New Delhi, December 03: Hitting back at the Bharatiya Janata Party for demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe into the 2G spectrum allocation, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said it had no right to speak on the issue as the Tehelka sting operation had earlier exposed its party president taking a bribe on camera.
Shimla, December 03: Himachal Pradesh state secretariat of the CPI(M) has decided to observe December 6 to 13 as ‘Anti Corruption week’.
A massive campaign will be launched to expose the corrupt deals of the UPA-2 government at the Centre and the BJP government of the state, Tikender Singh Panwar Member, State Secretariat of party said in a press statement yesterday.
New Delhi, December 03: On a day when BJP claimed greater Opposition unity on the issue of 2G spectrum scam, Congress today hit out at the party accusing it of doing “no better than a drama company” on corruption.
Giving examples of corruption cases during NDA regime, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that in none of these cases the then central government had offered any Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe and there was “no CBI, no ED, no JPC” to investigate the matter.
Mumbai, December 03: Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray has described as “height of stupidity” Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s “love for Pakistan”.
In an editorial in today’s issue of party mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray said the actor who considers himself a ‘badshah’ has been shown his place by the Sena by protesting against his participation in an entertainment show to raise funds for Pakistani flood victims in London on November 28.
“He came to his senses and cancelled his participation,” Thackeray claimed.
Srinagar, December 02: Opposition People’s Democratic Party today accused the ruling National Conference of pursuing oppressive policies in Jammu and Kashmir and pushing the youth to another round of militancy.
“Gun culture erupted in the year 1989, just two years after formation of NC government in the state following the infamous rigged elections. Similar situation has emerged in Kashmir valley these days as this government has been pushing the youth against the wall due to its oppressive policies,” PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement here.
Bangalore, December 02: Karnataka Information Technology Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu and his son Katta Jagadish Naidu have been slapped with charges of forgery, cheating and creating false documents in a multi-crore rupee land deal scandal.
Along with them, a police complaint has also been filed against nine others, Karnataka Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) N. Santosh Hegde, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, told reporters here Thursday.
The senior Naidu is the first member of the land-scam hit Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s team to be named in a formal police complaint.
New Delhi, December 02: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is dealing with the allegations of corruption against its chief minister in Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, senior leader L.K. Advani said Thursday, adding he was “very much concerned” about the issue.
Addressing a press conference here, Advani said he was “very much concerned with what had happened”.
Allegations of land grabbing and nepotism have been levelled against Yeddyurappa.
“We are dealing with it. We will deal with it,” Advani said, adding that there was no comparison with the 2G spectrum scam.
–Agencies
Patna, December 02: A man in Bihar was so happy at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s return to power that he chopped off a finger as an offering to god – for the second time in five years.
Anil Sharma, a resident of Ghoshi in Jehanabad district, cut off his finger at a temple.
“I chopped off a finger and offered it to god as I had vowed I would do so if Nitish Kumar returned to power for a second term,” Sharma, who is not well off, told IANS on telephone Thursday.
He had done the same when Nitish Kumar came to power in November 2005.
Kolkata, December 01: Viewers may be excused if they mistake the familiar figure in a plain Dhaniakhali sari and rubber sandals for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
But Ruma Chakraborty is just a look-alike of Bengal’s fiery leader and is all set to appear as Mamata’s screen avatar.
The theatre actress will portray the mercurial character with a life full of highs and lows in a full-length feature film titled Didi, which will go on floors on December 4.
Kolkata, November 30: Claiming there was no alternative to the Left Front in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said the state would not survive without the alliance.
“There is no alternative to the Left in West Bengal. If the Left goes, the state would not survive. It is either the Left or death,” Bhattacharjee said at a rally here.
Reactionary forces, communal forces and some foreign forces did not want the Leftists to remain in power in the state, he said.
Lucknow, November 29: Denying that she was trying to ape her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati asserted Monday that providing good governance was her goal right from day one.
“It is absolutely wrong to assume that taking the cue from Nitish Kumar, I have suddenly started devoting attention to issues related to good governance,” Mayawati told a hastily convened press conference here.
New Delhi, November 29: Abhishek Singhvi has been reinstated as a Congress spokesperson after a gap of over one and half month since the party took him off as its public face following a controversy over his appearance in a lottery case in Kerala High Court.
AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said “he (Singhvi) has told the party leadership that it was an error of judgement on his part. He has now been called back as party spokesperson. He will hold a press conference tomorrow.”
In the first week of October, Singhvi was barred from holding media briefings.
Hyderabad, November 28: Asserting that the BJP would continue to insist on a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum allocation issue, senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu today said it is the government’s responsibility to resolve the stalemate in Parliament.
