'It will be fascinating to see how Modi, for the first time in his political life without a majority, is able to manage the ambitions and the conflicts,' says Aakar Patel.
'It does not appear to me that the campaign of 2019 will be positive. By that I mean it is unlikely that there will be an 'achche din' style slogan either from the government or the opposition.'
Almost every home in this area has a slogan 'Jal, Jangal, Jameen' painted outside. Rashme Sehgal reports for Rediff.com on the four-year battle to save the Mahan forest in Madhya Pradesh.
Tainted New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent has told a London courtroom that former Indian cricketer Dinesh Mongia was one of the key members of a "Gang of four" that fixed matches during the unsanctioned and now defunct Indian Cricket League (ICL).
'Opposition to the idea of a state flag has come from the small thinking pseudo-nationalists, who are the ones pushing Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan.' 'Identifying India wrongly as a one language, one religion nation,' says Aakar Patel.
'Police brutality and lock-up deaths have been relevant forever. I believe this is why the film has appealed to everybody. We can all relate to the subject. We read about it every day. It is this harsh truth, this reality in society that has struck a chord with the people.' Filmmaker Vetrimaaran gets ready for the big Oscar race.
'None of us has the right to tell Sreesanth what to do with his career and it is childish to expect him to hold the torch of our bogus cricket patriotism,' says Aakar Patel.
Prime Minister Modi chatted with the workers, enquiring about the place and their welfare and jobs.
In the crazily complex cauldron that is India, where caste, community, class and cash are just the primary ingredients, no one has yet come up with a fool-proof method to ascertain how voters make up their minds, on which button to press, in the privacy of their 'confessional' booths, notes Krishna Prasad.
''The Congress has forgotten how to mobilise people on political issues,' says Aakar Patel.
What is required is boring leadership that ensures that the basics are right and not genius leadership that dreams of bullet trains, says Aakar Patel.
'Gujaratis need not be ashamed of the lack of martial tradition.' 'They contribute to their country in other ways.' 'And, of course, they can also claim that while they may not have produced many martyrs, they produced the greatest one: Gandhi.'
'If the 'ideology' is just Hindutva, meaning cattle slaughter, temple issue, love jihad, joined with random acts on the side of economics and foreign policy, then we are in deeper trouble than we think,' says Aakar Patel.
'Even if we expect that the economy will be hit and GDP is lowered for a few quarters by the reckless demonetisation, this will itself not be sufficient to dislodge Modi's popularity,' says Aakar Patel.
'Many of the players in IPL are the sons of men and women who are in ordinary jobs and not well off.' 'These players are the first in their family ever to move into another social class.' 'I think it is a very fine thing that young men from ordinary backgrounds get exposed to fame and money, and playing with legends from abroad and India,' says Aakar Patel.
He asserted his force was as competent as the CBI to probe the Kathua rape and murder case.
'There must be thousands if not lakhs of people the government is illegally spying on.' 'Why should we enable this criminal activity by volunteering our details?'
'The Indian soldier will fight where he is asked to, and he always has.' 'It is up to us as a democratic society to see that his service and sacrifice is for the most useful causes, and that we do not needlessly ask him to die for us,' says Aakar Patel.
'One minute and 45 seconds of that clip are on Modi praising gauraksha.' 'In the last 30 seconds he speaks about violence, but says only that killing is unacceptable.' 'We don't need the prime minister to tell us that.' 'We need him to tell us why the killing is happening and what he will do to stop it,' says Aakar Patel.
The more one thinks about it, the more difficult it is to see how India will be able to reap the benefits of a demographic dividend, says Aakar Patel.
'Those of us who care for the Indian Constitution worry,' says Aakar Patel.
Very few people have access to the granular detail of what options are available to India and what their costs, consequences and benefits are. While Modi considers all of this, he would do well to do one thing. And that is to ignore the media.
'The existence of Section 295A on the Indian statute books sits uneasily with India's ambitions to be seen as a progressive democracy,' says Kanika Datta.
'The only forum for resistance and dissent has become the university.' 'Free thinking is the right our brave students have been demanding.' 'As another round of violence and hatred against 'anti-nationals' begins, all of us, whether or not we agree with their views, should support and defend them,' says Aakar Patel.
'The government says it will file a review petition against the Supreme Court, but there is no conviction here.' 'It is doing this purely because it is worried.' 'It comes from the same sentiment as asking BJP MPs to spend two nights in a Dalit village,' says Aakar Patel.
Every time she takes to the stage, the actress has a bold message to share.
'Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan now act in only about one film each year, and made money through advertisements and television.' 'This meant that many people, even if they had the money to spend on a movie and wanted to go, often had nothing available for them to watch.'
The biggest disappointment was the compromise on the promised corporate tax reduction path.
The American police said that the Las Vegas shooting was not an act of terrorism because he acted alone. The killer was a Christian. Would the police have said the same thing if he was Muslim? I don't think so.
'When it vanishes as a national force (meaning when it can no longer get sufficient votes to hold onto its symbol, the hand) it will not have been the first large Indian party to die,' says Aakar Patel.
'To selectively look at the operation of certain laws -- in a manner that ignores the realities of caste and gender injustice in India -- and conclude that they are being particularly misused, is plain wrong,' says Aakar Patel.
'The Indian middle class ignores the conflicts areas in Jammu and Kashmir, in Central India and in the North East.' 'The violence does not touch us at all and so we are able to easily look away from the underlying reasons and grievances.'
'Why exclude those who are curious about our faith but not born into it, to experience the temple?'
FIFA is not responsible for the working conditions of labourers helping to build stadiums for the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar, the president of world soccer's governing body Sepp Blatter said.
'The tax avoidance in India is done as much by the wealthy as the lower class.' 'There is no difference in ethics and culture and morality, and no difference in tax-paying behaviour between various Indian classes, whether educated or not,' says Aakar Patel.
'Modi has also made mistakes and overpromised.' 'However, his cautious and careful approach have insulated him from criticism.'
A K Bhattacharya digs into the yet-to-be-public report on ways to curb black money and finds out that Modi's next moves could include action on dabba trading, hawala, and education.
In the next 25 years or so, we will have intelligence in computers that will exceed man's in every way.
'Will this surgical strike of ours put an end to Pakistani terror?' 'And if not, what will we do when the next terror strike happens?' 'Will there be another surgical strike or will we have to do something bigger?' 'How big does it have to be to get Pakistan to totally stop?'
'I have no doubt that the government means well.' 'I am merely curious to know whether my suspicions of it being enthusiastic about shooting first and aiming later are unfounded,' says Aakar Patel.
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