Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is currently taking stock of the situation across the country through her meetings with the PCC chiefs and CLP leaders against the backdrop of the fuel price hike, internal security and the coming Assembly elections in key states.

A day after blowing the whistle on a major land scam involving the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) under the state urban development department, state land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah took a complete U-turn on Tuesday. “Neither do I know anything nor have I said that the KMDA did not follow the rules. How can I comment on this? I need more time. Everything will be clear once I get the report,” Mr Mollah said.

Gujarat Congress leaders strongly objected to Union minister of state (independent charge) for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh giving a certificate of good governance to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

State panchayat and rural development minister Anisur Rahaman on Tuesday admitted that the state government has failed to implement all its programmes. He made this confession on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday. During his reply to the panchayat and rural development department budget discussion, he even said, “Generally, we do lot of works to win an election. However, after winning the election, we do not work hard.”

After attacking the fuel price hike, senior Congress leader Anil Shastri has targeted Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, telling him that the government is run by “elected representatives and not the plan panel”.

Music composer A.R. Rahman, who prefers creating music to singing, said that his singing has improved by taking part in music concerts and by preparing for them.

Humanitarian issues such as people-to-people ties and exchange of prisoners are expected to be discussed when the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan meet in Islamabad on Thursday.

If power corrupts, then when you throw celebrity-induced megalomania, paranoia and perhaps some party drugs into the mix, you get a lethally violent cocktail.

Ahead of the visit of an all-party delegation from Jammu and Kashmir to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, National Conference president and Union minister Farooq Abdullah ruled out any threat to the J&K government headed by Omar Abdullah, saying it was strong enough to face any challenge.

The Indian Army will file a review petition in the Armed Forces Tribunal to oppose any change in the Kargil war records, Army sources said on Monday. In a judgement in May this year on a case filed earlier by Brig. (retd.) Devinder Singh, who was the head of the 70 Infantry Brigade during the Kargil conflict of 1999, the Armed Forces