Onkar Singh, a valuable member of the Rediff.com team over the years, breathed his last on January 13. Syed Firdaus Ashraf, who knew him intimately, remembers the ultimate newsman.
'Gogoi will be remembered as someone who recovered Assam as a state, as a people and society from the fear of insurgency that had struck the state from the 1980s till 2000.'
'They will be in prison all their life and they will understand what suffering means to Reuben's and Keenan's families.'
'If there is effective prosecution, only then we will get justice, but first let them (NIA) run the case honestly in court.'
'All restaurants and pubs must treat the issue seriously and appoint safety officers. This chalta hai attitude cannot work.'
Can Nawazuddin Siddiqui bring Bal Thackeray's powerful personality to life? Syed Firdaus Ashraf watches the Thackeray trailer to find out.
'I don't believe that it beholds democracies like us who claim to be the largest democracy in the world, to have such a thin skin about the possibility of foreign commentary.'
'We are only amplifying the voice of scientists and experts. We are gathering information by talking to experts and are sharing it. If the government chooses to ignore that, what can we do?'
'Mamata's numbers will reduce this time compared to 2016.'
'This election was the first opportunity where Kashmiris told the world they do not agree with the Centre's policies and are unhappy about their disempowerment.'
'Let Modi not be in the news, I will stop making cartoons on him.'
'If he gets bail, he will bounce back.'
'This is not the right way to speak about farmers. How can Kumaraswamy call farmers goondas?'
Indians waiting patiently in serpentine queues outside Mumbai banks tell Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf they are ready to suffer for the larger good of the country.
'After the Parliament election results many people are confused and that is why this crisis has erupted
Chandrashekhar Sawant halted the train by applying the emergency brake when he saw the debris falling as the train was approaching the collapsing bridge.
Amjed Ullah Khan, who carried out investigations of his own and helped rescue 15 women from Hyderabad, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com how the women get trapped in an underground slave market that 'sells' them to employers who force them to work for less or no pay and often under inhuman conditions.
'BJP leaders are trying to save their lives in Punjab.'
'The Congress today has lost contact with the Hindu clergy.' 'They go to to Hindu clergy only during the time of elections.'
'Oh god, these workers will now spread the virus! Their only concern was to think about themselves.' 'The middle class was only concerned with flattening the curve of coronavirus and they were not bothered about how these workers live in one room with 10 people or 20 people.'
'After the NRC in Assam, things have changed for Muslims in India.'
'This government will end after five years, but farmers will not end after five years.' 'This is the source of our confidence.'
It was Dev Anand's dream to put Indian cinema on the world map and he thought Guide was the perfect film for it.
Within four years of winning a single party majority in the Lok Sabha with 282 seats -- the first time it has happened in 30 years -- the BJP has lost it.
'If people want to blackmail others to get information or harm things, so why will someone give them information?'
Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala explains why he thinks Modi should be at the helm of India.
'On the Kashmir and Pakistan question, it is startling that Vajpayee and Advani did more than anybody in Indian history.'
'We know how to kill a terrorist, but we do not know how to stop an innocent boy getting radicalised.'
'When a criminal assumes a new identity he think everybody knows them by that name only.' 'Criminals forget that the police are always hunting for them to put them in jail.'
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
'They want to establish the silence of the graveyard in university campuses across India.' 'They cannot bear any questioning or dissent. They want subordination and obedience.' 'And that is not going to happen,' says Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat.
'Many BJP MLAs and ministers tell us the police does not listen to them.'
'The government is saying that essential commodities are exempted, but on the ground there is no competent officer from the government who can say which is an essential commodity and which is not.'
'We have been appealing to various governments for so many years that there should be no dams in the Himalayas, but no one listens.' 'Nature responded in its own way.'
'Right now, only religious groups of Hindus and Muslims are working on the ground.' 'The government is missing.'
'We were expecting at least they would be held guilty, but instead they have gone scot-free'
'Crony capitalism will gain due to these Acts.'
'Today, we being the majority pass a law and if the Opposition parties do not like it, they throw files at the Chair, and beat up women marshals.'
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