for allegedly accepting bribe to organise a plum posting in the Railways.
"The event has been organised by NRIs and particularly the people of Gujarat-origin living in USA as part of Gujarat Day celebrations," an official statement here said.
Earlier in the evening, as television channels reported that he was sacked, Bansal was non-committal on the issue.
"We have not yet received any call from the kidnappers. I ask the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) to help the police trace my son," Gilani told reporters.
The march was stopped near Shaheed Park and four members were allowed to go to Supreme Court to submit their petition seeking action against officials and political leaders whom they claimed were involved in the riots.
"It has been long 29 years but we didn't get justice. The government should answer how and where the last rites of 5,000riot victims were done. Whether postmortem was conducted or not?" All India Sikh Conference president Gurcharan Singh Babbar said.
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has resigned, TV reports state. The decision came after Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and reportedly asked him to ensure Bansal resigns with immediate affect, following which the minister rushed to his office to clear pending files.
Union Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge is likely to replace Bansal as the railways minister, sources say.
Sonia Gandhi reportedly told Dr Singh that action against Bansal should have been taken long bavk, sources add.
Railway Minister Pawan Bansal has reached Rail Bhavan after two days and is reportedly clearing files. Speculation is rife that the minister may be on his way out, TV channels report.
Bansal is under fire over a bribery scandal involving his nephew, who received payments from a Railway Board officer in return for a promotion.
As the scandal put a big question mark on the future of Railway Minister P K Bansal, CBI sources said today that over 1,000 phone calls were intercepted during the two-month long surveillance on arrested member of Railway Board Mahesh Kumar and Bansal's nephew Vijay Singla.
The sources said these calls were among four key players in the scandal--Kumar, Singla and middlemen Manjunath and Sandeep Goyal.
Sources in Congress tell Rediff.com that Mallikarjuna Kharge another aspirant to the post would be given the railway portfolio at the centre. G Parameshwara who was also opposing Siddaramaiah has been assured of a cabinet portfolio, as well.
The Congress has also decided to make a Lingayat leader as the Deputy Chief Minister. The name of the Deputy CM came up after some leaders from the Lingayat community demanded good representation in the wake of the community voting in large numbers for the Congress.
-- Vicky Nanjappa
Siddarmaiah will be the next chief minister of Karnataka after a majority of Congress legislators selected him to be their leader. In fact, it was almost a no-brainer despite there being many aspirants to the post.
The meeting commenced at around 12.30 pm and although the Congress claims that it was a unanimous decision there were at least 30 MLAs who were not in favour of Siddarmaiah.
However, the majority view was taken into consideration and a decision made, which will be announced in New Delhi. The AICC observers would submit the report and minutes of the meeting to the high command who would make this decision public in a day or two.
-- Vicky Nanjappa
Subhodeep: The petition by #SanjayDutt was frivolous in the first place. Give me more time to earn money before I go to jail for acquiring arms.
Rohan Saraf: SanjayDutt stop crying & making pleas, it is time u accepted ur crime, serve ur jail sentence with honor, try and come back a better man
Subhodeep: Good decision by Supreme Court to reject #SanjayDutt's petition. It would have set a wrong precedent in the country.
Gautam Trivedi: It's amusingly ironical that Bollywood Star Sanjay Dutt & Star Trek Into Darkness are trending next to each other.
Rohan: Sanjay Dutt & Pawan Bansal waiting for the same train. Sanjay Dutt has a confirmed ticket. Bansal trying desperately to cancel reservation.
Kiran Naik: How did U feel with AK 47 in UR hand . did U feel like a man. Now U weep like a WOman. Why. & why evade arrest. WHY?Sanjay Dutt
Geetika's mother was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her house in Ashok Vihar area on February 15, 2013. Police registered a case and booked Kanda and Chhadha, already in judicial custody in the Geetika Sharma murder case, under Section 306 (abetment of suicide).
In her suicide note, Anuradha said she was under depression ever since her daughter's death and blamed Kanda and his aide Aruna Chaddha for Geetika's death.