“The government is adamant on JPC. Adamance and arrogance are not helpful in democracy. Better the ruling party accept the JPC and end this stalemate. The ruling party alone will be held responsible for the present stalemate if it continues beyond tomorrow,” Naidu told reporters here.
Bhopal, November 28: BJP veteran L K Advani is among a host of senior party leaders coming here tomorrow to take part in Karyakarta Gaurav Diwas Sammelan to mark Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s five years in office.
“Advani today gave his consent to the state unit to attend the function at the Jamboree maiden,” Madhya Pradesh BJP President Prabhat Jha told reporters.
Besides Advani, BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, former BJP president Rajnath Singh and other party leaders will take part in the Sammelan.
Congress calls it ‘Dhoka’ with people of state
Bhopal, November 28 (Pervez Bari): The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), in Madhya Pradesh is in self-proclaiming mood and is celebrating the five year uninterrupted rule of its poster boy Shivraj Singh Chouhan on November 29 as “Karyakarta Gaurav Diwas” (Workers Pride Day) to mark the occasion. It is said that it is for the first time that a chief minister of BJP has completed its full term of five years.
Kolkata, November 28: Blaming a section of party workers for the debacle of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in recent elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Sunday asked the cadres to shun arrogance as this would further alienate the common people from the party.
New Delhi, November 28: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Sunday blamed the government’s “utter lack of political will” to check corruption for the around Rs.70 lakh crores ($1.4 trillion) of Indian wealth lying stashed in foreign banks still not being returned.
The senior parliamentarian, in his blog, also favoured India ratifying the UN convention against corruption.
Quoting the Swiss Bankers Association, Advani said Indians have “topped the list of black money depositors at the famous Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS)”.
Indore, November 28: Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today held Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav responsible for his party’s debacle in Bihar Assembly elections.
“We had to pay a price in the Bihar polls because of Lalu. Congress in Bihar had twice supported Lalu to form government in that state in past to keep BJP out of power. Due to this we suffered the loss,” Singh told reporters here.
Ahmedabad, November 28: Slamming the Congress for refusing the Opposition’s demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam, BJP today said its demand is legitimate and the party would stick to it.
“Congress is running away from the JPC and we have decided to stick to our demand. It has been three weeks now the Parliament is not functioning,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here.
Patna, November 28: Abdul Bari Siddiqui was Sunday unanimously elected leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) legislature party in Bihar.
Bari was elected at a meeting of the newly elected party legislators. RJD chief Lalu Prasad was also present, party leaders said.
RJD state president Bari won from the Alamnagar assembly constituency in the just-concluded polls.
Bari is considered close to Lalu Prasad and is likely to be elected the leader of the opposition in the assembly.
The RJD won 22 seats and its ally Lok Janshakti Party won 3 seats.
Patna, November 28: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Sunday said that the party will review its rout in the October-November 2010 Bihar assembly polls where it won less then half the seats than it secured in 2005.
“The RJD will review its rout at a meeting of party workers and leaders here this week,” Lalu Prasad said at a press conference.
He said that RJD will come out with cause of its worst rout in one and half decades. “Lets wait and watch, RJD will review it and share with media,” he said.
New Delhi, November 27: As the war of nerves in Parliament on whether ‘to have or not to have’ a JPC on the 2G-Raja spectrum scam continues, the Congress MPs decided to shame the Opposition by forgoing their daily allowance as no work is taking place following disruptions.
The winter session of Parliament failed to transact any substantive business for the 11th eleventh day on Friday. When the session is on, a fully functioning Parliament approximately costs the taxpayer a whopping Rs 7 crore a day.
Lucknow, November 26: Sonia Gandhi should pay attention to her own party that was “full of scams”, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said Friday while hitting out at the Congress president for her remarks on “rampant corruption” in the state.
In a statement issued a day after Gandhi’s rally in Allahabad, Mayawati lashed out at her for sweeping remarks against the working of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in Uttar Pradesh.
Patna, November 26: Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar was Friday sworn in as chief minister for a second consecutive term at the historic Gandhi Maidan here. The oath of office was administered by Governor Devanand Konwar in the presence of thousands of people.
Nitish Kumar, who is Bihar’s 32nd chief minister, steered the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to an incredible victory — winning 206 of 243 seats.
–IANS
Chandigarh, November 26: Hurriyat Conference leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bilal Lone were today heckled, allegedly by activists of right-wing Hindu organisations and Kashmiri Pandits during a seminar here after which 21 people were arrested for rioting.
There was commotion when the activists from among the audience charged at Farooq, who was seated on the dais along with Lone. At that time, a person, believed to be a journalist, had got up to put a question to Mirwaiz who was speaking.