'The NRC had an effect on Assam and I think to cover up or make up for that, CAB has been brought in.'
Nothing would suit the BJP better than to let Rajinikanth be the chief minister and pretend to abide by his spiritual path while quietly consolidating its vote bank, observes Amulya Ganguli.
'People feel concerned about the future, whether it is the land or the jobs.' 'The BJP came to power in Assam with promises of maati, bheti (home, hearth and identity), land, jobs and culture.' 'Are these going to taken care of? I think those are real concerns.' 'The Assam chief minister (Sarbananda Sonowal) was one of the leaders of the All Assam Students Union which fought for and is one of the signatories to the Assam Accord.' 'Today, his comrade-in-arms (Samujjal Bhattacharya, chief advisor, AASU) is leading the opposition in the streets.'
'This movement is not about Hindus, Muslims or Bengalis, but about all Assamese, irrespective of their religious faith or economic class'
Under fire over the "anti-Muslim" remarks by its leader Ramdas Kadam at the National Democratic Alliance rally in Mumbai ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party's Prime Minister nominee Narendra Modi's address, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said those were personal views of Kadam and did not reflect the party position.
Bangladesh on Tuesday pressed anti-terrorism charges against several suspects and identified the fifth assailant in the country's worst terror attack as authorities intensified efforts to unravel the plot behind the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by Islamists.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday raked up the issue of BJP leader Rajnath Singh's alleged meeting with 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Thakur.
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
'When violence spread, it looked as if Mamata was losing control, but soon, she was able to contain the situation.' 'Now, the TMC stands to gain the most.'
'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.
'A deadly combination of money and religion lures them into the murky world of terrorism.' 'You will reach heaven if you kill -- what a doctrine!' Professor Ajoy Roy, whose son blogger Avijit Roy was brutally murdered in Dhaka last year, tells Rediff.com's Indrani Roy.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh is in trouble after a video surfaced on Thursday showing him sharing a stage with Islamic preacher Zakir Naik
The MHA put out a set of FAQs on the Act, seeking to counter a 'misinformation campaign'. It said the Act doesn't have anything to do with the deportation of any foreigner in India.
'Modi should arrest Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Sharma.' 'These leaders were instigating mobs and spreading hatred and they must be thrown in jail.' 'I had seen dreams of a new India under Modi, but now I am disillusioned with him.'
'Teaching lessons is the objective behind every school.' 'For the moment, a state seems intent to teach a lesson -- that students of Classes 4, 5 and 6 can wage war against the mighty Indian nation,' says Krishna Prasad.
The government on Thursday announced a number of concessions for Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of which it also introduced relaxations in the procedure for granting them Indian citizenship.
'As a governor, I have every right to speak my mind if I feel the security of my country is at stake.' 'Why is it that we would have to shed tears when Muslims are killed or tortured, but have to keep mum when the Hindus receive the same treatment?'
Tarun Vijay, MP, salutes the General whom he adored as a great friend.
'India is a strange place.' 'On the one hand we have the most advanced science working on our origins and our ancestry.' 'On the other we are at war with ourselves over a temple to a god whom our first ancestors knew nothing of,' says Aakar Patel.
Celebrations erupted across Assam with opponents of the bill bursting crackers, distributing sweets and breaking into frenzied dancing on the streets.
'I'm a big fan of Hindu and a big fan of India -- big, big fan.'
Trinamool leaders have claimed the NRC process and subsequent verification is vote bank politics. Other critics call it as modified ethnic cleansing. But putting poll rhetoric aside, the issue dates back to a time when many of these leaders had no political relevance.
'Shaheen Bagh is no longer a mere ghetto of lower middle class Muslims.' 'Now, it is a metaphor for resistance, secularism and struggle,' notes Md. Zeeshan Ahmad.
'The BJP must realise that a resurgent Rahul Gandhi will take the battle straight into its camp.' 'He is not going to be held back by the misdeeds of UPA 1 and 2, so there is no point harping on them,' says Sanjeev Nayyar.
The BJP chief began his speech with the slogan of uprooting the TMC government from Bengal and said in order to do that, he would visit all the districts of the state.
Modi isn't going to voters on his track record but on the fear of the terrorist across the border and the Muslims within. It's a battle on his terms, says Shekhar Gupta.
'If the Amendment Bill 2016 becomes law, the indigenous people of Assam will become a minority and the language, literature and culture of Assam will be lost.'
'I hope he will continue to be what he is. And doing so, he won't be much different from those whose example he is being given right now,' says Utkarsh Mishra.
What the Congress will have to understand is that it is not enough to have a 40-something vice-president in New Delhi, but young faces with fresh ideas in the states,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'We were expecting death sentences, but now the court has acquitted them, despite Aseemanand himself admitting to his crime in front of a judge.' More importantly, it seems the tag of 'Hindu Terror' coined by the United Progressive Alliance government was wrong all along. Amjedullah Khan, spokesperson for the Majlis Bachao Tehreek, has been tracking the Mecca Masjid blast case from day one and was also involved in securing the release of more than 100 Muslims youths who were falsely accused in different terror cases in the aftermath of the blast. He spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com about the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and what it means.
The elections in two eastern Indian states were keenly observed in Bangladesh for two major contentious issues, writes Prakash Bhandari from Dhaka.
The Trinamool Congress sought complete withdrawal of the NRC, alleging that Indian citizens have also been left out of the final draft.
A special Bangladeshi tribunal on Wednesday sentenced opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's 83-year-old leader Abdul Alim to jail until death for committing large-scale killings and other war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
Everything about ISIS had indicated that this would be a violent Ramzan. A violent, divisive Ramzan sends out exactly the message that ISIS wants to send to religious Muslims outside its folds: It plays on their faith and fears, says writer Tabish Khair.
Resettlement of refugees elsewhere is not the morally correct solution to the problem for it lets the perpetrators off the hook.
'When we have a terrorist outfit in a neighbouring nation, we need to do whatever we can to neutralise that threat,' says Ramananda Sengupta.
The BJP government is no better than the Congress -- as wretched and anti-people. In addition, it is explicitly and aggressively communal, says Venkatesh B Athreya, in a hard-hitting interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
Zakir Naik, a gentle, rockstar televangelist, is dangerous as young Muslims may be swayed by his fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and justify victimhood and extremism, says Shekhar Gupta.
A list of all the foreign visits taken up by PM Narendra Modi this year and their outcomes.
The biggest success of Nawaz Sharif's visit to India is that it will lessen mistrust between the two countries, writes Amir Mateen from Islamabad.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances