Hours after 21 ministers took the oath of office and became a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministry, speculation began on which minister would be handed which portfolio. However, all speculation ended after the list was announced.
Ambitious diplomats continue to be attracted to politics but do they make good politicians, asks Jyoti Malhotra
Will Priyanka contest against Modi in Varanasi? Will Rahul also contest from Karnataka? Rasheed Kidwai -- Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party's biographer -- reveals what is churning in the Congress.
In a season of political deal-making, it would seem the BJP is not only keener to win new friends but is ahead of rival Congress in the game. Its only competition, if at all, has come from regional satraps and the Left parties, which on Tuesday resolved to fight the elections together against both the Congress and BJP.
Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held simultaneously, the Election Commission said.
'If the leadership goes back to Rahul Gandhi, then there will be a perception problem about the drama about his exit a year-and-a-half ago.'
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
It is a difficult question to answer. This problem will remain with us for a very long time because we are the only major nation whose elite speaks a language that is a foreign tongue, says Aakar Patel.
There are two major takeaways from the by-election results. One, a majority or Indians and Hindus have reasserted their secular credentials. The second, equally momentous, is the sure-footedness and quick response time of the Indian electorate, says Subir Roy.
'Modi has kept some loopholes in case they lose, saying it was not his election.' 'The fight will be Modi of 2014 vs Modi of 2019.' 'The BJP has realised that keeping the temple issue alive is more important than building the temple itself in terms of votes.'
'If Mr Modi and Mr Shah have made a poisonous, polarising campaign their brahmastra for 2019, Mamata Banerjee is showing them its limitations,' says Shekhar Gupta.
If the fight against black money seems half hearted, the same is not the case with gau raksha, says Subir Roy.
Rashtriya Janata Dal's Manoj Jha saw the move as an attempt to have a 'committed bureaucracy'.
'From the evidently pre-selected questions to the promotional slides on a screen redolent of the official audio-visual department, the choreography was palpably intended to present the prime minister in as good a light as possible in a 'safe' environment insulated from uncomfortable questions,' says Amulya Ganguli.
A well-intentioned cause for the creation of Telangana that fulfils the aspirations of the people has been made controversial on account of the lack of political management, says Arun Jaitley
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Cabinet and inducted 21 new ministers. Of these, 4 - Manohar Parrikar, JP Nadda, Suresh Prabhu and Birender Singh were appointed as Cabinet ministers. Other than this, Modi has inducted 17 other ministers of state. Here's a quick look at them:
Why the prime minister's legacy will depend on how he governs, not the number of state elections he fights as personality contests, says Shekhar Gupta.
The so-called soil scam has left Lalu alone in the Mahagathbandhan.
'UP, Maharashtra, AP (including Telangana), Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala.' 'We chose these nine not only as being among the biggest, but also because in these states radical change is possible,' explains Shekhar Gupta.
'Narendra Modi is a beginner on the national scene. Intelligence and security will be new for him on a national scale. He will succeed if he crosses the bureaucratic barriers. If he entangles himself in these barriers, then I highly doubt he will succeed,' former R&AW agent R K Yadav tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
'The youth associated with this movement were extremely talented.' 'But I personally believe violence cannot change anything in the world.'
Just as the mighty Bhim sacrificed his son Ghatotkach and Arjun sacrificed his son Abhimanyu in the battle against Kauravas, Yashwant Sinha must ask his son Jayant to sacrifice his ministerial office, says Sudhir Bisht.
'The BJP is no longer the BJP. It has become the Bharatiya Janata Poaching Party.' 'They talk of black money and here they are ready to pay Rs 100 crore to MLAs.'
'If PM has some concrete information against gau rakshaks then he must disclose it, otherwise we will take legal action against him.'
For a country with a huge atheist vote bank, relatively few claim to be irreligious, says Devangshu Datta
Pushing for better government-party coordination, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided that its ministers will visit party offices once a month to meet party workers and hear their grievances.
Shekhar Dutt's resignation has sparked a debate on the parameters of removing a governor.
'Consider this image of today's youth in Bihar -- armed with a bike, a smartphone and possibly some illegal arms too, imbibing incessant stream of images from the Internet and television.' 'Some of them would turn into gau bhakts, some would listen with interest the exploits of Salafism, dig deep into the Internet to come out with images which cry vociferously that their respective religions are in danger.'
The note ban is Modi's make-or-break gambit for 2019. Opposition leaders see a vulnerability and won't gift pre-eminence to the Congress, says Shekhar Gupta.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of "lecturing" as if he was the "cleanest of them all", Congress President Sonia Gandhi today advised him to read history again to know about the party's contribution in transforming the country since Independence from a poor state to a progressive nation.
The 91-year-old leader said, 'Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our 'enemies', but only as our adversaries.'
'People have a certain perception about my political leanings -- and rightly so.' 'But I am an actor first, and then an activist.' 'And I am not an accidental actor.' 'There was no way I was going to be dishonest with my acting,' Anupam Kher tells Veenu Sandhu.
'Whoever whispered in his ears that go for demonetisation, misled him completely' and the PM lacked the sagacity to know that it would not work, Yashwant Sinha tells Archis Mohan.
Will Malik's worldview, shaped by his years with the socialists, Charan Singh, the Congress and V P Singh, help him govern the troubled state? Or would his rule have the imprint of the party he joined in the latter years of his chequered political career?
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
The numbers, however, look very good for Modi. We could say it is his election to lose, rather than the Opposition's to win, says Aakar Patel.
Two years is when the honeymoon surely starts to sour, so what should Prime Minister Narendra Modi focus on ahead of 2019? Devanik Saha offers some ideas.
Television news. Anarchists. Special Status for UP! And that man-who-wants-to-be-Pradhan Mantri so baaad. Sherna Gandhy takes them on.
'Everything was sacrosanct when the BJP was led by Vajpayee and Advani.' 'That was a different culture. But with Modi and Amit Shah nothing is sacrosanct.'
The prime minister said the Congress has run away from the battlefield conceding defeat in the 68-member assembly.
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