It is Mallikarjun Kharge vs Shashi Tharoor for the much-awaited Congress presidential election. Octogenarian Kharge, the establishment's choice, and Tharoor, the underdog diplomat-turned-politician, filed their nomination papers on the last day on Friday, setting to rest the two-month-long speculation.
The noise inside Vande Bharat train is 100 times less than that in an airplane, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday after travelling in the indigenously designed train.
The announcement spar- ked fresh buzz about whether Gehlot will continue in the CM's post or will be eased out, and if his replacement will be his bete noire Pilot. It is felt that AICC may call another legislature party meeting in Jaipur.
The Army will soon induct 'loitering munitions’ amid the continuing military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh, while the force also cranks up long-range high-volume firepower with 'winterised' howitzers and advanced rockets backed by drones and weapon-locating radars along the northern borders.
India can scale up production of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft to meet operational requirements and export orders, defence ministry officials said. The single-engine Tejas fighter is already the frontrunner to bag a Malaysian order for 18 light twin-seat fighter trainers despite strong competition from Chinese JF-17, South Korean FA-50 and Russian MiG-35 and Yak-130 jets.
Rajasthan CLP will meet on Sunday, in what appears to be an exercise to pick the successor of CM Ashok Gehlot, the putative AICC president. The core issue is if Gehlot will have to relinquish the CM’s post, and if Sachin Pilot will replace him. Pilot is also the choice of the leadership. But the party has to negotiate the CM’s preference, and the legislature party in which Gehlot has an absolute support.
The home minister reviewed the issues while taking a review meeting of India's all three border guarding forces-- Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)-- at Bihar' Kishanganj district during his two-day visit to the state.
Former Rajasthan deputy CM Sachin Pilot on Friday reached Jaipur from Kochi amid hectic lobbying in the Congress for the chief minister's post after Ashok Gehlot announced his decision to contest the Congress national president's election, and rushed to meet the Speaker and party MLAs. It is learnt that the party top brass has asked Pilot to stay put in Jaipur and meet MLAs till a final decision is taken.
China is using “coercive economic tools” to achieve its security aims in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) while also not adhering to international laws and displaying a lack of transparency in its ongoing efforts to establish overseas military bases, a senior US defence official said.
The govt is unwilling to accommodate Congress' request to let it retain the helmsmanship of the department-related standing committee (DRSC) on home affairs in Rajya Sabha. The decision to withdraw Congress' leadership of the DRSC on home affairs in the RS and IT and communications in LS is being done "as per the existing strength of the parties" and in light of its numbers in RS coming down since 2019, sources said.
PFI has assiduously followed a multi-pronged operational strategy that aims to communalise the nation's polity, encourage and enforce Taliban brand of Islam, heighten existing social divisions, dislodge moderate mainstream Muslim organisations from the collective mind of the community and maintain a trained band of volunteers for physical actions, according to a dossier on PFI prepared by the NIA in 2017.
Ashok Gehlot is likely to be the next president of Congress but will have to step down as chief minister of Rajasthan. Gehlot, who had on Wednesday declared his intent to continue as Rajasthan CM even if he was elected as Congress chief, gave up his insistence after Rahul Gandhi declared that the new party chief would have to adhere to the “one man one post” principle.
