'The cadres who die for the party are from the backward and scheduled caste communities while the leaders and those who enjoy power are from the forward community.' 'When this is the reality, who will stay with them?'
The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories. It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62. This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014. Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Tuesday.
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'The first time a ban on women aged between 10 and 50 entering Sabarimala came was in 1991 and was by a high court judgment.' 'So, it is only a 27-year-old ban.' 'The high court can fix customs and the Supreme Court can overturn it.' 'I don't see this as an attack on religious freedom or the practice of a religion.'
Addressing audience at a book launch in Ahmedabad, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Sunday said that "Hindu religion has solutions for all problems in the world".
The portfolios were cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the exercise had turned out to be tricky for the party state leaders.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said it was a 'needless' controversy and the decision on the invite was taken by Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, an organisation of Ezhava community which was organising the event.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi writes a letter to the nation on Tuesday listing his government's achievement as he completes on here in office.
In her just-above-a-decade-long career, says Sukanya Verma, the 32 year old has worked in a wide range of movies that reflect a free spirit, a fangirl, a feminist and (occasionally) a fool.
Describing Bodh Gaya as the "land of enlightenment", Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said his government would develop the site as the spiritual capital for it to serve as a civilisational bond between India and the Buddhist world.
The Sabarimala Karma Samiti, a platform of right-wing outfits, including VHP, appealed to media houses not to depute women journalists in the menstrual age group to cover the developments in Sabarimala.
'If we do not enter the temple, then history won't be made and all wrong rituals will get continue to be followed.' 'If they resort to violence against women and abuse them, how can they be Ayyappa Swamy's bhakts?'
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The rationalist has proved to be a greater voice of reason in death than he was during his lifetime.
Bindu from Malappuram and Durga of Kozhikode were trying hard to become part of history by trying to enter the shrine under heavy police protection.
The saffron party will use Lord Ayyappa the same way it made use of Lord Ram in the north to take away the Nair vote and make electoral inroads in the state.
Pranutan talks about her debut film, Salman sir, her dad and her illustrious grandmother.
Why must Indians adjust their time-tested system because of what the West needs, asks Sanjeev Nayyar.
'Mr Modi, unless he changes his approach, may further legitimise the idea that it is perfectly all right for Hindus to dictate terms to the minorities.' 'Indira Gandhi's political expediency did permanent economic damage. Mr Modi's may end up causing permanent social damage,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'It is our aim to capture power and rule in Kerala. We may not be able to achieve our target in one attempt.' 'By just hammering once, you will not be able to break a rock; you need to hammer the rock several times.'
With Parliament rocked by constant disruptions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit out at the Congress, accusing it of making a "mockery of democracy" and deciding to "destroy" the country as it cannot reconcile to the Lok Sabha poll defeat.
Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats are those who believed in the philosphy of Basaveshwara, 12th century social reformer
From planting seedlings to holding feasts and shutting down 500 liquor shops, Tamil Nadu government is going all out to uphold Jayalalithaa's fame on her 69th birth anniversary.
The nation on Thursday remembered Mahatma Gandhi on his 145th birth anniversary with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders paying floral tributes at his memorial in New Delhi.
Amid a raging row over alleged forced reconversions in Agra, a Hindu organisation has announced its plan to "convert a large number of people" on December 25, which was welcomed by a local Bharatiya Janata Party MP who said people are within their rights to choose their religion.
"It is 2017. I don't understand why these things are still taboo," says Randeep.
'It is wrong to assume that it is only after 1991 that we started following this ritual.' 'Ayyappan himself instructed where the temple had to be built, the rituals that had to followed and the route that had to be taken by devotees to the temple.'
'In our democracy, it is not one Rama who will deliver the ideal State (or Ramrajya) but many Vibhishanas, who speak up and question when things start going wrong,' says S S Venkateswaran.
When a university allows a small group of students to prevent classes being held; when the professor selected to hold those classes gives up and goes back to his hometown; what conclusion can be drawn, asks Jyoti Punwani.
... you won't feel anything either.
'When you are sitting in a small city like Chandigarh, you think it is tough to make it in Bollywood. Sometimes when you see actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Varun Dhawan on screen, you think these things are beyond your reach.'
'No one has ever heard of a thulabharam scale collapsing before.' 'I was very fortunate to have escaped with a head injury, which could have been a lot worse if my optic nerve was hit or say if the hook had landed on my neck.'
Both Raazi and Veere Di Wedding are interesting films that worked. There is no point reading a trend in them, says Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
'Narendra Modi is one person who came up fighting many injustices. So, he is a fighter all the time, and that makes all the difference.'
'Dibakar Banerjee isn't simply giving a particular fascistic regime the finger.' 'Here, he wants to offer us a preview of the invisible forces and human tendencies that drive fascism, blind conformity, and mass hysteria,' says Sreehari Nair.
Kerala Union of Working Journalists decided to boycott the press meets called by the BJP after saffron party workers attacked mediapersons.
Though EPS has sworn peace for now, or so it seems, his camp is said to be considering the possibility of calling an early meeting of the party's general council, to get a mandate in his favour before things went out of control. Ground-level indications are that OPS had lost his limited base, which alone had forced him to patch up with the other, reportedly at the instance of the BJP ally at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Vajpayee would not have approved either of the way the BJP now functions or of the thoughts that it entertains in its mind,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The India-Japan joint naval exercises are a strategic signal for China, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
