A Ganesh Nadar listens in during Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha's speech to the IMC in Mumbai.
On a visit to India in 2013, writer Ved Mehta -- who passed into the ages on Sunday January 10, 2021 - gave Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel a rare glimpse into his state of mind and what he thinks of the changes he encounters in his motherland.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa not only collected funds for charity and diverted it to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but also helped the outfit legitimise money collected through extortion, counterfeiting, smuggling and animal skin trade. Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com reports
The Indian Army, the Border Security Force, Hindu temples and the people of India, all have been targetted by fidayeen from Pakistan.
'I am in mortal danger not personally, but politically,' Mani Shankar Aiyar tells Anjali Puri.
If the radical Islamic movement had been largely peaceful, Headley would have probably found another way to ensure real life excitement.' 'But I really do believe that his relationship with radical Islam is real. Very real.' 'It was a match for his desires.'
'In the long run, because of international pressure, Headley's testimony will become credible in Pakistan also. And if Pakistan decides to examine him as a witness in their trial then I think there is a chance of conviction against Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.'
It's been 16 years since Rajeev Samant launched the first Sula wine by selling 50,000 cases. Today Sula is on track to sell a million cases this year.
'I have been managing people since I was very young. I really enjoy it.' 'For me, age is only a proxy for experience.'
'Kulbhushan Jadhav is a very sad case.' 'I think Pakistan handled this issue very clumsily.' 'They gave too much of publicity and also said that they will hang him.' 'Now obviously, they are not going to hang him.'
'Khaike Paan Banarasiwala doesn't sound like a Hindi song,' Kishore Kumar said. 'I don't think I can sing this song.' We pleaded with him. Finally, he relented on one condition...
'The combination of the LeT and the ISI is the most dangerous terrorist challenge in the world because it carries a real and present danger of provoking nuclear war.'
'An operation such as the Mumbai attacks, which needed expert technical assessment, money and time to prepare, could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the ISI's leadership.'
Famous and long believed to be trusted Indian brands have wilted against foreign brands, says Mohan Guruswamy.
Saroj Kumar Rath, author of the newly-published book Fragile Frontiers: The Secret History of Mumbai Terror Attacks, speaks to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
Ashish Chauhan is generous in his praise for his former bosses and doesn't flinch in pointing out the reasons why the BSE lost out in the initial years of the NSE.
In the first part of a month-long series, we reveal a fascinating part of the legendary actor, Pran.
Manu Kumar Jain, India head, Xiaomi, tells Sangeeta Tanwar how the Chinese smartphone maker won over the Indian market.
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
'A close look at the time-lines tells you that exactly as the back-channel negotiations were in their most crucial stage, "somebody" was planning the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai,' says Shekhar Gupta questioning Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's account of a peace deal with India.
The Tata empire turns 150 this year. R Gopalakrishnan, former director, Tata Sons Ltd, imagines a conversation among the group's founder Jamsetji, his son Dorabji, his successor, Nowroji Saklatwala, and his successor, J R D Tata.
The band's trip to Rishikesh delayed their split till 1970! This & other unheard stories...
'I realised I didn't have to wait for a spectacular event or a character to emerge. All stories of ordinary people, of your family, are extraordinary,' novelist Yasmeen Premji tells Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com
Ratan Tata was the first one to realise that Indian companies had become a prisoner to tradition and needed to radically innovate.
'People on both sides of the Hindutva debate need to read and understand the texts first,' Bibek Debroy, translator of the unabridged Mahabharata, tells Kanika Datta as he gets started on a similar project for the Ramayana.
Lunch with BS: Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy chief minister, Punjab
Nehru decided to build The Ashok in New Delhi to host a UNESCO conference. For a prime minister focussed on India building with projects like the Bhakra-Nangal Dam, IITs and factories, "the hotel spoke of the gumption of the country at that time." Manavi Kapur traces the eventful journey of the hotel, which has now completed 60 years.
'Unni swung up his MP5 and fired a burst across the atrium. The bullets hammered into the wall. Then he bounded up the stairs leading to the other set of doors opening into the Palm Lounge. It was a terribly risky move because he didn't have a buddy to cover him.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan makes a gallant attempt to deflect accusations against the United Progressive Alliance's record in his freewheeling conversation with Business Standard's Aditi Phadnis over lunch.
'Laxmikant-Pyarelal called upon Abba to ask him to sing this ghazal. "Please sing this ghazal for us. The producer is keen that only you should sing this ghazal, so that it will have the desired effect. But he doesn't have money enough to pay you".' Abba's heart was bound to melt on hearing this. He consented immediately. His daughter-in-law Yasmin K Rafi remembers the legendary Mohammed Rafi who would have been 91 today.
Nutan was the kind of woman Shammi got drawn to -- sensitive, aware and erudite, yet seductively feminine.
Hepzi Anthony takes a look at the procedures the government has put in place to streamline the process of handling runaway children
'The Indian and Israeli rabbis were singing a small departure song for brave little Moshe, who had spent many, likely, heartbreaking but bittersweet hours at this home of his babyhood, looking at the drawings his mother had made for him, that were still up in his room.'
Prince William and Princess Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, collected quite a few Mumbai hearts on a hot two days in April.
'If Indian armed forces entered Pakistan and succeeded in inflicting major damage on the Pakistani army and occupied territory in the Pakistani heartland, there is reason to think the Pakistani military would use some nuclear weapons against the incoming Indian forces to compel India to stop.'
'These ISIS terrorists want to smash Western civilisation, smash India. For the time being though, their main target would be the US and Europe.'