Timeline Refresh
Delhi Congress leader Haroon Yusuf, met Jung around 3 pm today. He said, "Congress's stand has been clear. We are for fresh polls. People in Delhi are suffering but AAP and BJP just want to be in power."
AAP's Arvind Kejriwal has now met Jung after saying he wouldn't till Jung reveals the BJP's stand on the issue. "I would be grateful if you could tell us what is their "formal" stand on this issue," a letter by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal addressed to Jung said.
"We have decided in a meeting this afternoon to allow the general public to come and watch the flag-lowering ceremony," Punjab Rangers spokesman Maj Shahid Abbas said.
"Since we have cleared off the blast site after collecting the forensic evidence, there was no point in closing the Parade Avenue for the public," he told PTI.
Earlier, India had said that at the request of Pakistan Rangers, there will be no beating retreat ceremony at Wagah Border for three days from today. Officials said the changed plan to allow the ceremony had been communicated to the BSF by the Rangers.
B S Gnanadesikan, who resigned as Tamil Nadu state Congress chief, tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com what is wrong with the party in the state.
Here's how bad it was:
Out of running: Congress candidates lost their security deposit -- by failing to poll at least a sixth of the votes cast -- in 142 of the 288 constituencies.
These 142 are distributed across the state.In 32 other seats, the Congress candidates ended up third, fourth, fifth or sixth. In another 26, the Congress lost by margins between 35,000 and 70,000 votes.
Together, these three findings suggest the party wasn't even in the race in at least 200 constituencies. Read more
Gite, a former MNS MLA, said, "I, Atul Chandak and other party office-bearers from Nashik have resigned, taking moral responsibility for the defeat of the party in the recently held Assembly elections."
Gite and another MNS candidate, Nitin Bhosale, lost the election from the city. Meanwhile, Vijay Sane, BJP's in-charge for north Maharashtra, claimed that 15 to 16 MNS corporators were in touch with him for possible defection.
Dikshit had earlier criticized Robert Vadra for brusque behavior with the media.
Pic: Yusuf on his way to meet LG Najeeb Jung.
Prasad, who is also minister of Telecommunications and IT told media persons in Patna. He was here to attend a function of the party.
He said that the Congress has never made an honest attempt to bring back black money despite being in power for decades.
Prasad said that the Narendra Modi government believes in a transparent approach to black money.
"We will fulfill the promises made to the people and the country," he said.
MI Khan/Patna
Rediff.com's MI Khan reporting from Patna said Hussain said, "Main is tarah ke dhamki se darne wala nahin aur nahi ghabrata hoon, BJP aur Modi ki wakalat karta rahunga (I don't care about threats and I will continue to speak in favour of the BJP and Modi)."
Shahnawaz,,who is the party's national spokesperson reacted to threat calls from a phone number from Dubai telling him to stop praising Modi.
Shahnawaz,who arrived in Patna to attend a function of the party, said those who threatened him were both anti-nationals and cowards.
'I never get stressed over such threats because I have to work for the party and the country," he added.
Shahnawaz received two calls on his official mobile number on Saturday night while he was returning from Patna.
The caller threatened to kill him if he did not stop praising Modi. Following this, he filed a complaint at the Parliament Street police station on Sunday morning.
The BJP leader was defeated in the last Lok Sabha polls from the Bhagalpur Parliamentary seat in Bihar despite the Modi wave -- a huge setback for him and the party.
In the deadliest attack on security forces, Maoists trapped and gunned down 75 security personnel during Operation Green Hunt, an offensive against the Left-wing extremists, in April 2010 in the thick forests of Mukrana in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh.
The incident took place between 6 am and 7 am, when nearly 80 personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police were returning after opening a road for the troops, to begin an operation against Maoists.
While 74 of those killed were CRPF personnel, including a deputy and an assistant commandant, one was a head constable of the district police.
Will Tamil Nadu Congress leader GK Vasan's departure from the party set an example for disaffected party members? Senior Congress leader Rajiv Shukla is believed to be getting close to union minister Arun Jaitley, say sources and shares a bond Prime Minister Modi as well. But then, many Congress leaders do as well, so there may be really nothing to it.
