Ghulam Nabi Azad

Addressing an election rally of the Congress in Murad Nagar near Ghaziabad, Azad said not a single leader of the BJP has sacrificed their lives for the nation, while the Congress has a long list of such leaders who happily gave their lives for the country.

Ghulam Nabi Azad said terrorism not only caused loss of life in Jammu and Kashmir, but also pushed it backward, both economically and educationally, compared to other parts of the country.

The opposition parties have said they will await the response of the government on whether it would take up the contentious bills during the brief Budget Session and are in a "wait and watch" mode on how the government moved forward in taking the opposition together.

Speaking to reporters here, he noted, "On two to four seats, there could be 'give and take', but at present, we are making preparations for contesting on all the 80 seats in the state".

Emerging from the all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the Winter session, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Monday said the opposition will once again press for the formation of a JPC to look into the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet deal in which it has alleged corruption.

Azad asserted that if the NDA tables the draft law again in either house of the Parliament, the Congress will reject it

Ghulam Nabi Azad trained his guns at the BJP in the Rajya Sabha while participating in a special debate to commemorate 75th anniversary of Quit India Movement.

However, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar, while commenting on the issue, said, "It is too early to say. If we do not honour the feeling of the people and workers, it will be wrong. We will also talk about 'mahagathbandhan' with our senior leaders."

When asked whether BSP will be part of this grand alliance, Azad said that they are asking all the secular parties to come together and fight the saffron party.

Targeting government over issues like demonetisation and Kashmir handling, Opposition today said it has been a "failure" on all fronts particularly in tackling black money, terrorism and fake currency, even as the ruling side contended that "metamorphosis of India is happening now".

A meeting of the Congress election committee is on and it could decide seats for the first phase of elections, for which nomination begins on January 21.

The opposition is still in the dark over the proposal for merging the Railway Budget with the General Budget and advancing Parliament session by about a month to January 24 so as to complete all legislative work before the beginning of the new fiscal from April.

In futures trade, gold for delivery in October contracts was trading Rs 176 or 0.56 percent lower at Rs 31,228 per 10 gram in a business turnover of 589 lots at the Multi Commodity Exchange.

The Prime Minister is talking about something else when "the house is on fire", senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said and called for "saving the crown" of the country by talking to the local people.

The Parliament secretariat is putting in strenuous efforts to compile the process undertaken in both the Houses before they are vetted by the Law Ministry and sent to all the states.

GST, the biggest economic reform since 1991, is likely to sail through smoothly in the Lower House. It will replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system to turn the country into world's biggest single market.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia listed seven challenges which need to be dealt with for smooth implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"GST will result in better tax compliance due to a robust IT infrastructure. Because of efficiency gains and prevention of leakages, the overall tax burden on most commodities will come down, which will benefit consumers," the Finance Ministry said in a set of FAQs on GST.

The government is leaving no stone unturned to seek a consensus and says it will address all concerns of states on GST. A 5-hour discussion has been slotted on the long-stalled GST bill in the upper house.

The 69-year-old leader landed here by a chartered flight close to midnight after she had to abandon the 8-km roadshow midway due to illness.