With some variations, all regional political formations, whether in power presently or out of it, share some common features: Tight family control of the political apparatus, key members in elected or appointed positions, obvious wealth but not quite known sources of income, and family factionalism, sometimes open and bitter, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
The impact of Shinzo Abe's towering personality is such that even in death, Abe remains a polarising figure, asserts Dr Rajaram Panda.
'The Centre and state need to take a unified approach and take concerted action before this matter assumes menacing proportions because unemployment, the drug trade and the levels of frustration among the youth make them vulnerable to any maverick who promises something better.'
The Sri Lankan Parliament is all set to elect the successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a three-way presidential contest on Wednesday, following a high-voltage political drama which saw the former president fleeing the country and resigning after a popular uprising against his government for mismanaging the economy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday linked opposition parties coming together against the Bharatiya Janata Party to his government's campaign against corruption, and asserted that the clampdown on graft will continue without being hindered by "false allegations".
Stalin is preparing the DMK to go the whole hog in making 'federalism', 'Tamil self-respect' and 'communal cohesiveness' the party's poll plank next year, and package the BJP and its possible allies, as 'divisive' and 'reactionary', predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
"Across the world Indian society is known as Hindu. All Bharatiya (Indians) are Hindus and we all are one entity," he said.
The attack on Rushdie sent shock waves around the world, with world leaders and literary stalwarts saying they were appalled at the attack on the author who championed free speech and lived under the threat of assassination for nearly half his life.
The Nobel panel said the group made a decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.
A G Perarivalan alias Arivu is now a free man following a legal battle, and that long fight provides scope for throwback moments of Tamil sentiment that propelled the struggle which was backed by most political parties and successive governments in Tamil Nadu.
Al Qaeda's reclusive chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who played a central role in the 9/11 terror attacks and later created the group's regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent, was killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan's Kabul, in the biggest blow to the global terror network since killing of its founder Osama bin Laden in 2011 in Pakistan.
How could a President, seen as a political time-server, have manoeuvred things to a stage where he could strike fear into the heart of a prime minister who, only two-and-a-half years before, had been elected with the largest majority in history?
Days after his shows at a Gurugram bar were called off following threats by right-wing organisations, stand-up comic Kunal Kamra on Sunday wrote an open letter to the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), challenging it to condemn Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse.
'The senior army leadership has no interest in reconciling with Imran Khan, and no interest in seeing him return to power.'
"The killer of Kanhaiya Lal, Riyaz Attari is a member of the BJP," Khera said in a tweet after the press conference.
'Will the liberals explain if minorities are under such a dire threat in India, how come more and more groups want to separate from the majority and want themselves to be declared a minority?' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'If Godse's last wish was to let everyone know his views, what's wrong in that?'
The 225-member Parliament will elect the new president by a secret vote on July 20, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said on Friday.
'Teaching lessons is the objective behind every school.' 'For the moment, a state seems intent to teach a lesson -- that students of Classes 4, 5 and 6 can wage war against the mighty Indian nation,' says Krishna Prasad.
The present happenings in Manipur are the wages of continued neglect, and not so benign at that, of a vital region and its people. Had we lavished on the North East even a fraction of the care and resources we do on Kashmir, things would not have come to this pass, asserts Shreekant Sambrani.
Is Stalin positioning himself as a central figure in the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party, anti-Narendra Modi formation?
The probe into the alleged plot to target politicians including members of Parliament, members of Legislative Assembly and also some journalists by 15 terror suspects belonging to Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami who were nabbed by city police, has been handed over to the National Investigative Agency, a top police official said.
Also, an instance of a politician from the desert state allegedly donating about Rs 2 lakh to the organisation is under the radar of agencies probing the case.
A Pakistani judge on Saturday cancelled former premier Imran Khan's arrest warrants in the Toshakhana corruption case and allowed him to go home without indicting him, amidst clashes between his supporters and police outside the court complex in Islamabad.
The JD-U leader's outbursts against his former ally came in response to queries from journalists about Shah's speech earlier in the day at Sitab Diara.
In his concluding remarks at the 'Chintan Shivir' in Udaipur, Gandhi had said that it is only the Congress that can fight the BJP at the national level and regional outfits cannot fight this battle of ideology.
Following al-Zawahiri's death, supporters of al-Qaeda, or its affiliated terrorist organisations, may seek to attack US facilities, personnel, or citizens
Peeved over the silence of leaders of separatist groups, their factions in Pakistan and in occupied-Kashmir are making desperate attempts to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir by giving calls from across the border for 'bandhs' and strikes to mark the death anniversary of Mirwaiz Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, officials said.
'We will bring up students with an imperfect understanding of their own history and a superficial understanding of science.' 'This is not what we should be doing to future generations.'
Much of the the-foreign-media-is-biased hysteria that we see on social media these days is provoked by the bad press the regime is getting in the West, points out Vir Sanghvi.
The National Geographic Traveler magazine has released its go-now destinations for 2015. And apna Hyderabad is on it!
The Sangh chief said, "Even Veer Savarkar had said if the Hindu community gets united and organised, it will speak about the Bhagwad Gita and not about finishing or harming anyone."
It is clear to any observer that the BJP risks its demolition drive boomeranging on itself. Except for one unpredictable factor in the works -- Rahul Gandhi himself, observes Shyam G Menon.
Rajiv, who was the sixth and youngest prime minister of India, was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during a poll campaign.
Though dubbed as the "war hero", the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
'And no one expected the case to be detected, because there was nothing.'
Who took the decision for the prime minister, the nation's single most popular leader, to take the road route when they should have already known about the farmers' protests and also the grave risks involved, when and how, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police has registered two cases against medical students in Srinagar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for celebrating Pakistan's victory over India in a T20 international cricket match, officials said on Tuesday.
In a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said divisive ideologies anchored in hate and prejudice were making every effort to weaken the strong foundation of India.
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