Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away early Thursday morning at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he was undergoing treatment for pneumonia.
Sayeed was admitted to the hospital on 24 December after he complained of severe neck pain. On Tuesday, his health deteriorated and he was put on ventilator with a special team of AIIMS doctors monitoring his health. We are given to understand that he passed away after multiple organ failure.
Mufti Sayeed’s body will be taken to Palam where several political leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay their respects. His mortal remains will then be flown to Srinagar where the final rites will be conducted.
Vice President Hamid Ansari has arrived at AIIMS to pay tribute to Mufti Sayeed.

The Aam Aadmi Party has made fresh accusations against the BJP and in a bid to counter claims made by the finance minster. They have also questioned the role of as the president of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association and said that Thakur cannot wear two hats. They produced two letters claiming Arun Jaitley misused his power and had written to the police seeking closure of the probe. AAP leader Ashutosh claimed that they had posed five questions to Jaitley to which they have not yet received any reply. The party reiterated their resignation demands. The five questions are:
Being an eminent lawyer yourself, can you deny that your action amounts to directly obstructing the police investigation in an ongoing case?
Mr. Jaitely, on what basis did you conclude that the complaints regarding Syndicate Bank were unsubstantiated and disclosed no offence?
Given your political clout in this central government, is it fair for you to continue as a central minister, particularly when the Delhi Police directly reports to the Centre?
Mr. Jaitley, What was your interest in attempting to derail the investigation and did you reveal your action in the next DDCA AGM?
Mr. Jaitley, is it not a fact that you misused your position as Leader of the Opposition (LoP) of Rajya Sabha to pressurize the Delhi Police?
Escalating their attack, Ashutosh further said that Jaitley made attempts to interfere and cover-up the graft charges, as he was well aware of the rampant corruption going on in the DDCA. DDCA Row: Arvind Kejriwal refuses to apologise to Arun Jaitley.

After a drubbing in a state poll in November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to overhaul his cabinet to weed out under performers and improve his government’s image. Problem is, several sources said, he can’t find the right replacements. As New Delhi buzzes with speculation about changes in several ministries, senior members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a close aide to Modi said some changes could come early next year but the talent pool was too shallow to engineer a major revamp. Pressure is mounting on Modi to revive his party’s fortunes. Nearly two years after he swept to power on a promise of jobs and growth, the shine is coming off – reforms to revive investment have withered and the economy is stuttering.
Rural distress has grown after two successive droughts. “The challenge is to identify the right candidates who can deliver fast-paced reforms and policies in their work sphere,” the prime minister’s aide said. Articulate and suave, Finance Minister has been considered for the defence portfolio, another high-profile role that is crucial to Modi’s geopolitical ambitions and plans to boost Indian industry. But there was no one to take Jaitley’s place in finance, the sources said. A spokesman for Modi declined to comment. An official in Jaitley’s office said they didn’t have any knowledge of a possible reshuffle. Modi tends to keep such decisions close to his chest, and the sources said the final decision lay with the prime minister. They added that he has yet to make up his mind on the changes, and that nothing has been confirmed. Another close aide to the prime minister dismissed talk of a reshuffle as speculation, saying it had no basis. The problem with the government’s search for talent is that Modi’s Hindu nationalist administration is loath to tap people who are associated with other ideologies, such as liberals or the left. At the same time, the right-wing intelligentsia has not developed after decades of rule by the centrist Congress party, under which liberal institutions flourished. “Compared to the Congress, we have a smaller talent pool and less exposure, but it’s only a matter of time that we expand our base,” BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said. He said Modi has “embarked on the process of fine-tuning the government machinery and also send a concrete signal that inefficiency will be checked.” BJP’s defeat in Bihar state polls earlier this year led to calls from within the party and the Hindu group that is its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to remove ministers and party officials who failed to deliver. Although a general election is not due until 2019, the government’s fortunes will depend on upcoming provincial polls, including an election in bellwether Uttar Pradesh state in 2017. Top RSS and BJP leaders are expected to meet in New Delhi in the second week of January, where these issues are likely to be discussed. A revamp is also expected to send the message that Modi will not tolerate remarks by ministers that fan intolerance against India’s non-Hindu minorities. Junior ministers and could be removed after they made public remarks construed as anti-minority, the sources said. Singh’s and Jyoti’s offices said they have no information about Modi’s reshuffle plans. Some ministers are also looking for a change. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has asked to be moved to a portfolio with a more domestic focus, the sources said. Swaraj’s office said they will not comment about her plans. Road transport minister was offered additional charge of the agriculture ministry, but he declined saying he already had too big a job, the sources said. A source in Gadkari’s office declined to comment, calling it a “hypothetical question.” Modi is looking to the RSS and may go further afield in southern and northeastern states to find new, lesser-known faces to bring to his government, his aide said. That would also give his cabinet a more pan-India feel, the aide said.

Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav, who is RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s elder son, rode a horse from his parents’ home to his official residence to celebrate Christmas, drawing sharp criticism from opposition BJP.

Accompanied by a posse of security personnel and a trained jockey on another horse, Yadav junior rode the half km distance from his parents’ home at 10, Circular Road to his official residence at 5, Deshratna Marg on Friday.

Later, Tej Pratap told newsmen “I enjoyed horse-riding which I have done after many years…I had been doing it regularly years ago.”

He also harped on the environmental benefits of horse-riding saying it helps in containing pollution and referred to growing air pollution in Patna and other towns in Bihar due to increasing vehicular traffic.
Tej Pratap holds Environment and Forest portfolio as well.

His ride drew sharp criticism from the Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar of BJP who said Tej Pratap was enjoying pleasure rides at a time when patients need improved facilities in hospitals which lacked infrastructure and medicines.

New Delhi, Dec 26 (IANS) The Delhi government has suspended three transport department officials over alleged corruption in issuing fresh Letters Of Interest (LOI) for three-wheelers, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday. “Three officials of transport department being suspended. Corruption in issuing fresh letter of interests for 3-wheelers,” Sisodia tweeted. The minister said the LOIs were being issued “randomly” despite orders to issue them in a chronological order of applications. “It was found that in many cases the LOIs were being given to dealers instead of applicants,” he said in another tweet. The Delhi government has handed over the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation. “This government cannot tolerate corruption at any level,” he added.

PM Modi phoned Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while on a visit to neighbouring Afghanistan and asked if he could make a stop in Pakistan on his way home, Pakistani foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told media after Modi departed.

“And the Pak PM said to him, ‘Please come, you are our guest, please come and have tea with me’,” he said.

It was Sharif’s 66th birthday and the family home was festooned with lights for his grand-daughter’s wedding on Saturday. Modi and Sharif talked for about 90 minutes and shared an early-evening meal before the Indian leader flew back home.

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry told reporters in Lahore the “goodwill visit” as pleasant and said the two leaders needed “to understand each other to open the doors of peace and stability in South Asia.

Modi and Sharif talked about restarting a dialogue and increasing people-to-people contacts between their nations, he said.

The foreign secretaries of both counties are to meet in Islamabad at the end of the month, Chaudhry said.It was the first time an Indian prime minister has visited Pakistan in almost 12 years.

The visit is a hopeful sign after the off-and-on talks between India and Pakistan, which suffered some setbacks in 2015.

In August, talks were canceled over an agenda conflict, only to have the national security advisers of both countries meet recently for surprise dialogue in Bangkok, Thailand.

This month, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also visited the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, signaling a further ease in bilateral ties.

“Prime Minister Modi has once again proved his critics, who call him a Hindu hardliner, wrong by his unconventional style and by leading India’s foreign policy from the front,” said K.G. Suresh, a senior fellow at the New Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation, which was founded by Ajit Doval, India’s national security adviser. “The ice has been broken.”

Suresh added, “This short visit has raised hopes high for peace and prosperity in South Asia.”

Sharif, who attended Modi’s inauguration as prime minister last year, invited his Indian counterpart to Pakistan when they met in Russia in July.

In a joint statement, they expressed Modi’s commitment to attend a South Asian summit next year.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained over a series of cross-border firing

New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday sought to know why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley were “afraid” of a probe into the affairs of Delhi’s cricket body. Referring to the CBI raid on Delhi Secretariat on December 15, Kejriwal said: “We (AAP) cooperated with your raid, you also cooperate with the enquiry commission (set up by our government),” Kejriwal tweeted. “We did not fear your raid, why are you afraid of the enquiry commission?”

The Delhi government has set up an enquiry commission to probe the allegations of corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) which Jaitley headed for 13 years until 2013. Kejriwal said many TV channels were claiming the commission of enquiry he had ordered was “illegal”. He asked: “Was the CBI raid legal?”. Jaitley has sued Kejriwal and other leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party for linking him with the alleged corruption in the DDCA. The BJP has suspended its MP Kirti Azad for campaigning against Jaitley on the same issue

Kabul, Dec 25 (IANS) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that he will meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on his way back to New Delhi. Now in Kabul, Modi tweeted that he spoke to Sharif over telephone and wished him on his birthday. “Looking forward to meeting Sharif in Lahore today afternoon when I will drop by on my way back to Delhi.”