Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, speaking to reporters after a Planning Commission meeting here Thursday evening, said the Maoist menace needed to be “eliminated completely”, and added: “Any tendency to destroy society with arms cannot be accepted... whether (by) the Centre or the states.”

Even as he urged top Navy officers to ensure total implementation of proposals regarding coastal security for the country, defence minister A.K. Antony also said on Thursday that the government would take a final decision in due course on the issue of any utilisation of Armed Forces in anti-Naxal operations. When asked about

Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Thursday rejected suggestions made in certain quarters that there were differences between him and home minister P. Chidambaram on the issue of tackling Maoists. Mr Singh clarified that the state and the Centre were working together to tackle the menace.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday evening confirmed the arrest of naval war room leak-accused and former Indian Navy officer Lt. Ravi Shankaran (Retd) in London. Sources said the Indian government has initiated the process of extradition of Shankaran to India to face trial. Shankaran, who was evading arrest till

None other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired a meeting on Thursday to discuss how Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations can be marked. Yet, two important politicians from Gurudev’s home state of West Bengal, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamul Congress leader and railway minister Mamata Banerjee chose to skip the meeting.

Division in the Congress on the issue of execution of Afzal Guru is clearly perceptible with the party officials making distinction between Guru and Ajmal Amir Kasab.
The other day, AICC general Digvijay Singh demanded that the Parliament attack convict should be hanged at the earliest. “The Supreme Court has given him the death sentence for the kind of crime he has committed. It should be done (carried out) at the earliest,” Mr Singh told reporters.

It appears that the Commonwealth Games weighed heavily on the city government which wanted to delay the mercy petition plea of the Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru, till the mega sporting event was over. Delhi government sources said, they did not want to take any chance on the smooth organisation of the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for October 2010.

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to grant urgent hearing to Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) leader Babu Lal Marandi on his petition alleging repeated misuse of Article 164(4) of the Constitution in appointing non-legislator chief minister in the state.

Five schoolchildren and a driver were injured when a radio taxi rammed into a school van near Savitri flyover in south Delhi on Thursday morning.

Even as his employers disappear into their air-conditioned home or zoom out of the gates in their cool sedans, Shiva Kumar, a 64-year-old guard, has always been satisfied with a table fan to tackle Delhi’s fierce summer. Not this year. “I came from my hometown in Orissa in 2005 and since then have been working here as a guard.