Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on Friday in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy over holding of an event at the prestigious institute against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
'Indira Gandhi proved herself a great war leader, but failed as a statesman,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'When you start delving deeper into these disappearances, you have to face the question: Was it a policy at the State level?' 'It surely couldn't have been random officers acting on their own.' 'Was it planned? What does it mean if the State allows its police to become lawless and act with impunity?' 'Perhaps the NHRC, for the 21 years that it has been seized of the matter, avoided these questions.'
'Castro's huge appeal lies in the fact that he stood up to the Americans.' 'However, it becomes difficult to be judgmental about his legacy, because there are huge uncertainties about the future of the Cuba that he built,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Amongst those who heard the message of the Bihar results would be Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, whose realm is simultaneously the country's most complex and -- when something goes wrong -- the most emotive, says Ajai Shukla.
'An operation such as the Mumbai attacks, which needed expert technical assessment, money and time to prepare, could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the ISI's leadership.'
The kings of the ruling family of India's heartland -- father Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi party supremo, and son Akhilesh Yadav, the UP chief minister -- are at war. And as on any chessboard, the queens have emerged as the power centres. Meet Dimple Yadav and Aparna Yadav.
Irom Sharmila's decision to end her 16-year-old fast against the AFSPA continues to be hotly debated and contested in Imphal.
'The extended Bose family is insisting that the Japanese government must release all the information they have on Bose's ashes. It cannot be forgotten that Bose was in Japanese care when his 'death' occurred. Ultimately, it is the Japanese who hold the secret about what happened to him.'
Fires are blazing across Jammu and Kashmir, the state of Uttarakhand and have reached the doorstep of Himachal Pradesh's capital city Shimla.
Indians thrive in ordinariness -- from academia and science to business and military power. Sports is just an apt metaphor, says Shekhar Gupta.
'The summer of 1857 saw violence, perpetrated by the Indians and the Britons, on an unprecedented scale.' 'Never before and never after in the history of British rule in India was there violence at the level that 1857 witnessed.'
'The entire Ufa fiasco was predictable and predicted. The Ufa venue had created international interest in the initiative and its failure may have implications for both Pakistan and India. What remains for Modi to do is to produce a prettier rabbit out of his hat next time to deal with the Pakistan imbroglio,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Bhutto feared elements of the so-called establishment, including people linked to the intelligence services. She highly distrusted individuals like Hamid Gul who -- she was convinced -- maintained active ties with jihadists.' Heraldo Munoz, author of the sensational new book, Getting Away With Murder, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa in an exclusive interview.
Sreenivasan Jain explains how the Aam Aadmi Party excelled in the Delhi assembly polls
Haider will haunt you long after you've left the theatre, promises Sukanya Verma.
'If you question the police you become an anti-national and that is ridiculous.' 'Either you say we live by the Constitution or you say the State will not follow the Constitution.'
The International Fleet Review, conceived as a show of the country's naval might and readiness for battle, saw as many as 100 naval ships, including 70 from the Indian Navy, taking part in the second edition of the coveted event.
The population in Gaza has, for almost a decade, been facing Israel-created 'blockage' from the rest of the world. The isolation has given rise to tunnel phenomenon, an underground route for the procurement of essentials, says Ajey Lele
Xi Jinping has accumulated great power, but he faces trials that are just as great, says Claude Smadja.
Most of the opposition parties blamed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliates for the cow vigilantism.
'Shooting is number one.' 'Archery, wrestling, badminton and boxing.' 'These are the five where we stand the best chance of winning a medal.'
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
The 16th Mumbai Film Festival had a delicious spread of movies.
A G Padmanabhan's dream is to make India a 'no food waste economy' and promote sustainable ideas.
Despite a lot of lip service to national unity, functional relations between the Han Chinese immigrants and the Uyghur regional majority have not developed on equitable basis, says R Hariharan
'US counter-terrorism policy was encouraging and emboldening the Indians to deal with the problem of Pakistani-supported terrorism once and for all.' 'The US had been trying to browbeat Pakistan into doing what it wants, with very limited success.'
'Little about this regime, given its vindictive credo, is a complete surprise. But we were still taken aback by the CBI raid as it was a complete abuse of due process.' 'These are not legal inquiries, but abusive use of State power. They are not legitimate investigations, but a witch-hunt.' 'Ours is a typical, classic case of the State and its organs being used as an outlet for motivated vendetta of the vilest kind.'
Three Indian Air Force officers held as Prisoners of War in a jail in Rawalipindi made a heroic escape. They reached as far as the Pak-Afghan border in Pakistan's Wild West -- within sniffing distance of freedom -- only to realise that they had finally met their match. Or so it seemed. The three escapees were never feted for their audacious attempt 41 years and truly deserve official recognition. Why not honour them at least now, says MP Anil Kumar.
The controversy over Sant Rampal and his army of followers taking the law into their hands has once again thrown the spotlight on the clout that India's godmen possess.
