Chidambaram, Swami Ramdev should apologise: Vinay Katiyar

November 3rd, 2009 DEOBAND - Renowned yoga guru Swami Ramdev Tuesday sought to promote his method of keeping fit and dispel misconceptions about it at the gathering of clerics and followers at the historic Islamic seminary here. Ramdev was the first non-Muslim cleric to address the annual convention of Islamic seminaries under the auspices of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind at the seminary, known for its influence over bulk of the Sunni Muslims across the country.

November 3rd, 2009 more images more imagesDEOBAND - Terrorists and Maoists were urged Tuesday to give up arms by a mass gathering of Muslim clerics at India's oldest Islamic seminary here, prompting Home Minister P. Chidambaram to applaud the move "as a call to duty ...

September 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Monday expressed his desire to retire from politics.

September 12th, 2009 ETAH - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Katiyar Saturday said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prevented from going ahead with the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya by some "insiders". "I am fully aware that Vajpayee was all set to remove various hurdles and pave way for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya; but some people who were bent upon not letting him get the credit for the gigantic task, did not let him have his way," Katiyar told mediapersons here, in a brief halt after addressing a convention of the BJP state women's wing in Aligarh.

August 14th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Vinay Katiyar Friday demanded immediate withdrawal of the criminal case filed against the party's parliamentarian Ramakant Yadav for violence in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh district. "The case against our MP should be withdrawn at the earliest and members of the Ulema Council must be booked for resorting to violence," Katiyar told reporters in Ayodhya in the Faizabad district.

June 26th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday blamed the Orissa government and the police for failing to control the communal violence in Kandhamal district last year.

May 16th, 2009 CHENNAI - Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram won the Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu Saturday after two recounts, poll officials said here.

April 23rd, 2009 LUCKNOW - The Ram temple was very much an issue this election and the party's Hindutva's agenda was intact, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP leader Vinay Katiyar said Thursday. 'The Ram temple is an issue in this election but presently we will not disclose our strategy on how we are going to solve it,' Katiyar told reporters in Faizabad, 180 km from this Uttar Pradesh capital, about the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

April 13th, 2009 RAIPUR - Yoga guru Baba Ramdev Monday said he had no political intentions while strongly backing a demand by certain political parties for bringing back black money stashed abroad by Indians. 'I am an Indian first and then a yoga guru, I don't have any political motive or intentions to back up the demand of certain political parties that black money stuffed in banks abroad be brought back to the country,' Ramdev told reporters at the Raipur Press Club here in Chhattisgarh.

April 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Home Minister P. Chidambaram deftly swerved to a side Tuesday to avoid a shoe hurled by a journalist upset about the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

April 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - More than a few eyebrows were raised when people thought they saw Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on the dais at a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) rally in Thane. Was it really Raj Thackeray? Even as the organisers were smug about their star campaigner, many in the audience rubbed their eyes with disbelief and could not believe their ears when the speaker in question started speaking on issues which are not exactly the agenda of MNS, known for its bashing of north Indians.

March 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Yoga guru Baba Ramdev Tuesday joined the political chorus in demanding that money stashed by Indians in tax havens across the world should be brought back to the country. Ramdev, who has floated a political outfit Bharat Swabhiman Trust, told reporters here that the black money lying in bank accounts in Switzerland and other countries could be used to eradicate poverty and illiteracy in India.

March 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW - The Election Commission Friday transferred three senior police officials in Uttar Pradesh after complaints that they were favouring the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Complaints were filed against Deputy Inspector General of Police/Senior Superintendent of Police (Gorakhpur) Yogendra Pachauri, Superintendent of Police (Kushinagar) Gyan Singh, and Superintendent of Police (Mainpuri) S.R.S Aditya.

March 20th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who arrived here Friday to review the security arrangements for the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls, said he has asked the Orissa government to take adequate measures to tackle Maoist insurgency and communal conflict.

December 31st, 2008 LUCKNOW - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Katiyar here Thursday demanded a ban on Darul Uloom, a noted Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh, while referring to the Second Administrative Reforms Commission's (SARC) report. Pointing to the report, Katiyar told reporters: 'The report, which was issued in June but not made public, noted that Mohammd Masood Azhar Alvia, now chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad, had arrived in the country January 1994 for liberating Kashmir and interacted with senior members of Darul Uloom.' As the Darul Uloom members were in touch with Masood Azhar, the central government must impose a ban on Darul Uloom to save its citizens from terrorism, he said.