Sonia Gandhi may have to appoint a new Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha since Ghulam Nabi Azad is retiring and he may not get renominated to the upper house. Azad is leader of opposition in the Upper House.
The fight for the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha will intensify between Anand Sharma and Digvijaya Singh, it is beleived.
Yet another name that is being considered is AK Antony.
If there is no leader of opposition, the selection committee can note that the post is vacant. As per rules, any party needs to bag at least 10% of the total seats for its leader to claim the status of the leader of the opposition. Though having the largest contingents among the opposition, Congress with 44 members falls short of the requirement.
Naidu will first hold a meeting with leader of the Congress in the 16th Lok Sabha -- Mallikarjuna Kharge -- and Sonia Gandhi.
On the anvil are also meetings with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sudip Mukhopadhyay and BJD leaders.
This is a new style of approach of the BJP government (basically, Prime Minister Modi's idea) to sort out differences at the initial stage so that there is no ruckus or walkouts in Parliament.
Read more
Sources say that Vasan is all set to expose the workings of the All India Congress Committee, especially two close confidants of Rahul Gandhi who were acting against him, in the days to come.
Watch this space.
According to sources, Gen Singh was to address an hour-long session on "security and defence policies of the country" at 11am on Sunday, but he could not make it to the venue in time. Read more on what happened.
A Guardian report rightly points out that the development underscores the Western fallacy of creating a "moderate' proxy coalition to fight the ground war against the ISIS and the Syrian regime simultaneously.
Read MK Bhadrakumar's column right here.
LG of Delhi,
New Delhi
Dear Sir,
I have just received your letter inviting me for a discussion at 2 pm to LG Secretariat. It is already 12.50 pm. I already have prior commitments, which I am unable to reschedule despite my best efforts. I would be grateful if you could give us sometime late in the evening today or anytime tomorrow. In any case, you already know our stand on this issue.
In the meanwhile, I am sure you would already have had a discussion with BJP, which is the single largest party. I would be grateful if you could tell us what is their "formal' stand on this issue.
With best regards
Yours faithfully,
(Arvind Kejriwal)
"I burned his genitals once, he screamed. I did it again, he shuddered. When I did it the third time..he did not move. He was dead. I did not want to kill him," the 36-year-old father has reportedly confessed.
Read more
Vasan's decision to quit the party comes as yet more criticism of Rahul Gandhi's perceived inaction of taking over the reins of the party.
Vasan's break away from the party depletes the ranks of the Congress close on the heels of its crushing defeat in the state Assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra.
Vasan, whose father G.K. Moopanar had floated the Tamil Manilaa Congress in Tamil Nadu in 1996, was angered by the decision of the top leadership of the Congress to replace state unit chief B.S. Gnanadesikan with EVKS Elangovan.
Congress leader and ex-Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit appeared critical of Vadra's behaviour and said basic civility should be maintained while dealing with the media.
Dikshit, however, added that he was expressing his personal views and not in the capacity of Congress spokesperson.
JP Aggarwal, of the Congress, reacts saying: What Sandeep Dikshit has said may be his personal opinion, I don't agree with him.
BJP's Parvesh Verma: LG has called all parties for a meet after which you will get to know what party's stand is.
The question one must ask is: why it has been so, and what has not been done to change the situation for the better? Otherwise, Swachh Bharat will only remain a slogan, like Indira Gandhi's 'Garibi Hatao.' She was very upset when I once asked her in all humility what exactly she wanted to hatao (eradicate), what she wanted to replace it with, and how. Read
In Bawana, Hindu, Muslims colonies are separated by a drain and people from the minority community are expected to take out the procession on Muharram from the Hindu colony, whose residents are opposed to it.
Read
The BJP on Sunday attacked Robert Vadra saying his "inappropriate" behaviour towards a journalist was a result of frustration and he must realise that the country is no longer ruled by the Gandhi family, even as the Congress downplayed the incident.
Vadra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, had on Saturday lost his cool and reportedly pushed aside the microphone of a reporter at a five-star hotel gym when he was quizzed about his controversial land deals in Haryana.
A livid Vadra was seen on a video footage shown on TV channels asking the reporter four times as to whether he was serious about his land deal question.
