Congress today ticked off party leader Manishanker Aiyar for his controversial remarks that the party would welcome Narendra Modi to sell tea at AICC meetings.        

 

"The party does not approve of the statement," Congress general secretary Ajay Maken, who is in charge of the media department, told PTI. Aiyar had mocked Modi's Prime Ministerial ambitions and said a place will be identified for the Gujarat Chief Minister to distribute tea here.        

 

"I promise you in 21st century Narendra Modi will never become the Prime Minister of the country. ...But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him," Aiyar had said at the venue of the AICC meeting in New Delhi.

Congress tonight set up jumbo Pradesh Election Committees for Delhi and Punjab giving representation to leaders from all groups in the faction ridden state units, seeking to keep pace with the decision to announce the names of candidates early.         

 

Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, AICC general secretaries Janardan Dwivedi, Ajay Maken, Delhi PCC chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, CLP leader Haroon Yusuf, party veteran and former Union Minister R K Dhawan are part of the 28-member panel.     

 

The committee also includes party MPs from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha Karan Singh, Sandeep Dikshit, Mahabal Mishra, Ramesh Kumar, Parvez Hashmi and former PCC chief JP Agrawal along with AICC secretaries Manish Chatrarth and Naseeb Singh.         

 

In the 24-member PEC of Punjab, state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa, CLP leader Sunil Jakhar, AICC general secretary Ambika Soni, former Chief Ministers Captain Amrinder Singh, Rajendra Kaur Bhattal and Union Ministers Manish Tewari, Preneet Kaur and Santosh Chaudhary have been made members.       

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kjeriwal has told CNN IBN that the AAP-led government will go ahead and expose the wrongdoings committed by the previous Congress government in the CWG case.   "Congress can withdraw support; we are not here for power,' Kejriwal dared.  

 

He also said that he wants to remain an 'aam aadmi', didnp;t even want to become chief minister, but if party wants he can consider contesting the Lok Sabha polls.  

Union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar's cremation is now over at Lodhi Road crematorium.   Minister of State for Home RPN Singh and Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan were present at the cremation.  

 

Meanwhile, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has now demanded a CBI inquiry into the case.

China's lunar probe mission, which made the first soft-landing on the Moon since 1976, has collected a large amount of space observation and exploration data, authorities said today.

The mission, comprising the lander Chang'e-3 and rover Yutu, was launched in December as part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme.

A moon-based optical telescope on the lander has observed lights from many celestial objects at near ultraviolet wavelengths and detected 23 stars, said a statement from the state administration of science, technology and industry for national defence.

Contrary to the recent trend of political activism of top some corporate figures who have joined the Aam Adami Party, Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw today ruled out joining any political party.

"I will not be a part of AAP and for that matter any other political party," she told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of a Biocon product here. Mazumdar-Shaw said said she would like herself to play the role of giving suggestions to political parties on good governance and economy.

Her reaction comes in the wake of established corporate figures Captain Gopinath, pioneeer of low cost airline in the country, and former Infosys Director V Balakrishnan joining AAP, as also some others.

Hitting back at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for calling BJP communal, party chief Rajnath Singh today accused the Congress of practising politics of dividing people along religious lines.

Singh also criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remarks that it would be "disastrous" if Narendra Modi became the PM, and said that it was his tenure which had been a disaster while Gujarat had become a model state under Modi.

"I want to remind Sonia Gandhi that it was Manmohan Singh who had said that Muslims have the first right on India's resources. If there is any party which takes decisions based on religious considerations, it is Congress. If there is any communal party, it is Congress," Singh said while speaking at the National Council meet of the BJP.

After being formally assigned to lead the campaign in the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi today held consultations with state leaders on the strategy ahead. Gandhi met AICC delegates from each state separately seeking to know about the issues that will play in the next Lok Sabha polls in their state and the strength of the organisation there.

The party is all set to begin the process of its ticket distribution exercise by holding meetings of newly-set screening committess to meet its plan for early declaration of candidates.

A number of meetings of the party's committee on alliance, manifesto and campaign strategy have already been held and some quick decisions on all these are expected soon.

Gandhi's consultations with the chiefs of Pradesh Congress Committees and District Congress Committees are also intended at incorporating the views and suggestions from the states on issues on which Congress will go to Lok Sabha polls in respective states.

The doctors at AIIMS have said that Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar's death is a case of unnatural sudden death and no poisoning have been found.

AIIMS forensic head Dr Sudhir Gupta said, "The samples for toxicological analysis have ruled out any poison. This is a case of unnatural sudden death."

The hunt for a suitable residence for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal finally comes to an end with Urban Development Ministry allotting him a three-bedroom house at Tilak Lane in the Lutyen's zone.

The Directorate of Estates has allotted a ground floor house C-II/23, at Tilak Lane, a type VI house, to Kejriwal, sources said. The corner house with three bedrooms, drawing, dining, two servant quarters and a common garage near the Patiala House court is spread across about 1,600 square feet area with a lawn and community park nearby.

The Delhi government had made a request for a suitable accommodation in Central Delhi for its chief minister. Though the Delhi government has a few bungalows in its possession at DDU Marg and Shamnath Marg, Kejriwal has preferred for a house in the central Delhi given his Gole Market constituency in the area.

According to sources, the TMC will nominate actor Mithun Chakraborty for Rajya Sabha seat.

Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti, indicted by a court for "tampering of evidence" in a case he appeared as a defence lawyer, has informed the Bar Council of Delhi that he intends to surrender his licence to practice law.

Murari Tiwari, Secretary of Bar Council of Delhi, confirmed that Bharti's application was received last evening and the lawyer's body has asked for his enrollment certificate which is issued when a person is granted the licence to practice law.

"Right now by way of his application, received last evening, he has informed us that he intends to surrender his licence. The process would be complete when he hands over his enrollment certificate, which we have asked for. As soon as his enrollment certificate is received, his licence would be put in a suspended state," Tiwari said.

India Today reports: A day after Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Minister of State for Human Resources Development Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in a Delhi hotel room soon after a Twitter war with Pakistan journalist Mehr Tarar, India Today Online is in possession of an email that had been sent by the scribe to the minister.

Read the full story here

US President Barack Obama has signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill that puts conditions on continuation of American aid to Pakistan.

"Goodness gracious, that is a big piece of business. That is a big bill," Obama said as he signed the bill yesterday that funds the federal government through the end of September.

The 1,582-page bill passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate requires a certification from the Secretary of State and the Defence Secretary that Pakistan is co-operating with the US in counterterrorism efforts against the Haqqani Network, Quetta Shura Taliban, Lashkar e-Tayiba, Jaish-e- Mohammed, al-Qaeda, and other domestic and foreign terrorist organisations.

In a setback to Maharashtra's former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, a special court today rejected the CBI's plea to drop his name from the list of accused in the Adarsh scam case.

"The CBI's plea stands rejected," CBI court judge S G Dighe said, dismissing the plea. The judge said even though Governor K Sankaranarayanan had rejected CBI's plea for sanction to prosecute Chavan, he could be tried under the Prevention of Corruption act as he has been accused of criminal misconduct.

The judge will pass a detailed order later in the day. In the course of arguments, Special Public Prosecutor Bharat Badami said the CBI would be "very happy" to prosecute the former Chief Minister but "our hands are tied".

The funeral procession of Dr Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin on Saturday began from his Malabar Hill residence in Mumbai, where lakhs of mourners gathered to pay tributes to the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community amid tight security arrangements.

The procession, which moved at a snail pace commenced around 10 am from Saifee Mahal, where community members converged in huge numbers for the final journey of the 102-year-old leader, who will be laid to rest at Raudat Tahera mausoleum at Bhendi Bazar later in the day.

A team of doctors at AIIMS have begun post-mortem on the body of Sunanda Pushkar, sources have said.

More details are awaited.

Telegraph reports: "It's a personal loss. I will never get that call from her again.

"The first time I saw her was in December 2007, when someone in her family had called me to see Mrs Sen. I was dumbfounded when I got the phone call and initially couldn't believe it.

Read the full article here

A 41-year-old Mississippi man has pleaded guilty to sending poison-laced threatening letters to US President Barack Obama and other officials. James Everett Dutschke admitted he sent poisoned letters to Obama, US Senator Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge.

Dutschke is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Police initially arrested a local Elvis impersonator in the case but later determined Dutschke had framed him. In the plea agreement, Dutschke agreed to serve a 300 month prison sentence, the Justice Department said Friday.

His sentenced is scheduled in about 60 days. According to court documents, Dutschke developed a scheme to frame another individual by mailing threatening letters. As part of the scheme, he used the Internet to research how to produce and use ricin.

Sanjoy Roy producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, told rediff.com when asked about the absence of Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, said, " All the events have other speakers as well, we'll manage."

Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, whose wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead on Friday night, was discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences after he suffered a "cardiac condition".

Doctors said that his condition was stable now. Fifty-seven-year-old Tharoor was rushed to the hospital at around 3 am after he complained of severe chest pain, anxiety and palpitation, sources at the AIIMS said

The Union minister was admitted to the ICU of the cardiothoracic centre of the AIIMS and a number of investigations including ECG have been carried out on him.

A US judge here has granted Manhattan's top prosecutor Preet Bharara time till January 31 to file his opposition to the motion submitted by Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade seeking dismissal of the indictment against her on visa fraud charges.

Khobragade's lawyer Daniel Arshack had on January 14 filed a 13-page motion in US District Court on 39-year-old diplomat's behalf seeking dismissal of the indictment, termination of conditions of her bail and of any "open" arrest warrants or requests for her extradition over the charges.

India-born Bharara wrote to US District Judge Shira Scheindlin yesterday seeking January 31 as the deadline to file the government's opposition brief and permission that the response be of up to 25 pages in length. Arshack said that the prosecution should be given only 14 days time till January 28 to file its reponse to his motion.

Arguing that "a prompt resolution" of the case is "essential," Arshack said he does not agree with the prosecution seeking three more days till January 31 to file their response.

Union Minister Shashi Tharoor was hospitalised to the AIIMS in New Delhi last night, hours after his wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a 5 star hotel in the city.

He had complained of chest pain and uneasiness last night.

Sunanda, who was upset over an alleged extra-marital affair between her minister husband and a Pakistani journalist, was found dead in a five-star hotel room which police suspect may be a case of suicide.

Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar found dead in Delhi hotel

What the hell. Sunanda. Oh my God, tweets Mehr Tarar

Will go smiling: Sunanda Pushkar tweeted

Sunanda death: Hotel staff quizzed, CCTV video, call details under scanner

Rahul V2.0 tears into BJP, says democarcy not rule by one man