A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Uddhav Thackeray saying he buried the Hindutva ideology of Bal Thackeray for power and joined hands with Congress and socialist parties.
Women politicians bring to politics and policy a sensitivity that most of their male counterparts, at least until a generation back, lacked.
'There was trust, but perhaps there was also this apprehension that given the supreme post of prime minister, Sonia Gandhi felt her authority may be a challenged.'
Unprecedented scenes were witnessed as Congress leaders sat on a dharna near the aircraft at the tarmac and raised slogans such as 'Jab jab Modi darta hai, police ke peeche chupta hai' and 'Tanashahi nahi chalegi'.
'The Opposition thinks since the ruling party is following Savarkar's Hindutva philosophy, they want to regain their lost political mileage (by attacking Savarkar).' 'By doing so, they think they will get their power back.'
The government on Thursday lauded Oil and Natural Gas Corporation for arresting the decline in oil production by pumping in huge investments for exploration and production
If Cyrus's protestations of having no knowledge of his imminent dismissal are to be taken at face value, he was extraordinarily naive and insulated from the ground reality. There were enough straws in the wind to suggest that his relations with Ratan were fast deteriorating to a point of no return.
Chess maestro Viswanathan Anand finally reunited with his family in Chennai after being stuck in Germany for over three months as the former World chess champion reached his home in Chennai on Saturday after completing a seven-day institutional quarantine in Bengaluru. Anand had returned to India on May 30.
The government has cancelled the FCRA registration of nearly 1,900 NGOs for violating various provisions of the law in the last five years. There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till December-end 2021.
'That is the one headline the world is reading about India this week, and it is a potentially damaging story...' 'I don't think a panic mentality has set in, but this story is one that investors and market watchers are absolutely seized with.'
The G-23 group seems to have expanded with several senior Congressmen attending Wednesday's meeting.
With the Gujarat going to the polls, name calling has peaked this election season with words like neech and Babar bhakt being flung around.
After Rahul's Bharat Jodo Yatra began criss-crossing the Hindi heartland, BJP leaders have revived their attacks on 'dynasty politics' and 'family rule' in the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Earlier, only Azad was scheduled to meet Sonia Gandhi.
Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar also said that an alliance similar to the one stitched up in Bihar is needed at the national level for the next Lok Sabha elections.
Expressing concern over the situation in Afghanistan, a group of eminent persons, including former ministers K Natwar Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday urged the government to continue engaging with the Taliban and not allow any political party to use the developments in that country to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains.
Aiyar has contended that this results in revenue loss, malpractices and even death of people consuming illicit liquor
The prime minister also raised questions over the alleged appeal by former director general of the Pakistan Army, Sardar Arshad Rafiq, that senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel be made chief minister of Gujarat.
Tagging a tweet on the organisational changes by the party in Tamil Nadu, Karti Chidambaram tweeted, "These jumbo committees serve no purpose. 32 VP, 57 GS, 104 Secretaries. None will have any authority which means no accountability."
Apparently trying to inject a sense of urgency into the preparations for next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, CWG Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi is eyeing to rope in Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi as "a leader for the Games".
'A false narrative is being created, that Modi is a habitual offender when it comes to lowering the political discourse in the country.' 'Nothing can be farther from the truth,' argues Sudhir Bisht.
The ambit of the G-23 grouping increased this time as some more leaders -- Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Haryana speaker Kuldeep Sharma -- joined them.
'I do spew poison against Modi and his communalism. I am deeply depressed that India is on the edge of reaching where Germany was in January 1937 when Hitler came to power through a democratic election,' Mani Shankar Aiyar tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
The imprudent, not to mention immature, attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Congress leaders, especially on the election trail, can only be read as a sign of nerves on the eve of an important poll battle.
His time will be divided 50-50, he says, between his autorickshaw and his work as mayor.
"This bunch of illiterate people cannot probably differentiate between 'shall' and 'consider'," the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.
Shivraj Patil will visit AP, TN and Andaman and Nicobar islands, while Mani Shankar Aiyar and Dayanidhi Maran will go to TN.
'It was disappointing on two counts. One is on the leadership issue and second is how the Congress must win elections.'
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday disapproved of personal attacks on Opposition leaders, indicating that the Congress leadership was not happy with Mani Shankar Aiyar's recent "chaiwala" jibe at BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Singh issued a statement on Monday, listing those who attended the dinner, and stressed that the election was not discussed during the meeting.
Let us take a look at the reactions across the political spectrum to the hanging of Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru
Many of the stories, the pictures going out of India worldwide lately with these provocative processions, taunting of Muslims, bulldozers targeting mostly their properties, the sweeping 'othering' of a community of 200 million are painting the front pages and TV screens in the democratic world. That is where most of the friends we covet lie. Soon enough, these will also make our vital friends among the Muslim nations, from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, uneasy. The best time for course correction is now, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The standoff in Parliament over remarks of Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Mani Shankar Aiyar against Opposition ended on Wednesday with the Trinamool Congress member being reprimanded by Speaker and Aiyar expressing regrets.
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