After spending nearly 50 years in a colonial bungalow at 24, Akbar Road, the Congress moved into a new office on January 15. Rasheed Kidwai, who knows the history of the Congress better than the Congress, looks back at the people who breathed life into this address.
'It was the hostility of the Yunus regime that made India careful and wary of dealing with them.' 'They gradually backed off and lowered the noise, but the damage was done.' 'Their true colours had been exposed.'
'A less tense US-China relationship would make Beijing less likely to provoke India -- including on the border -- in retaliation for its close defence ties with the US.'
'Life does not change in such a way that everything becomes easy. Struggle and hustle is there for everyone. 'The difference is that people have started knowing me.'
'When so many young Baloch men and women are willingly volunteering as fighters and even suicide bombers.'
'India mattered to him and he wanted to matter to India.'
'Granting the country's highest civilian honour to Prime Minister Modi was surprising as it indicated the government was going out of its way to have India as a close partner.'
'Amritpal was just a plant.' 'We have to be careful that such kind of people do not emerge in Punjab.'
'If you stay out of power for long, you become irrelevant, your party members become restless and start looking to jump ship.'
'I will never ever forget Paatal Lok 2 because I left for the shoot the night I got married!'
'He may respect others, but he is unlikely to admire them'
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
'The government is saying 88 Hindus have been killed, but it could be much more.' 'Their properties are being looted, their businesses have been ransacked. I am getting distress calls from there.' 'Muslims who believe in the philosophy of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are also under attack. Most of those who have fled Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina's fall are Muslims.'
Pilots and crew of the Indian Air Force fought a valiant battle against Nature to save thousands of lives in Uttarakhand's treacherous valleys, scripting India's greatest rescue operation. Archana Masih reports from the IAF station in Barrackore.
Christina Rindiki's all-women team on the India-Myanmar border in Champhai, Mizoram, delivers 300 plus Amazon packets daily. The women handle all aspects of the operation and made around 450 deliveries per day this month alone. This is their story.
'It shows the signs of a weak government to avoid the heat from Afzal Guru that they carried out Ajmal Kasab's hanging in secrecy,' says IPS officer-turned-activist Y P Singh.
'You have to separate the concept of India as a nation State which is very young and the Upanishadic wisdom which is timeless.'
Bill Aitken came to India nearly 60 years ago. He never returned. An Indian citizen since 1972, he tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how India changed his life forever.
'The bedrock of the armed force is discipline. An indisciplined armed force is not only undesirable, it is extremely dangerous,' says Lieutenant General B T Pandit (retd).
'Human society is a conflict-prone society... You cannot have complete peace of the graveyard... Switzerland had 500 years of peace and what did they produce? The Cuckoo Clock... Italy had always been in turmoil and they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.' Meghalaya Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, a former head of the BSF and NSG, in a rare and candid interview with Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
'Trump administration wanted a positive tone at this summit, but there was still some anxiety that there could be some awkward moments -- and there were not.'
'Jairam Mahto's new party dented the NDA because he pulled a lot of the OBC vote.'
'General Paddy was amongst the last line of generals who stood by his convictions and brooked no interference in matters which were his domain.' Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah (retd) salutes his former chief who passed away on August 19.
'His image may have gone down a little because he is talking about poverty and underdeveloped states. That is not the way to sell yourself nationally,' Bihar's best known economist and social scientist Dr Shaibal Gupta tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
A young girl wants to correct her father's name in her school certificate; a man wants his three year unpaid rent from a government doctor, an athlete wants an archery set... Scenes from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Darbar, recorded by Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
Five months after 23 children died from eating poison-laced school lunch, the tragedy has resulted in a new school, creche, health centre, roads and electricity. The long forgotten village is finally being turned into a model village, but the grief of its loss is far from over. Archana Masih reports from Dharmasati Gandaman, Bihar.
'English has become the most aspirational language for India's poor and disadvantaged. Anyone who has any desire to improve their prospects and wants upward mobility, the first thing they do is try to learn English.' Zareer Masani explains Thomas Macaulay's legacy in India.
'We had become buffoons with Lalu. If you were a Bihari you were seen as a buffoon -- that has changed. Now there's a pride in being Bihari.' Archana Masih reports on the changes in Bihar.
Meghalaya is a land of political contradictions. One of the most peaceful states in the North-East, only one chief minister has had a full term in office in Meghalaya's 41-year history. Meghalaya is a woman-dominated traditional society, but the outgoing assembly had only one lady MLA!Rediff.com's Archana Masih reports from Shillong on the election in arguably India's most politically unstable state.
The Maha Kumbh, considered to be the largest religious gathering on earth, will begin at the Sangam in Allahabad from January 14. Photographer Rajesh Karkera and Archana Masih capture the scenes from the ghat in the run-up to the religious festival that is the pinnacle of many spiritual dreams.
'I want to ask Giriraj Singh why should we go to Pakistan when we are natives of Hindustan? 'This is Modi's only chance to wipe out his past...' 'This election has been reduced to only one issue -- communalism...' On the turf of the Modi versus Lalu battleground, Archana Masih/Rediff.com listens to what young Muslims think of Narendra Modi.
'I want to ask Giriraj Singh why should we go to Pakistan when we are natives of Hindustan? 'This is Modi's only chance to wipe out his past...' 'This election has been reduced to only one issue -- communalism...' On the turf of the Modi versus Lalu battleground, Archana Masih/Rediff.com listens to what young Muslims think of Narendra Modi.
Monday is the last day of campaigning in Gandaman where 23 children died after eating a school meal, but no leader has found time to campaign among the villagers. Archana Masih/Rediff.com returns to the lonely village in Bihar.
Under a blazing sun, Narendra Modi attacks the Ma-Beta and Lalu Yadav; invokes his tea boy's journey; and asks the youth for a mauka... A stolen mobile, a man who faints, women fleeing the bamboo enclosure to save themselves from being crushed by men -- and a government employee who flouts rules to attend a poll rally because she's a fan of Modi. Archana Masih/Rediff.com reports from Narendra Modi's first-ever rally in Chhapra, Bihar.
>Rohini Acharya, Lalu Yadav's daughter who donated her kidney to her father in December 2022, is on her introductory campaign trail in the constituency that has been represented by her father four times.
AAP candidate Shazia Ilmi fires from all cylinders at a campaign meeting in Ghaziabad.
'Neither are Baloch insurgents capable of breaking up Pakistan, nor has Pakistan learned any lessons from the 1971 debacle that led to the country's dismemberment.'
The Maharashtra government disbursed about Rs 14 crores as relief for the victims of the terror attacks. Mumbai Collector Idzes A Kundan looks back at 26/11.
Biharis seem to have broken the caste divide to vote for good governance in a deeply caste-ridden society and that is Nitish Kumar's biggest triumph.
