Throwing the ball in BJP’s court over the controversy surrounding the appointment of P.J. Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), senior government officials on Tuesday said that the NDA government itself did nothing when it was in power on sanctioning prosecution against Mr Thomas as they could find nothing against him.

The BJP on Tuesday questioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for defending “tainted” Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) P.J. Thomas, so “aggressively”. The government, through an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Monday, had defended Mr Thomas calling him a person of impeccable integrity.

The income-tax (I-T) department is gearing up to keep an eye on the Tamil Nadu elections to ensure that money is not used to bribe voters. The I-T department is also looking at papers of political parties to revoke tax exemption benefit of those fake parties which are formed just to launder money.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a petition challenging the allotment of about 30 acres of land by the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh to a trust created in the name of late party leader Kushabhau Thakre in alleged violation of rules and at a throwaway price. A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly

Beleaguered Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Tuesday met senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley in the wake of governor H.R. Bhardwaj considering a request by a lawyers forum seeking permission to prosecute him in alleged land scams.

In a bid to address Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s concern on “unacceptably high” levels of malnutrition in India, a meeting has been called at the PMO on Tuesday to examine the possibility of promoting double fortification of salt with iron (it is already fortified with iodine).

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday met President Pratibha Patil amid speculation of a Cabinet reshuffle later this week. The meeting lasted 45 minutes.
Though the government and the Congress continue to maintain silence on the date for this exercise, they are not ruling out a reshuffle. Instead, they said both, a Cabinet reshuffle and AICC reconstitution, would take place this month.

The CBI, which is probing various cases of corruption in the conduct of the Commonwealth Games, has now started scrutinising email details of the top brass of the Organising Committee (OC). The agency is likely to make some “significant arrests” in connection with its probe related to the CWG very soon.

A week after the CAG and Union telecom minister Kapil Sibal took strong stands against each other following the latter’s comment that the CAG findings in the 2G spectrum were “utterly erroneous”, the CAG said that there was no “rift” between the audit body and the minister.

Issues related to adverse possessions and the undemarcated boundary with Bangaldesh and the handing over of Ulfa leader Anup Chetia to India, are expected to be high on the agenda during the home secretary-level talks between India and Bangladesh beginning in Dhaka on Wednesday. Home minister P. Chidambaram is also