Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and chief ministers of various BJP-ruled states attended the ceremony.
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is predicted to win both seats -- Varanasi and Vadodara. Kejriwal is places at number 2 in Varanasi, says the ABP News-Nielsen exit poll. Senior BJP leader L K Advani is likely to win the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
'Hazare has only himself to blame for getting isolated. He was blind to the fact that Kejriwal and Bedi were capitalising on his success.'
'I believe politics was imposed on it by the censor board, when it gave the film's trailer an A certificate, hoping to deny children, teenagers the opportunity to watch it during prime time television shows,' says Aseem Chhabra.
'You can never say never in politics.' 'We may still see the return of AAP, but hopefully not of the same abusive politics again,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Dr Kalam, the scientist with the poet's heart, started the journey of his life from a small town in Tamil Nadu.
Prathamesh Murkute explains why he has volunteered his personal time and money to support a movement called the Aam Aadmi Party.
These elections will be remembered for the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, feels Neeta Kolhatkar.
Looking forward to catch Kill Dill this weekend? Here's a lowdown on its director.
Aam Aadmi Party rebels Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday stopped short of announcing the creation of a new political outfit even as they said they were starting a new "movement" while slamming the lack of scope for dialogue within the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
All four employees of a Fabindia outlet in Goa, who were arrested after Union minister Smriti Irani spotted a hidden camera trained towards its trial room, were on Saturday granted bail by a local court.
Striking workers lacked support in the Pimpri-Chinchwad-Chakan belt.
'Anything that is anti-growth is demonised because growth is the biggest religion.' 'Growth is synonymous with progress. In fact, it is the opposite.' 'Exponential growth is cancer.'
India dominated the range and the ring as Shreyasi Singh's double trap gold shored up the medal tally while the entire men's Indian boxing contingent made the semi-finals to be assured of podium finishes in an unprecedented performance on Day 7 of the 21st Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast on Wednesday.
As Maharashtra's main political players, the Congress-nationalist Congress Party alliance and Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, brace for the Lok Sabha and subsequent state assembly polls this year, they would have to contend with a new opponent, the Aam Aadmi Party, which has decided to take the electoral plunge in a big way.
'I don't think we will need to support or get support from the Congress. I hope there is no such political exigency. The Congress will be gone from the political scene. There is no lesser evil. The BJP and Congress are the two sides of the same evil coin,' anti-Koodankulam nuclear plant activist and new AAP member S P Udaykumar tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
Irom Sharmila's decision to end her 16-year-old fast against the AFSPA continues to be hotly debated and contested in Imphal.
Her book is less of a Hindutva-loving diatribe against the Dynasty than its detractors suggest, but it is still hard to agree with much of what she writes, says Vir Sanghvi on Tavleen Singh's latest book.
'If I am angry, then I do not have the right to be in the Cabinet. Whatever I have done, I have ensured that farmers' interests are protected,' Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, who 'abstained' from a meeting with the President on the ordinance, tells Rashme Sehgal.
'He never believes in loose talk.' 'If he is done with you, then you go your way, he goes his way.'
Despite a strong anti-corruption mood, where election costs are seen as the driver for graft, politicians don't change their spots. Unsurprisingly, this trend of unleashing cash can be expected to continue in this Lok Sabha elections too, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Two Indian-Americans returned to India from the US to contest the elections from the AAP. They may have lost the elections but Deelip Mhaske and Dr Prabhat Ranjan Das have no regrets and speak of their experiences. George Joseph reports.
India's squash players wrapped up a historic performance at the Asian Games, clinching an unprecedented men's team gold after the women's side settled for its first ever silver in Incheon on Saturday.
Even a 6 percent vote-share would make AAP an important player on the national scene. The key lies in strategically concentrating AAP's vote, especially in the cities, so that it can break Narendra Modi's momentum, besides defeating an already weak Congress, says Praful Bidwai.
AAP has been vociferous since its inception and has mainly raised issues pertaining to corruption. A political party must have crisp and specific standon all issues which concern the nation not just corruption or secularism; and AAP has failed to deliver on all these counts, says Aditya Shah and Aadit Kapadia.
In our special series re-visiting great Hindi film classics, we look back at Sunny Deol and Dimple Kapadia starrer Arjun, 1985.
Muzzling NGOs is unbecoming of a democracy. Self-confident democracies encourage, indeed applaud, the involvement of citizens' associations, including NGOs, in social and political decision-making and development planning. Instead, our paranoid government bullies and terrorises them, says Praful Bidwai.
'If there is one message coming out of Delhi, it is that the country is ready for inclusive, bipartisan politics, not based on caste, community and religion, but based on issues of a modern India.'
Could the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP become the rallying point of new energies that are getting unleashed all over urban India, in quest for a different kind of politics, to such an extent that he can rein in Narendra Modi? It all depends on how it pans out its politics in the coming weeks, says Neerja Chowdhury.
India's squash players wrapped up a historic performance at the Asian Games, clinching an unprecedented men's team gold after the women's side settled for its first ever silver in Incheon on Saturday.
'Greenpeace has been brutal in targeting both India and the Manmohan Singh government. The push to go after Indian coal is driven by its long-term agenda. What is surprising is that China has not been meted out the same treatment, despite the fact that the rise of China as an economic power has been built around generating power from coal. 'Being richer and more affluent, yet far less democratic, there is less room for an NGO such as Greenpeace to drive home a complicated global agenda, so there is more of a tendency to go along with anything the Chinese offer despite China being the biggest by far with regard to coal use. But for India, it reserves tougher prescriptions, notably for its middle class, says Srinivas Bharadwaj.
'Corruption is rampant in every office in the state from the villages right up to Gandhinagar. I have witnessed all these issues first hand... Before Narendra Modi became chief minister Gujarat had a debt of Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore. Today it is Rs 180,000 crore. There has been six-fold jump in public debt in Gujarat in the last ten years... Every child born in Gujarat owes a debt of Rs 30,000 today. How can you call this development? Look at how high taxes are in Gujarat. Look at the condition of our public health system. There are not enough doctors or nursing staff in government hospitals; not enough teachers in schools and colleges.' Three-time BJP MLA Dr Kanubhai Kalsaria rips apart Narendra Modi's policies.
Prakash Javadekar enjoys being information and broadcasting and parliamentary affairs minister, but heading the green ministry is turning out to be thornier than he had expected.
'Give time to the 2013 Act to work. I not only think that the 2013 law is workable, I believe that the 2013 law is a compromise, a balanced middle path and protects the interests of land owners and livelihood losers.'
'This is not a Sanjay Baru or Natwar Singh type of book. It's not a memoir. It's not a book to reveal conversations, real or imaginary. This is not a book to position myself at the centre of the world.' Jairam Ramesh on his stint as environment minister.
'After the 2002 riots when the media and other political parties started blaming Modiji, thousands of people like us -- now, it must be crores of us -- started becoming staunch supporters of Modiji. The more you blamed him the more of our support he gained.' Pramod Singh of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh is one of Narendra Modi's biggest fans and a member of Modi's India272 Web initiative, spreading the leader's message on social media and the Internet.
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