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A day after former parliamentarian Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed that Rahul Gandhi meets 'undesirable businessmen', the Congress on Monday intensified its attack on him saying he is displaying his loyalty to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "With every passing day, Ghulam Nabi Azad falls to new depths to demonstrate his true character and his loyalty to PM Modi. I can only say that he is pathetic," tweeted Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh, after Azad claimed that Gandhi meets with 'undesirable businessmen'.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, a former Congress veteran, left the party in August last year over differences with the top leadership. Ever since he exited the party, Azad has been talking about the flaws in the way the top leadership is handling the party affairs.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a batch of pleas seeking the identification of minorities at the state level.

A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ahsanuddin Amanullah will take up for hearing the petitions raising various issues related to the identification of minorities, including challenging the constitutional validity of the National Minority Commission Act, 1992 and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutes Act, 2004.

The pleas include the one filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who has sought directions for framing guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level, contending that Hindus are in minority in 10 states.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) recently had a meeting with the head of DRDO, ADA, and HAL and came hard on the shifting schedule in the Indigenous Fighter jets programme specifically Tejas MkII (17.5 tonnes) and AMCA (24.5 tonnes) programme without which IAF fighter squadrons levels will be below 10-12.

The conference was called after the Indian government led by PM Modi received harsh criticism from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (SCOD) for its lack of progress in acquiring fighter jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Around 250 educationists and historians criticised National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) over its decision to revise textbooks. They said that removing the chapters was driven by a divisive and partisan agenda.

The historians demanded NCERT to withdraw the decision. Significantly, some sections related to Mughals were removed from the Class 12th History textbooks, and paragraphs that contained information about the ban briefly imposed on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) by the then government after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were omitted.

Romila Thapar, Jayati Ghosh, Mridula Mukherjee, Apoorvanand, Irfan Habib and Upinder Singh, among others have started a signature campaign to protest against the decision and for its withdrawal.

Democracy isn’t in danger in India but the idea of dynasty politics is, Union home minister Amit Shah said at twin rallies in UP focused on highlighting how people had “unwavering faith” in PM Narendra Modi while his detractors like Congress’s Rahul Gandhi were busy spinning “false narratives” abroad.

“The idea of one dynasty and politics promoting your (Gandhi) family is in danger. . . The autocracy of your family that is in danger,” Shah told a gathering at the Kaushambi Mahotsav that he inaugurated.