External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee said that India would resolve the Kashmir dispute through dialogue and would not accept any third party mediation. Commenting on the stance likely to be taken by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Kashmir issue and tax breaks, the minister said that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and both countries are discussing it according to the Shimla Accord and the Lahore agreement. He, however, declined to comment on the tax issues.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has raised objections over spectrum allocation policy of the UPA government. The party wants enquiry into the 2G spectrum allocation by the union telecom ministry. CPI alleged that spectrum is allotted at very lower prices than the prevailing market prices causing loss of about Rs. 60,000 crore to the national exchequer.

To steal the show from RJD over Bihari-Maratha conflict, the JD(U) has announced that all its five Lok Sabha MPs would resign protesting the attack of Biharis in Mumbai.

JD(U) parliamentary party leader announced this on Thursday. He said that  "there was no option left before his party but asking its LS members to resign as the Maharashtra government was "patronising" those involved in such attacks and the central government was "silent" on the issue."

"The decision was taken as no action was taken against the culprits even after an all-party delegation of Bihar MPs met PM Manmohan Singh a few days back," Singh added.

Rahm Emanuel – Democratic Congressman from Illinois, and a veteran of the Clinton administration - has accepted the President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to become the new White House chief of staff. Informing Obama of his decision on Thursday, Emanuel said he would step down as the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives to help guide the Obama administration.