Modi will utilise the Presidential poll to show that he is the only leader who matters in India, argue Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari. So the question being asked in political circles is: 'Who will be the next Kovind?'
A mix of grief and terror has engulfed this nondescript village in central Bihar which has lost one of its residents, a 30-year-old street vendor, to militants' bullets in Jammu and Kashmir.
Altogether 160 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion while no vote was cast against the same.
The Congress' rebuttal came after the Gujarat police on Friday opposed activist Teesta Setalvad's bail application.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh on Sunday reached out to the Muslim community saying his party is being defamed and maligned continuously over Gujarat riots under a "planned conspiracy".
'There is no point in just saying, 'hum wapas bhej denge (we will send Kashmiri Pandits back)'.'
'If the civil code has to be put on hold, what card can the BJP play if it finds the going tough in the run-up to the general election of 2024?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
'The fact that she kept her faith in the power of doing good all through the thick and thin in her life, that she worked sincerely for the upliftment of the tribals, the downtrodden and the backwards, is one of the most inspirational aspects of her life.'
Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Friday dismissed criticism over his controversial remarks on Kashmir and said the Congress cannot shy away from answering why there was only one Muslim minister in the Union cabinet.
'Log kehte hai desh to humne Modi ko diya hua hai, par pradesh nahi diya hai (we have given Modi the mandate to run the nation, not the state).'
'If any party talks too much about Muslims, it will lose.'
Neither Modi nor Shah had held legislative or executive power in Delhi before 2014. They have no training in appealing to the diversity of India as represented in Parliament. Their prism is the provincial politics of Gujarat. An exclusive excerpt from Vinay Sitapati's fascinating new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi.
'At least 6,000 people attended a meal at Shahabuddin's residence in a feast to celebrate his bail. As if the community has no other priorities of channelising such funds for better purposes!,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Kejriwal's centralised way of governance might work in Delhi, but Punjab will call for delegation, observes Sanjeev Nayyar.
'The BJP's solo aim in Mumbai and Maharashtra is to finish off the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP.'
'He was full of Hindustan, its tehzeeb and its culture.'
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'It is the RJD, otherwise known for misgovernance, which has offered a candidate of clean and performing credentials, rather than the NDA,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
The government and people of Pakistan extend their 'heartfelt condolences' to Vajpayee's family and to the government and people of India, the spokesman said.
Jayant Chaudhary has plenty of time to make his own mistakes. But this election is a crucial test of his leadership.
'Is China's intention not clear?' 'Do we still think that if we are nice to China, it will be good to us?'
The party had supported CAB in Lok Sabha. Sena MP said the govt did not give satisfactory answers to the concerns raised by the party.
Much depends on the BJP's electoral performance in next year's assembly elections. If the party fares well in UP and some states like Goa and Gujarat, it will be able to fob off the attempt at a reappraisal of its Hindutva doctrine, observes Amulya Ganguli.
National Conference general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who wields a support base in downtown city, was served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities.
'Whom do I want to marry and what decisions I make for marrying the person I love are totally personal decisions, in which neither the State nor the courts have any right to interfere.'
The desecration of Vidyasagar's statue during Amit Anilchandra Shah's rally, which the TMC projected to be a 'Bhojpuri' and 'Dhokla' invasion on West Bengal's culture, may help her gain some favour with middle-class and erudite Bengalis in the last phase of the polls.
JD-U sources conceded that the BJP's "Bihari martyrdom" line will give the coalition an edge or "at least help us combat anti-incumbency if the Opposition makes an issue of Nitish's governance".
If the Congress recovers some of its earlier influence among the Dalits, the BJP will be in a quandary since the Dalits were among the party's latest acquisitions. To lose them will be a disaster for the saffron camp not only in UP, but all over India, observes Amulya Ganguli.
'Now that the Ram mandir is done, we need to move on. And grapple with COVID-19, a sputtering economy, a belligerent China...' 'The temple may win a few more elections for the BJP, but by itself it won't solve the nation's growing problems of economic and social distress,' notes Virendra Kapoor.
The Modi government has to embrace the history of Tamil conquests in South East Asia and stop obsessing about Babar/Humayun, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said that India and Pakistan were ready to resolve the Kashmir issue in 1999. "The then Indian prime minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and I were ready to resolve the Kashmir issue in 1999 but General (Pervez) Musharraf did the misadventure in Kargil and then overthrew my government," Sharif said while addressing a function on Saturday to mark the anniversary of Pak carrying out nuclear tests.
'Given this dissonance between India's age-old multicultural tenets and the anti-minority temper of the present times, it cannot be easy for the BJP to maintain its balancing act to convince the world that all is well,' observes Amulya Ganguli.
'...It won't help the party run a peaceful and equitable India,' warns Vir Sanghvi.
Has Owaisi's MIM become an albatross for Imtiaz Jaleel, former journalist and the party's candidate in Aurangabad?
'Doklam was almost like a trailer to what is happening in Ladakh today.' 'Modi failed to take note and failed to act,' observes Harishchandra Dighe.
According to sources in Gandhinagar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi met a range of Muslim leaders including the Deobandis in the last week of Ramazan. In an off-the-record conversation, a Muslim community leader from Ahmedabad said that an important Islamic scholar and a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board had a 90-minute discussion with Modi during Ramzan.
'Bangladeshi Muslims want to increase their population in India.' 'They have made colonies in India.' 'Rohingyas are doing the same.' 'This has to stop.'
The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
India's most powerful prime minister in five decades gets publicly admonished -- if gently -- by the US vice-president. The question is, would this make him reflect on how and why, or which ones of his government and party's missteps exposed his flank like this? asks Shekhar Gupta.
