Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra “Balen” Shah is facing the sharpest political backlash of his short tenure after student organisations that once helped fuel the anti-establishment wave behind his rise demanded a public apology, a formal retraction and, from some groups, his resignation over remarks on the Nepal-India border dispute....
Washington lawmakers delivered a rare bipartisan rebuke to President Donald Trump’s Iran policy after the House of Representatives approved a war powers resolution directing the withdrawal of US forces from hostilities unless Congress authorises further military action. The Republican-led chamber voted 215-208 for the measure on Wednesday, with four...
Kolkata’s civic administration was thrown into political uncertainty after senior Trinamool Congress leader and Kolkata Port MLA Firhad Hakim resigned as Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Wednesday, sending his resignation to party chairperson Mamata Banerjee amid intensifying strain inside the ruling organisation. Hakim, one of Banerjee’s closest and...
Mamata Banerjee’s estranged brother Babun Banerjee has sharpened a public attack on the Trinamool Congress leadership, accusing senior party figures of isolating him politically and obstructing his role in sports administration, adding fresh pressure on a party already battling dissent after its loss of power in West Bengal. Babun...
West Bengal’s BJP-led government is facing a sharp challenge from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board after making the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory during morning assemblies in schools and madrasas across the state. The board on Tuesday described the directive as a “direct infringement” of constitutional freedoms...
New Delhi sharply rejected a Pakistan-European Union communiqué that referred to Jammu and Kashmir, saying the matter was internal to India and warning that parties with no standing on the issue should avoid comment. The external affairs ministry said on Tuesday that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir...
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s objection to playing the full Vande Mataram at the beginning and end of official functions has widened a political row in Kerala, with the BJP accusing the Congress of yielding to pressure from the Muslim League, its partner in the United Democratic Front government. Tharoor,...
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is confronting a damaging internal challenge after two of its MLAs accused party functionaries of using disputed signatures on documents linked to the selection of legislative office-bearers in the West Bengal Assembly. The controversy, centred on complaints by Sandipan Saha and Ritabrata Banerjee, has moved...
Former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai has told the party’s central leadership that he wants to leave the organisation, setting off a major churn in the state unit months after he was moved out of the top state post and the party recalibrated its alliance strategy around the...
Activist and education reform advocate Sonam Wangchuk has said he will join a June 6 protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar led by Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, intensifying public pressure on Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over examination-related lapses that have affected students and families across the...
K Annamalai has declined an offer of a Rajya Sabha seat as uncertainty deepens over the former Tamil Nadu BJP president’s political future, with people familiar with the discussions saying the 41-year-old IPS officer-turned-politician is weighing a move outside the party structure. The refusal has sharpened speculation that Annamalai...
Allegations of closed-door meetings by Trinamool Congress legislators have widened a political rift in West Bengal, putting Mamata Banerjee’s hold over the party’s legislature wing under renewed scrutiny after the expulsion of two MLAs accused of anti-party activity. The controversy gathered pace after senior Trinamool figures referred to separate...
US President Donald Trump has said he would not be troubled if negotiations with Iran collapsed, even as he insisted that contacts with Tehran were continuing after a sharp escalation involving Israel, Hezbollah and regional shipping routes. Trump’s remarks on Monday injected fresh uncertainty into a fragile diplomatic track...
Greece and Cyprus are weighing deeper defence engagement with New Delhi as interest grows in BrahMos and long-range land attack cruise missile systems, a move that has sharpened concern in Turkey over a possible shift in the military balance across the eastern Mediterranean. No missile contract has been officially...
Authorities in Faridabad demolished at least 20 unauthorised structures, including a temple and a mosque, during a pre-dawn operation on Saturday, after suspending mobile internet services in parts of the city to prevent possible unrest. The demolition drive was carried out in the NIT area under heavy police deployment,...
Mamata Banerjee will lead a one-day sit-in at Rani Rashmoni Road in central Kolkata on June 2 as the Trinamool Congress seeks to turn alleged attacks on two of its senior MPs into a wider campaign against political violence after its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly election. The...
Hundreds of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants have gathered near Hakimpur and other border points in West Bengal, seeking passage back to Bangladesh as the BJP government accelerates its “detect, delete and deport” campaign and expands holding centres for foreign nationals awaiting removal. The rush at the Bithari-Hakimpur crossing in North...
Abhishek Banerjee’s assault in Sonarpur has sharpened West Bengal’s post-election tensions, drawing condemnation from opposition leaders and intensifying Trinamool Congress allegations that the Bharatiya Janata Party has failed to protect political rivals from intimidation and violence. Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP from Diamond Harbour,...