"It was the sheer frustration of Robert Vadra that became manifested as an inappropriate behaviour on a journalist. Vadra was the one who had called India a Banana Republic and we Indians as mango people but it is time that we make him realise that India is no more a Banana Republic which was ruled by the first family of the Congress," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
On Thursday, taking note of Jung's efforts to break the deadlock, the Supreme Court adjourned hearing on government formation in Delhi to November 11.
The apex court said that it would wait and watch - till the next hearing on November 11 - for the next step as there is a positive move to form a government in Delhi.
The court also noted the possibility of a minority government being formed in Delhi, saying that there are times a party with less numbers can form a government.
The dead include men, women, children and Pakistan Rangers troopers. Most of them were returning from the Wagah border retreat ceremony.
BSF officials at Attari border in Punjab said that the blast was heard at a distance of nearly two kilometres.
After Sena pramukh Uddhav Thackeray was persuaded to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Devendra Fadnavis as the BJP's first Chief Minister in Maharashtra, the two parties were expected to conclude a power-sharing agreement quickly. Read
The report was submitted almost six months after the apex court had asked Indian Police Service officer BB Mishra and the police departments in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to assist the investigation.
The next hearing in the case is on November 10.
"Brittany chose to make a well thought out and informed choice to Die With Dignity in the face of such a terrible, painful, and incurable illness," a post on her website said.
"She moved to Oregon to pass away in a little yellow house she picked out in the beautiful city of Portland." In its Facebook post, Compassion & Choices, an end-of-life choice advocacy group that has been working closely with Maynard, said she "passed peacefully in her bed surrounded by close family and loved ones."
Read the full report here
Extending its record-run, the 30-share index spurted by another 103.99 points, or 0.37 per cent, to quote at new lifetime high of 27,969.82 in early trade today, breaching its previous intra-day high of 27,894.32 touched on Friday.
The gauge had gained 1,112.93 points in the past four sessions. On similar lines, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved up by 28.40 points, or 0.34 per cent, to trade at new high of 8,350.60, surpassing its previous intra-day high of 8,330.75 reached on Friday.
The report will be submitted almost six months after the apex court had asked Indian Police Service officer BB Mishra and the police departments in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to assist the investigation.
The Supreme Court had then felt the need to dig deeper for information on the scam after the Mudgal panel's preliminary report had mentioned the names of 13 important cricket officials and players in a sealed envelope, against whom allegations ranging from corruption to conflict of interest had been made.
On Sunday, Fadnavis travelled the economy class along with his wife and daughter, NDTV reports.
The CM was travelling to Nagpur on a Jet Airways flight. And he had not only opted for a passenger airliner bypassing chartered flights, sources close to him said he also paid for his tickets.
Read the full report here
He expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and sent prayers for the injured. "Terror attack in Pakistan near Wagah border is shocking," Modi tweeted. "I strongly condemn such a dastardly act of terrorism," he added.
A delegation of the association and family members led by Ramanathapuram MP Anwar Raja of AIADMK would meet the CM and request him to take steps to get the death sentence set aside and bring back the fishermen, officials said.
After the court verdict on October 30, the fishermen resorted to sporadic violence damaging buses and the railway track and blocking the road traffic.
At least 55 people, including 11 women and three security personnel, were killed and nearly 200 injured when a suicide attacker detonated a powerful bomb at Wagah in Pakistan, just after the popular flag-lowering ceremony at the main Indo-Pak land border crossing.
BSF Deputy Inspector General RPS Jaswal said that immediately after the blast, a high alert was issued keeping in view the security aspects on the Indo-Pak border. He said that the entire visitors' gallery on the Indian side had become vacant much before the blast that occurred across the border in Pakistan.
He was 64.His last rites will be performed in his native place in Ahmednagar district tomorrow, family sources said.
Amrapurkar had won two Filmfare awards. In 1984, he won the award for the best supporting actor for Ardh Satya and in 1991, the best villain trophy for his portrayal of a ruthless eunuch in Sadak.
His other works include Aankhen, Ishq, Coolie No 1 and Gupt: The Hidden Truth.