Reacting to the reports of faulty test kits, Tharoor said he read comments on social media over the issue stating that what can the Modi government do about it as other countries also had the same experience.

Kumar said the prime minister must remain sympathetic to the needs of states, just as they have by and large deferred to Central advisories.

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said that while aimed to collect Rs 2,000 crores, the state government could raise only Rs 250 crores in April.

"UP has stopped testing for the past two days and should start testing on a large scale, while adopting transparency in this regard. Hiding data and the truth can prove fatal," Priyanka Gandhi said.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the government should rethink on lockdown measures as the country cannot have the 'lockdown of people and lockout of the economy'.

The central teams have been visiting hospitals and quarantine centres and meeting officials in Kolkata and Siliguri.

BJP leaders Debasree Chaudhuri and another MP, Sukanta Majumdar, alleged that they were served with quarantine notices by the local administration so that they could not step outside to provide ration and other relief material to the masses.

Be it businesses, offices, education institutes or medical sector, everyone is adapting to changes in the post-coronavirus world, PM Modi said.

The RSS chief said there are 'anti-India forces' who are waiting to use the pandemic to break the country.

Kumar’s Twitter feed revealed that the MLA has been at it for a few days now, earlier, he even reached out to BJP MLA Ramesh Bidhuri asking help for patient living in his constituency.

Bhagwat, who appeared hopeful of the pandemic ending soon and lifting of the lockdown, said the world will take time to fall in order after the big upset but the way ahead depends on self-reliance and being indigenous.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi says Jamaat does not represent the community and one can neither 'punish' nor hold the entire Muslim community 'responsible' for the Nizamuddin incident.

The Congress cited media reports about rapid test kits for Covid-19 being sold at around 150 per cent profits to the government and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fix responsibility for the same.

Mayawati said it would have been better if the governments made proper arrangements for the millions of people suffering due to the lockdown and sent them home.

Referring to a company engaged in supply of testing kits, Manish Tewari alleged that kits purchased at Rs 245 were being sold by the firm to ICMR at Rs 600 each while the same to Tamil Nadu government were sold at Rs 400 each.

BJP MLA Suresh Tiwari said that the statement was made last week during his visit to the office of nagar palika, where several government officials were present.

Official sources said top party leadership has found his comments 'highly irresponsible', and its national president J P Nadda 'pulled up' the state brass for not taking quick action.

The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the issue of bad loans, accusing it of weakening the entire banking architecture fiscally and imprudently in the name of cleaning the system.

The senior Congress leader also called for special trains to take migrant workers stranded at different places in the country to their homes. Gehlot said he has discussed the issue with the Central government.

That Tony Perkins and his ilk get to dictate, influence opinion about Bharat speaks volumes of the deterioration in standards of USCIRF.

Gandhi urged the Ministry of External Affairs to take note of the reports of the White House 'unfollowing PM Modi on Twitter.

The incident has come a day after the BJP issued a show-cause to its Barhaj legislator Suresh Tiwari for allegedly asking people not to buy vegetables from Muslims.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told BJP party workers that the committees would be formed at every panchayat level in the rural areas and ward level in the urban areas.

In an interview to News18, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank said government is trying to use both digital and non-digital mechanism to transact the curriculum even as he appealed to companies and recruiters not to withdraw any job offers already extended to the students.

The problem for Kumar is more confounded because he will have to perform and emerge successful in a short span of time as polls are only five months away and the contagious disease is likely to create havoc till the time a proper vaccine is tested and developed.

The top court had said to 'ensure a level playing field' among the contesting political parties in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and by-election in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, it has directed the poll panel to allot a common free symbol to the group.

The Congress party slammed the Khattar government's move to 'burden people' in the time of a crisis.

A shrewd politician and an experienced administrator, Yediyurappa seized the opportunity to demonstrate his capabilities in the face of a grave crisis.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also demanded that in these difficult times of the pandemic, the Centre must give the state governments their dues.

The BJP's response came after the Congress accused the Centre of "cruelly" and "mercilessly" abandoning the entire category of migrant labourers and termed "a cruel joke" the order on inter-state movement of workers.

Asking when the lockdown will finally end, Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the prime minister must also lay out the exit strategy from it and spell out the goalpost in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and economy.

The rebuttal came after the governor shot off two letters to the chief minister last week amid the clash between the Raj Bhavan and Nabanna, the state secretariat, in the wake of West Bengal's response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected Gandhi's charge that the app has been outsourced to a private operator and asserted that it has a robust data security architecture.

I expect the Prime Ministers Office to take a rational and judicious decision, keeping aside the state politics, said NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

In a damage control exercise, state chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday directed the KSRTC to charge only single fare for ferrying the migrant labourers.

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said the government was not willing to handle this humanitarian issue and was ignoring Indian tourists and students stranded abroad.

Abdullah was released in March after the J&K government revoked his detention orders under Public Safety Act (PSA), more than seven months after he was detained.

In many of the shops, people who gathered outside the outlets did not follow social distancing norms, forcing the police to use mild force to disperse the unruly crowd.

On May 4, the Congress party tweeted a 1.44-minute clip from their conversation and the full interview was released on Wednesday.

A controversy had erupted on Monday after several opposition parties demanded that migrant workers should not be charged for the train tickets.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP's remarks come a day after the Home Ministry said plans to bring back Indians stranded abroad due the coronavirus pandemic have been chalked out by the government and the process will begin from May 7 in a phased manner. The Home Ministry also said it will be a paid service.

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said Hizbul Mujahideen commander Reyaz Naikoo's destiny was decided the moment he picked up the gun and adopted the path of violence and terror.

Former prime minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda expressed shock over the incident and appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend all required assistance to Andhra Pradesh.

Gandhi also called upon the government to immediately put money into the hands of the poor and provide a financial package to the industry to help revive the economy.

A freewheeling interview, some banter thrown in, and careful attention to the fact that no personal attacks on PM Narendra Modi are made while questioning the government over the coronavirus pandemic crisis was the template of Gandhi's press conference.

The decision was an unfortunate one, withdrawing the protection given to workers and labourers, BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said.

The Chief Minister noted that Punjab was successfully moving in the service of the nation towards meeting its target of wheat procurement, notwithstanding the challenges imposed by the lockdown.

Union home minister Amit Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is 'injustice' to the migrant workers from the state.

The BJP leaders waged a social media war against the Bengal government by accusing the state of hiding Covid-19 figures and also complaining the Centre that TMC-led government in Bengal has completely failed in handling the coronavirus crisis.

Government should tell the people clearly about the exact state of the pandemic to enable them to prepare accordingly, said Congress senior spokesperson Ajay Maken.