News update

In the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a comfortable majority, winning 282 of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha by itself and 336 seats together with its allies in the   National Democratic Alliance  (NDA). The victory not only meant a defeat for the incumbent Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), reducing it to 60 seats of which the Congress got 44, but also marked the beginning of the rise of the BJP as a national political   powerhouse. The saffron party had won 116 seats in the previous general elections of 2009. The expansion of the BJP began with the emergence of Narendra Modi on the political centrestage. The party had declared Modi its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections. In the next few years, the party continued its winning streak in state after state at the cost of the Congress party. In the 2019 general election, the BJP clinched a second consecutive majority in the Lok Sabha, a...

  A new petition seeking a ban on the entry of Muslims to the Gyanvapi Mosque complex was today transferred from the court of the civil judge to a fast-track court in Varanasi. The plea will be taken up by the fast-track court judge on Monday (May 30). The petition, which was filed by the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh in the court of civil judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar on Tuesday, also sought permission for Hindus to worship the "Shivling" purportedly found in the mosque complex Civil judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who took up the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh's petition today, also heard the Gyanvapi mosque case before it was transferred to district judge Ajay Kumar Vishevesh by the Supreme Court on Friday in a view of complexity of matters. The court had asked district judge A K Vishevesh to decide on priority, the issue of 'maintainability' in the case as sought by the mosque committee. The committee says that a case over the right to worship inside the mosque, and the court...

The National Investigation Agency has demanded the death penalty for  convicted Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik , who had earlier pleaded guilty to all the charges including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), in a terror funding case. A Delhi court will today pronounce its verdict on the quantum of punishment in the case. Arguments have been concluded in the case and the court will give its verdict at 3:30 pm today. The defence has asked for life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. "I was arrested within 30 minutes of Burhan Wani's encounter. Atal Bihari Vajpayee allotted me a passport and India allowed me to make a statement because I was not a criminal," Yasin Malik said in court. The judge said that no case was going on against Yasin Malik before this one. The NIA has demanded the maximum punishment under Section 121 (Waging war against the government) which is the death penalty in this case. The minimum punishment is lif...

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal Wednesday announced he had resigned from the Congress party on May 16 and has filed his nomination as an Independent candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, with the backing of the   Samajwadi Party . In an interview to  The Indian Express  minutes after he announced his resignation, Sibal said “my future plans are to unite the opposition to oppose the present BJP dispensation which is following anti-people policies and which is dividing the inclusive culture of India.” Excerpts from his interview: Q. Have you resigned from the Congress? Kapil Sibal: Yes, I resigned from the Congress on May 16. I have resigned from the primary membership of the Congress Q. What made you take this decision? Kapil Sibal: That is not necessary for me to spell out at this point in time Q. Have you filed your nomination for Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party? Kapil Sibal: No, I have not. I have filed my nomination as a...