'Modi's advent has made the mass of Indians realise that there was absolutely nothing wrong or objectionable in proclaiming nationalism as the masthead of the polity and Hinduism as its centerpiece,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
'The Left brands any criticism of Islam -- its history, its dogmas -- 'Islamophobic', conflating criticism of an ideology with criticism of a people,' notes Vikram Johri.
The Burning Man isn't your usual festival; it's a bustling makeshift metropolis dedicated to art and community wherein almost everything that happens is created entirely by its citizens, who are active participants in the experience.
'However, to be fair, the history books will record that it was the BCCI that got the job done and, in 2008, created the tournament that transformed the game'
Meanwhile, the administration claimed it was fully prepared to deal with fresh fires in case they break out anywhere in the state due to a change in the weather.
This piece is a tribute to that corner of film criticism that they call subtextual film criticism.
Brushing aside the demand of political parties in Tamil Nadu for a total boycott, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid arrived in Colombo on Wednesday to attend the CHOGM this week saying India remains committed to the welfare of the ethnic Tamils of Sri Lanka and that "we have to remain engaged" in "enlightened national interest".
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen activist shot in the head last year by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education, has received the highest honour conferred by rights group Amnesty International.
Dil Dhadakne Do joins the debate over the role of women in India.
What does Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee thinks about India's education sector?
He said action was akin to holding highway builders responsible for lane violations
'It is strange that a country like India, which had gone through crisis after crisis resulting from militancy, insurgency and terrorist attacks, should still be practising ad hocism in managing its security imperatives,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant and former member of the Joint Intelligence Council.
The emperor has no political power, yet he enjoys a unique place in Japanese society, notes Dr Rajaram Panda.
What you must know about Anthony Martial, the world's most expensive teenage footballer.
Speaking as the chief guest at the International Vesak Day celebrations in Colombo, the prime minister said that the themes of social justice and sustainable world peace, chosen for the Vesak day, resonate deeply with Buddha's teachings.
The party is looking at Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu and the PM's to Sri Lanka to boost its expansions efforts in the state for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, reports Archis Mohan.
India's majoritarian regime is now making a dangerously fast-paced move towards theocracy, like its western counterpart did a few decades ago, warns Mohammad Sajjad.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
'His prowess in Aikido -- a Japanese martial art that focuses on harmony with the opponent to peacefully resolve conflicts -- gives Rahul Gandhi an advantage that fanatical adversaries lack,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Terming Congress' favouring a ban on opinion polls as "utterly puerile", Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Monday appealed to the people to "reject the anti-democratic Congress not only in an opinion poll but at the polling booth as well."
Mentally-challenged children find themselves ignored by India's education system.
'Does a thousand-year-old sculpture worshipped in a thriving religion belong to a foreign museum or the temple from which it was extracted?' Congress MP Shashi Tharoor asked angrily. 'They legitimately belonged to India and people of past, present and future generations are interested in re-possessing them,' a central information commissioner declared last month.
'The frequency of 'vikas' being used in speeches and slogans has reduced noticeably. Why is the 'BJP's Chanakya' so aggressive and combative?' asks Utkarsh Mishra.
Does Manmarziyaan feature in your list?
What is strange, for someone who spent a lifetime in seva, is that St Teresa's own personal journals and communication with the Church hierarchy reveal someone in "spiritual desolation", says Sankrant Sanu. Could the Indian sacred traditions have helped her?
'The poor manner in which the RJD stitched its alliance and mismanaged its electioneering, now reveals that Tejashwi was more interested in enhancing his political stature by cutting down many senior leaders, by downsizing and shrinking RJD allies, by displaying arrogance and inaccessibility and by committing silly mistakes in candidate selection,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
An insistence on only one language will inevitably be resented as a form of imperialism and resisted.
The Dalai Lama headed Kalachakra Puja in Bodh Gaya has drawn devotees from 92 countries.
"Looking forward to a wonderful day," Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweets before he leaves Colombo. G Sudhakar Nair/PTI reports from Anuradhapura
The hounding of former AMU students by some alumni over their 'wining and dining' during Ramzan is deeply disturbing, says AMU Professor Mohammad Sajjad. 'Intolerance, irrationality, bigotry, religious/sectarian hatred, and all such pernicious tendencies must be fought and resisted, more particularly by university campuses, in order to build a better society.' 'Have we, as academics, failed, and that too, quite miserably?' he asks. 'I feel like confessing and saying yes, we have indeed failed.'
Leaders and workers of the AAP from Gujarat are in the Delhi to canvass for the party.
Are we creeping back to controls on corporate decision making? Three moves over the past eight months reinforce this notion, says Kanika Datta.
From twisting ears to poking into strange claymen from China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proven time and again that he is an awkward-moment magnet. The camera loves him, and he responds in kind, always.
Bharati Dutt witnessed life-changing events that shaped India on the threshold of freedom. Her memories are an account of how ordinary Indians saw India change.
Thirty years after the massacre at Tiananmen Square, coerced collective amnesia envelops the Chinese nation about that horrific event. Claude Arpi glances back at how the student uprising could have changed the Middle Kingdom forever had the Chinese Communist party not traveled on the route of martial law.
Parliamentarians, who have been slugging it out for past the few days in Lok Sabha over several issues, were seen mixing freely at a dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday night to commemorate three years of his presidency.
'The conception of Make-in-India, Skill India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Beti Bachao, Beti Padao and so on show a visionary breadth of mind, and Modi is almost the first political leader in India to put them into effect with single-minded zeal,' notes B S Raghavan, the former civil servant.
Y V Reddy argues that while the merits of the proposal to hold simultaneous elections to Parliament and all state assemblies appear self-evident, the reality might be very different.
'Modi loves to keep others guessing and basks in the media glare, both traits that are politically helpful but are inimical to stable relations, especially in the fragile Indo-Pak equation.'
In an age of patents and intellectual property rights, it would be improper to deny that yoga comes from the Hindu tradition, says Sankrant Sanu.
