'What kind of insensitivity does it take to get taxpayers to cough up for an aircraft costing a few billion for your personal use, at a time when the country you head is in so much trouble?' asks Sherna Gandhy.
'There are moments, and the hanging of Yakub Memon was one, where all of the gathered injustices are crystallised. Those gathered at the graveyard were not there to protest. They came to sympathise because they are also victims,' says Aakar Patel.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board said it will consider lifting the ban on its Indian Cricket League players at its next Board meeting after India offered a similar amnesty.
Successful demonetisation will help in raising revenues on sustained basis as more and more people will come under the tax net, says a World Bank report.
India's ODI specialist Ambati Rayudu announced his retirement from first-class cricket to focus on One-Day Internationals and T20s.
'The government is going to introduce legislation that would make it easy for Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians, Sikhs and Jains to migrate legally to India.' 'But looking at that list, my entire well-meaning question, as may be obvious, is: What about Muslims? They seem to have been specifically left out of this formulation,' says Aakar Patel.
India and the US joined the global community on Tuesday in backing Afghan government's efforts to involve Taliban elements in the peace process but made it clear that amnesty should only be offered to those who had no links with the Al Qaeda and other terror groups.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has shortlisted the changes it hopes to see in Budget 2017.
'What the long term repercussions of the Ayodhya judgment are will unfold in time.' 'And I hope the consequences are not going to be as damaging to us as they were to Pakistan,' says Aakar Patel.
A report by Amnesty International titled 'Safe Schools: Every Girl's Right' has found that a shockingly high number of girl students in India face physical, sexual and psychological abuse on a regular basis. According to the report, instances of abuse are highest in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi, with the national capital, where 87 per cent of young female students reported facing abuse, listed as the worst place for young female students.
'Till today, the RSS only speaks of Hindu Rashtra but never explains what it means. It cannot, because it would be unacceptable to even a majority of Hindus, forget the Indian Muslims and Christians,' says Aakar Patel.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India's all-powerful Working Committee, which meets in Mumbai on August 13, would decide whether former Indian Cricket League (ICL) players can take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) to be held in March-April next year.
'We have done majoritarianism through other means.' 'The Citizenship Amendment Act, read together with the National Register of Citizens, will prove what I mean,' notes Aakar Patel.
'The Modi government did not deny it had acquired the NSO platform, and did not deny it was spying on its citizens by hacking into their phones,' says Aakar Patel.
'Even before the outbreak of the flu, it had become clear that the tax revenue numbers for 2019-2020 were overestimated,' observes A K Bhattacharya.
'The goal is achievable. What is stopping us from getting there?' asks Aakar Patel.
The Aam Aadmi Party and talks about next Lok Sabha elections seem to be hogging the limelight when it comes to discussions around India at the World Economic Forum's annual talk-fest of the rich and famous from across the globe.
'There is no acceptable definition of what terrorism is and who a terrorist is.'
Players who have severed their links with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) through the one-time amnesty offer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seem all set to be seen in action in the Indian Premier League's next edition. A formal decision to clear the deck on ex-ICL players' participation in the third edition of the IPL, to be held in 12 venues from March 12 to April 25, is expected to be taken by the BCCI's Working Committee in Mumbai.
Swaraj and Tillerson discussed a wide range of bilateral issues, including the situation in the neighbourhood and the Indo-Asia Pacific region, officials said.
'The Sena can quickly reduce most solutions to violence.' 'When in power, it will revert to this gene which is coded into it and we will no doubt produce entertaining and frightening moments,' says Aakar Patel.
India's plan to sell the Advanced Light Helicopter to Myanmar threatens a European Union arms embargo to that country, Amnesty International claimed on Monday.
When African ambassadors said the attacks against Africans are 'xenophobic and racial in nature,' the MEA declared 'strong Indian institutions are adequate to deal with aberrations that represent an act of a few criminals.' 'This is a lie,' says Aakar Patel. 'India's institutions can't even protect Indians against mob attacks, how will they protect foreigners?'
'Blocking Parliament brings attention to a party that has poor speakers like Rahul Gandhi. It is unlikely to shine in debates, assuming we were a nation that enjoyed listening to sparkling intellectual exchange, which we are not.'
Former US attorney-general Ramsay Clark slammed the West Bengal government for 'perpetrating atrocities' on the people of Nandigram as part of a globalisation drive to set up industries there.
'We have not been able to use the potential of our location in the region and the world and our strength as a nation and an economy to establish an EU-like structure in South Asia,' points out Aakar Patel.
The organisers of Qatar's 2022 World Cup said on Sunday they were investigating the death of an Indian labourer at one of its sites but denied it was caused by working conditions which the wealthy Gulf country is under pressure to improve. Along with accusations of corruption during its World Cup bid, Qatar has long been under fire from rights groups for labour abuses. Last week, world soccer body FIFA urged Qatar to hasten improvements for builders on World Cup sites and said it would monitor conditions. Qatar, an energy exporter which has the highest income per capita in the world, is also under pressure from the United Nations to address workers' rights before World Cup construction peaks in 2017. Labourer Jaleshwar Prasad, 48, fell unconscious on Wednesday while performing steel work at Al Bayt stadium in Al Khor, 50 km (31 miles) north of Doha, a witness told Reuters. Organisers said the death was not caused by working conditions.
'Azim Premji has given away about one-and-a-half lakh crore rupees of his wealth.' 'Most of us will not even know what that sum actually means.' 'To put it into context, it can fund India's health budget and education budget,' points out Aakar Patel.
'More members of the Indian Armed Forces have died in Kashmir, North East and Naxal areas than in the 1962 and 1971 wars against Pakistan combined. These deaths are the result of political failure and not war.'
What is the wider political strategy behind Mr Modi's concerted attack on black money, asks Subir Roy.
'In Pakistan there has been no problem about the installation of the statues of these men, unlike the Jinnah portrait or other controversies that seem to be present in India these days quite regularly,' says Aakar Patel.
'You can't go on creating division and rhetoric of hate.' 'It comes to roost. We are seeing the first glimpses of that in the state elections.'
Trump had scrapped the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme earlier this month which protect some 800,000 people who came to the US illegally as children.
FPIs would be classified into two categories instead of three, while the requirements for issuance and subscription of offshore derivative instruments would be rationalised.
Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya.
India should do what we can to ensure that our two friends do not get into a confrontation that is meaningless and ultimately damaging to everyone including us.
'Random displays of anger will end in punishment from the IOC and the loss of points in the World Cup, without achieving what we seek,' says Aakar Patel.
'If there is a vulnerable family anywhere in the world, it is the Gandhis,' notes Aakar Patel.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley counter Rahul Gandhi's attack over issues related to the JNU, intolerance, inflation and foreign policy.
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