Syed Firdaus Ashraf covers national politics, and sometimes movies too -- a truly wide arc! You can e-mail the author at firdausa@rediff.co.in
'We are not AI. We are allowed to break, and rebuild.'
'Even today illegal foreign immigrants live in Assam and their names might be on the voters list. This we can get rid of only by doing SIR.'
'Even as the Supreme Court's anti-punitive demolition judgment nears its first anniversary, no formal contempt proceedings have been initiated either by the Supreme Court or any high court against officers or demolition squads who have acted in violation of it.'
'The implementation of the judgment has largely been left to the discretion of the very executive authorities it sought to restrain.'
Gustaakh Ishq feels like a cinematic revival of everything we once loved about Urdu story-telling, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
From appointment letters becoming mandatory to gig workers receiving social security to enhanced rights for women and contract labour, the changes reflect India's attempt to balance ease of doing business with stronger worker welfare.
'It makes law-making on the part of the state governments much more difficult and throws up bottlenecks as governors are not acting on bills.'
If the Thackerays don't save a Marathi school in their backyard, who will, wonders Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Ten days after the devastating car explosion near the Red Fort, in which 13 people lost their lives and several others were injured, investigators say the incident is part of a broader terror conspiracy involving a professional network of radicalised individuals based in Faridabad, Saharanpur and Kashmir.
'When you compare Bihar's poverty from its earlier times, then there is a huge difference. Things have improved a lot. And migration has played an important role in reducing poverty.'
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
'Jan Suraaj Party was the BJP's 'B' team. It is proven now.' 'You have seen their performance and it proves that they only worked to dent Opposition votes by working for the BJP.'
A seasoned politician and two-term Member of Parliament, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, who has served as a Union minister and senior Congress leader, resigned from the Congress party, marking the end of his decades-long association with an organisation that his family has been part of for three generations. In an interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff he speaks why he quit the party.
Her brother, Celina Jaitly says, is a fourth-generation soldier, a man who dedicated his youth to the nation's service and received the Chief of Army Staff's Commendation for Gallantry.
'If there's one thing I wish I had done differently when I was hit by a stroke last January,' Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath said on X (formerly Twitter), 'it would be to go to the hospital immediately, within the Golden Hour, instead of thinking I could just sleep it off.'
A social media spat erupted on X between TheLiverDoc and Zoho Corporation's Chief Scientist, Sridhar Vembu, after the later endorsed a claim linking childhood vaccinations to autism.
'The BJP only talks of Kashmiri Pandits when elections are held.'
'The BJP's top leadership realised that their cadres are not happy with them, so they changed the ministers and got in new faces.'
'He is a man of action and goes to the ground and solves the problem.' 'Be it the Air India crash of Ahmedabad, Morbi bridge collapse, Deesa blast or Gambhira bridge collapse, he is on the spot.'
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has issued an official statement addressing ongoing speculation surrounding the death of Indian singer and composer Zubeen Garg, stating that preliminary investigations do not indicate foul play. The statement comes amid rising public concern and misinformation spreading online regarding the circumstances of the singer's death last month.
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