Interestingly, the choice of August 5 as the day of the bhoomi pujan coincides with the abolition of Kashmir's special status on the same day a year ago. Perhaps the RSS-BJP wants August 5 to be remembered as the date on which the foundation stone of their cherished Hindu rashtra was laid, notes Amulya Ganguli.
There are laws that are as out of time and place today as the Rowlatt Act was a century ago, explains Aakar Patel.
'Chinese government, people and the military were angry over India's dangerous move in Doklam'
Twenty personnel of the India-China LAC guarding Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force have been awarded gallantry medals for displaying bravery during standoff and clashes between militaries of the two countries in the eastern Ladakh region last year.
China dismissed the reports as groundless.
It currently has between 140 and 150 nuclear weapons in its control and stockpiled around 200 to 300 kilogram of plutonium.
A u-turn by the BJP will be an apocalyptic occurrence in Indian politics and society, argues Amulya Ganguli.
One priority for Delhi (for the new foreign secretary in particular) is to have an in-depth discussion with Dharamsala as soon as possible, suggests Claude Arpi.
'India needs to closely monitor the discussions at the UNSC and make counter-measures as this touches its core interests', points out Srikanth Kondapalli.
'Whatever comes in the minds of the Pakistani generals and Pakistan military, they just go for it.' 'They do not care about the consequences for their country or the consequences to the people of Pakistan.'
An economist from J&K and a popular face from the RSS/BJP sat together to craftily weave an alliance in what is one of the most difficult agenda-setting exercises in recent history.
He also participated in the 1947-48 war against Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. He was a founder Instructor of the National Defence Academy during 1949-51.
"The country has taken an important decision with the inspiration of Sardar Patel, to walk a new path to resolve a decades-old problem," Modi said.
Separatists and their wide network must be neutralized for peace in the Valley
'The MEA, hopefully, made it clear that the Indian PM can't be seen in Xi Jinping's company when China has, for all intents and purposes, annexed over 1,000 sq kms of Indian territory in eastern Ladakh, and essentially that the Wuhan spirit and the Mamallapuram spirit have turned into vinegar.'
One unwanted fallout of Stan Swamy's death from the government's point of view will be the increased attention on those senior citizens who are still in jail on charges which are taking a long time to prove, believes Amulya Ganguli.
For the first time in our political history, Pakistan has become centre stage of the incumbent's campaign, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The report did not name the leader but said it was addressed by the "supreme commander" of the organisation, a title with which Hizb Chief Sayed Salauddin was referred to by the outfit.
A number of Congress leaders across the country have gone against the party's stand in Parliament on abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir by supporting the Centre's move and a bill to bifurcate the state. The Congress has strongly opposed the move and the bill to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.
The Pakistan high commission has invited Kashmiri separatist leaders for consultations with Sartaj Aziz ahead of the National Security Advisor-level talks with India in New Delhi next week.
'The response to savagery and mass injustice is never a persistent howl.' 'There will be, among the victims, those who choose to forget the scars, those who go on living, those who challenge the overall environment of sentimentality.' 'And the more effort you put into including these other voices, into assimilating these spoilsports, the more balanced your depiction of the tragedy in question will be,' observes Sreehari Nair.
RRR isn't the "spectacle" it is made out to be, argues Sreehari Nair.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who is accused of masterminding the Mumbai terror attacks, on Friday said the only solution to resolving problems between India and Pakistan is the 'liberation of Jammu and Kashmir', failing which radical groups will resort to the 'option of Jihad'. Addressing a gathering of about 10,000 people at the Mall Road in Lahore to mark 'Kashmir Solidarity Day', Saeed said this is the message he would convey to Home Minister P Chidambaram.
'The idea that the J&K issue gets internationalised by allowing foreign delegations to visit it appears bizarre to me because the issue is not about Article 370 or the decisions relating to the abrogation, but more to do with the post decision handling,' notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought a special rehabilitation package from the Centre for the flood-ravaged state.
'India is not going to accept whatever the Chinese say. That is not going to happen.'
'My mother is a lady with a lot of emotional stability and strength. And wisdom.' 'When I was younger, she would tell me that if I ever refused water to anyone, I would have to drink gutter water.' 'When I grew up, she would say, "Be liberal when you know what you are talking about, and be conservative when you don't".'
While they were invited with protests at Geelani's home, they were turned away by Yasin Malik, who was lodged in jail.
'Given this dissonance between India's age-old multicultural tenets and the anti-minority temper of the present times, it cannot be easy for the BJP to maintain its balancing act to convince the world that all is well,' observes Amulya Ganguli.
Asserting that there is a large presence of Chinese troops and workers in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Northern Command Chief Lt Gen T K Parnaik on Tuesday said that China would not like to "interfere" in border conflict between India and Pakistan.
The prosecution in the Mumbai terror attacks case on Thursday appealed to the trial court to modify the charge framed by it on the issue of 'waging war against the nation' by arguing that one of the objectives of the conspiracy was to separate Jammu and Kashmir from India. The appeal comes in the wake of the charges framed excluding the prosecution's point that the Mumbai carnage was part of a Jihadi plan to liberate Kashmir.
'The adversary will always exploit India's anti-national elements.'
Modi's hardline policy towards Pakistan and J&K has created numerous leverages and bargaining positions that New Delhi can bring to the bargaining table and translate into concessions, argues Ajai Shukla.
With Azadi's Daughter -- The Journey of a Liberal Muslim Woman, Seema Mustafa chronicles her journey from the violence-ridden 1980s when she covered riots in Assam, Punjab and Kashmir. She says the book heavily borrows anecdotes from her personal life, and presents her views on not only her personal journey but also reflects upon the issues that riddle the Indian Muslim.
China on Monday dodged a direct response to reports of presence of the People's Liberation Army's troops at a forward post in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and said it "regretted" that the media keeps "popping up" stories of incursions into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control.
India has over 4,000 medium tanks, but not a single light tank. It remains to be seen whether the Ladakh face-off with China galvanises a change, observes Ajai Shukla.
'If the virulence of COVID-19 has muted the toxicity of the BJP's communalism, it will be an example of good coming out of the pandemic,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
The cases are related to gunning down of Indian Air Force personnel and the Rubiya Syed kidnapping.
Armed forces and the police can only ensure that violence is kept under control but for any kind of lasting peace, politicians will have to find an answer to the perception that the Indian State is anti-Islam. Therein lies the biggest challenge to the Modi government, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retired).
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
