'South movies have the perfect script, the perfect action and the perfect romance.' 'That's why these films are running in theatres.'
'Earlier we had been told we were the crown of India.'
'Bommai was a minister in my cabinet. It is not ethically correct.'
While there is no change in the strength of the Modi-led CCPA over its two tenures, what has changed is its profile.
As the Aam Aadmi Party heads for a resounding win in Delhi, Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists the reasons behind Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's triumph.
'It is almost certainly wrong in assuming that the Modi government will use its strong mandate to undertake some serious reform measures.' 'For it is fairly clear that the government's priorities lie elsewhere, in the powerful home minister's domain,' notes T N Ninan.
The Congress won 77 seats or 42% of seats in the 2017 polls. How then can Gujarat be called a BJP bastion, asks Sanjeev Nayyar.
'It is not something that is going to unfold in the next few weeks or even the next few months.' 'This process will continue for some time. And that's how it should be.' 'If the politicians are coming on board, then that is a welcome step.'
'Whatever the legal position, it is my understanding that in practice, the Indian authorities have always treated Hindu refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh far more sympathetically than Muslims,' notes Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'After the Congress's 2014 Lok Sabha debacle, commentators identified three major shortcomings: Leadership, organisation, and ideology.' 'Here we are six years later -- and what are the Congress's major failings? Leadership, organisation, and ideology.' 'The party seems to have learned very little during its six years in the Opposition wilderness.'
One India is doing great against the coronavirus, lauding the gains of the lockdown and thanking the government, and the other lacks commitment, says Sumit Bhattacharya.
Driven by hardship, adventurous souls mortgage their homesteads in Punjab or Haryana, pawn the family jewellery and borrow heavily to satisfy the greed of the criminal traffickers who organise their trips, points out Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
There's no telling how long this government will last or how cordial the relations between the alliance partners will be, but it tells us that while constancy and fealty pay, timing is everything, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Uddhav Thackeray would do well to remember: Once he decides on a course of action, Bhagat Singh Koshyari never gives up, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'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 BJP is scared it may lose the Delhi municipal elections where they have been in power for the last 15 years.'
At the moment, there appears to be no alternative political narrative to the one lying buried under the debris of havoc caused on this front by the fallout of 'August 5, 2019', asserts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'It is creditable that the BJP builds the organisation set-up and then looks for leaders.' 'The Congress on the other hand has to care for the leaders more than the organisation.'
Inability to take everyone along during his nearly four-year term led to Trivendra Singh Rawat's undoing. He tried to take control of all major departments by holding on to more than 40 of them, but still could not deliver.
Given the many policy areas where the Centre and the states have not been seeing eye to eye in the last few years, it is time the Modi government convenes a meeting of the Inter-State Council, recommends A K Bhattacharya.
'It is astonishing that such a serious issue be handled in so casual and cavalier a fashion, but this has become what is expected of this government,' observes Aakar Patel.
'The message they want to send to the country is that they can do anything by hook or crook'
'The only reason why it has taken him in is to rile the Congress and also to show, yet again, how fleet-footed the saffron camp is when it comes to raiding the pastures of its rivals,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
'We will interrogate and punish the guilty.' 'Please don't use this case as a Maharashtra versus Bihar issue.' 'This is the most deplorable thing to do.'
The standard line that is used for anyone -- academics, minorities, farmers, dissident industrialists -- who points out that what the government is doing is wrong is being anti-national and separatists, reveals Aakar Patel.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah will need him if they want to win UP again in 2022 and India in 2024. This signals a Yogi Adityanath-sized change in BJP politics, even under Mr Modi, Shekhar Gupta.
'For the UDF, it will depend on how far Rahul Gandhi will succeed with the goodwill he has.' 'That will make a difference.'
'If Modi-Shah had not changed the leadership, one section would have parted ways with the BJP for sure.'
Even Subramanian Swamy, who says he is an ardent supporter of the prime minister, has been taking proxy pot shots at him.' 'At the ground level too, there is resentment from workers and local leaders who have perhaps not got whatever they may have wanted,' notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Declaring that he has no ambition of becoming prime minister, Pawar is holding Rahul Gandhi's hand, reassuring Mayawati and reaching out to Mamata Banerjee, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Even as the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress were burning the candle at both ends to hammer out a deal over forming the government in Maharashtra, the Amit Shah-led BJP was quietly planning its moves.
The seat-share progression should worry the BJP. From the previous assembly polls of 2017, through the assembly segments in its favour in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and now in 2022, the BJP's seat-share has come down from a high 312 to 275 to 255. N Sathiya Moorthy reads the political tea leaves after the UP and Punjab election verdicts.
'India Inc has been afraid to criticise the government of the day for many years now, and it is perhaps unfair to blame the current one alone,' says Shyamal Majumdar.
'"We have lost our jobs, we have lost our savings, we have been beaten up for being on the streets, we have walked for a thousand kilometres, we have seen our children starve or die because nobody came to help us".' 'For such people, the relationship with the government has gone,' notes Aakar Patel.
'She is worried that the small fry have been caught, soon the big fish too will be caught.'
'2019 now looks like a real contest.' 'It will not be a repeat of 2014 if the BJP has to deal with erosion of its already low vote share of 31 per cent, and also faces a united Opposition,' says T N Ninan.
The high table might have yielded relief at personal levels, but its political implications look forbidding at this point in time, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'...It won't help the party run a peaceful and equitable India,' warns Vir Sanghvi.
10 reasons why the Congress-JD-S government is on the brink of collapse.
'He spoke about 20 jawans in Ladakh, but he couldn't even name China.' 'He said the world had seen what had been achieved, even though we Indians don't know because Modi has himself said that nothing had happened and nobody had come,' points out Aakar Patel.