The 53-year-old film star has already spent about 18 months in jail and has to serve three and a half years more. He has to surrender by May 15.
Dutt had sought a review of the March 21 judgement upholding his conviction under the Arms Act and sentencing him to five years in jail in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.
And while on family, Veerappa Moily's daughter is a youth Congress leader considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi. She has been cooking the best Karnataka cuisine -- all vegetarian. Rahul Gandhi has been gorging on her hot, fresh, idlis and
Away from culinary matters, junior ministers Sachin Pilot, RPN Singh, Jatin Prasada have been meeting regularly and analysing the future of the UPA. They want to avoid the cameras and debates in TV studios till such time that the Bansal-Ashwani issues are sorted out.
In a letter addressed to militant commanders, the Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud issued a directive to carry out widespread attacks across the country on May 11.
In the letter dated May 1, Mehsud told the commanders: "I will keep control of the attacks in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan while you should cover Sindh and Punjab." "
We don't accept the system of infidels which is called democracy," Mehsud wrote. He urged the commanders to target election candidates, describing them as agents of an "infidel system."
"I am sending a list of attacks and the modus operandi, along with a separate list of fidayeen (suicide bombers)," wrote Mehsud. The letter listed targets in Punjab and Sindh, The Express Tribune reported. In an earlier letter sent to the media, Mehsud had said that his group was focused on wiping out democracy by hindering the polls.
The veteran actor was not keeping well since sometime. "He is better than before. He is fine," Sunil said. When asked if the award came late, he said, "We don't want to get into all this."
Pran has acted in more than 350 films in a career spanning six-decades, giving memorable performances in movies like 'Milan', 'Madhumati', 'Kashmir Ki Kali' and 'Upkaar'. Such was the magic of his unique on-screen villainy that people stopped naming their children 'Pran' at the height of his fame. He ruled the industry from 1969 to 1982.
The stage is also set for Veerappa Moily as the frontrunner for the chief minister's position, while another CM hopeful, Siddaramaiah may be made Speaker of the Assembly. There may also be three deputy chief ministers.
A bench headed by Justice R M Lodha asked the Centre to consider all the objections raised by various parties pertaining to the mega steel plant and take a decision. The court was hearing cross appeals filed by the state government and a mine and mineral company challenging the Orissa High Court's order on the issue of iron ore mines.
More of that on the Hindu.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, considered close to the party high command, gave fresh thrust to Scindia's potential candidacy last week.
"I have no doubt in my mind that Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is the front-runner for the post of the Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh if the party wins this year's Assembly elections," Singh said recently while talking to reporters in Gwalior.
However, Singh, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, said that Scindia cannot be declared as the chief ministerial candidate as the Congress did not have a tradition of doing so. Later, Scindia had said at Ashoknagar that he was not in the race for the post. "I am an ordinary worker of the Congress and I do not think that I am in the race for the Chief Ministership," Scindia had said.
During the meeting, Khurshid sought to make existing mechanisms more effective to respond with greater urgency in dealing with border violations. Khurshid told Indian media in Beijing after his talks on Thursday that China has not yet given any reason for the recent intrusion in Ladakh, an episode that had cast a shadow over bilateral ties.
Despite Union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal's claim that he had no financial links with the companies owned by his kin, documents show that he had taken a Rs 15-lakh loan in 2011 from Theon Pharmaceuticals -- a firm owned by his wife Madhu and sons Amit and Manish - for a modest interest rate of 3%. Bansal had paid the interest amount of Rs 46,357 incurred in financial year 2011-12, documents submitted by Theon to the registrar of companies revealed. Read the full story here.
Read the IE editorial: UPA must acknowledge responsibility
In their plea, the dentist couple had sought the adjournment on the ground that they had to approach the Supreme Court with a Special Leave Petition seeking deposition of 14 persons as court witnesses, including Arun Kumar, who was Joint Director of the CBI in 2008 and led the initial probe in the sensational double murder.
Special CBI judge Shyam Lal had, however, rejected the defence counsel's plea and ordered to record the statements of the Talwar couple, who are the main accused.