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...
Washington’s proposal to impose an additional tariff of up to 12.5% on exports from India has opened a new front in trade negotiations, targeting a legal gap rather than a direct allegation that factories in India use forced labour. The action proposed by the United States Trade Representative places...
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 BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has ruled out large-scale entry of former Trinamool Congress leaders into the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying the organisation will not admit “tainted” figures or allow what he described as the “trinamoolisation” of the BJP. Bhattacharya’s remarks in Kolkata on Tuesday sought to draw...
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...
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is battling its sharpest internal crisis in years after its West Bengal election defeat left the party confronting absentee legislators, expulsions, allegations of forged signatures and open speculation over a possible split. The turmoil has deepened as Banerjee tries to reassert control over a party...
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...
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal’s remark that he was “ashamed” to live in a country where elected representatives could be attacked has triggered a political confrontation after two Trinamool Congress MPs were targeted in separate incidents in West Bengal within 24 hours. The comment came after Trinamool’s national general...