Delhi

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) Congress President Rahul Gandhi today attacked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over the Doklam issue, alleging that she had "buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power".

His assertion came a day after Swaraj told Parliament that the India-China face-off over Doklam was resolved through "diplomatic maturity without losing any ground" and status quo has been maintained.

New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) The Kerala government today told the Supreme Court that the custom of barring entry of women between the age group of 10 to 50 years into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala is not permissible under the Constitution.

It said that celibate status of deity cannot be a ground for barring entry of women as it is a Hindu temple and not a temple of a particular denomination.

New Delhi, Aug 2 (PTI) A BJP member in the Lok Sabha today demanded that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be prepared for the whole country, triggering protests from Opposition benches.

The remarks come against the backdrop of the draft NRC in Assam, released earlier this week, triggering a major political controversy over alleged exclusion of names of lakhs of people.

During the Zero Hour, Nishikant Dubey claimed that the census exercise did not happen in many places, including the North East and Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI); MPs of opposition parties today staged a protest outside Parliament against the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Armed with placards against the NRC, leaders from the TMC, SP RJD, TDP, AAP, BSP and JD(S) demanded that the government bring in changes in the NRC.

"The NRC is forcing people to become refugees in their won country," TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee claimed.

They alleged by bringing in the NRC the ruling party was trying to divide the people

New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI); West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today alleged that the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam was done with a "political motive" to divide people and warned that it would lead to bloodbath and a civil war in the country.

Attacking the BJP, she said the saffron party is trying to divide the country and asserted this will not be tolerated.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI); The Delhi High Court was today told that over Rs 15 crore collected since 2006 from wages of convicts lodged in Tihar Jail for welfare of their victims has been lying unutilised.

The submission was made before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar by the prison authorities during hearing of a PIL challenging the practice of deducting 25 per cent of the convicts' wages towards a victim welfare fund.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI); The Supreme Court considered today the submission of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) that it should dispose of the suo motu cognizance of the Kathua gangrape and murder case in which it has taken strong note of some lawyers obstructing the judicial process.

By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad/Peshawar, Jul 30 (PTI); Imran Khan said today that he will take oath as prime minister on August 11, even as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was striving to get the required numbers to form a government.

The PTI, led by 65-year-old Khan, has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly after the July 25 elections, but it is still short of numbers to form the government on its own. Khan's party yesterday announced that it is trying to reach out to smaller parties and independents to form the next government.

New Delhi, July 30 (PTI); Civil society organisations today held a protest demanding the resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls in a shelter home at Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

They staged a protest outside Bihar Bhawan in Chanakyapuri here and also sought a fair probe into the incident.

Slamming the state government, the protesters indulged in sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bihar Chief Minister.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI); A crucial bill seeking to provide death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years and making the law against such sexual offences more stringent, was passed by the Lok Sabha today.

The bill replaces the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance promulgated on April 21, following an outcry over the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and the rape of another woman at Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.