L A T E S T      N E W S

Jethmalani targets Sushma, Jaitley

New Delhi: Firing a fresh salvo at the top BJP leadership, Supreme Court lawyer and senior party leader Ram Jethmalani has hit out at Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj.

In a letter written to BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Monday contents of which came to light on Tuesday, Jethmalani hit out at Swaraj and Jaitley for their role in the CBI director appointment row.

Jethmalani, who was the first leader to publicly seek Gadkari's resignation for the controversy related to alleged financial wrongdoings of a company linked to him, had last Saturday took pot shots at Swaraj and Jaitley over their letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking appointment of new director of CBI through a collegium.

The Supreme Court lawyer said the advocates of Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who was a rival to new CBI director and senior IPS officer Ranjit Sinha, were Jaitley’s juniors. 

FDI logjam on, UPA to meet

New Delhi: The deadlock over FDI in retail is likely to continue in Parliament on Tuesday.

While the UPA coordination committee is meeting around noon today to discuss whether to agree to a debate on the issue under Rule 184 that entails voting, the BJP after a meeting of its parliamentary board remained adamant on demand for voting on the matter.

BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said the government had broken its promise made on the floor of the House on the matter of FDI in retail.

On Monday, an all-party meeting had ended in a deadlock with the Opposition firm on its demand for a debate with voting.

The government however got a shot in the arm yesterday after its supporters, as well as erstwhile ally Trinamool Congress, making it clear that they would let the Lok Sabha Speaker rake a call on the debate rules. 

Team selection for 2 Test matches today

Mumbai: The Indian squad for the third and fourth cricket Tests against England to be played in Kolkata and Nagpur will be picked here on Tuesday, the BCCI said on Monday.

"The selection committee meeting is to be held tomorrow (in Mumbai) to choose the teams for the next two Tests," informed Cricket Board`s secretary and meeting convener, Sanjay Jagdale.

If captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who will be part of the selection panel discussions without a vote along with coach Duncan Fletcher, has his way, not many changes are expected in the composition of the squad for the next two games.

"Not much. We have replacements but you don`t chop and change or rotate the players just on the basis of one or two Test matches. You have to give them a fair run. That’s what it`s all about," Dhoni said after India suffered a humiliating 10-wicket loss in the second Test here.

"Otherwise we will keep changing players in every game. So it`s good to give the players a fair amount of games so that they are also comfortable and are not thinking about the selection," said Dhoni.

Indian spin trio of Pragyan Ojha, Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh allowed rival captain Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen to rattle up a double century stand to help England cross 400 on a helpful track in the second Test.