Saisuresh Sivaswamy travels to temple town Srirangam in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, a seat which former chief minister J Jayalaithaa has chosen to contest. But will she be given a red-carpet welcome?
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
"Desh ke chowikdar ki pehredari mein, sansadhono ki chori karai ja rahi hai (the country's resources are being looted under the watch of the country's gateman)," she said in a derisive reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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.
An interplay of Modi government's outreach in Bihar and the sequence of events in Chirag Paswan's life could make Bihar a game of musical chairs when the results are out.
'The moment the BJP loses a state, it announces some policy which never takes off.'
'Outside investors don't want to get tangled up in a religious war.'
Yug Chaudhary, counsel for co-accused Sudha Bahrdwaj, then told the court that the War and Peace that the court had referred to on Wednesday was a collection of essays edited by one Biswajit Roy, and was titled War and Peace in Junglemahal: People, State and Maoists.
Kathak queen Sitara Devi died at a hospital in Mumbai on Tuesday. She was 94. Born in 1920 in Kolkata, Sitara Devi drew from the themes, poetry and choreography collected by her father in her choreographies. She also got inspired from the environment around her -- whether it is a town or a village.
Sanskrit may have ceased to be spoken by people, but there is a remote village in this coastal district of Orissa where every home has a pundit of the ancient language. Sasana village in the Shyamsundar gram panchayat area is almost an anachronism in today's culture which no longer takes pride in mastering the language which, along with Latin, was once the two most dominant languages in the world.
The Congress is searching high and low for a suitable candidate to take on Narendra Modi in the holy city. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
'The government's job is to enable people to live together, not tear them apart.' 'It is supposed to create spaces to work, live and survive -- this country is struggling and this government is saying you have no right of being.' 'It wants to declare human beings illegal. It is the most bizarre nonsense in the world.'
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Saturday sought to clarify that even though her national general secretary Satish Misra may remain her blue-eyed Brahmin mascot, yet she had no intention of anointing Misra as her successor.
'We cannot overlook the crucial importance of cultural capital in intellectual achievements; and virtually all the Nobel Prize winners possessed cultural capital,' says social scientist Dr P Radhakrishnan.
VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi on Tuesday kicked up another controversy with her remarks that those who are opposed to Yoga should go to Pakistan.
The final journey of Goa's 'son of the soil' begun from Kala Academy in Panjim. A teeming column of mourners followed on foot and vehicles.
'You are giving undue importance to this kind of stuff. In the age of the internet, you are making this an issue. It is best forgotten,' the bench had said while hearing a plea to ban the Malayalam novel Meesha (moustache) written by S Hareesh.
The Congress will only survive if it can transform into something more like the BJP used to be: A coalition of strong state leaders held together by shared ideology or personal loyalty, suggests Mihir S Sharma.
In her death, the Congress has lost a leader who brought old world grace to politics but was open to new ideas.
'...that it takes fantasy seriously as a part of real life'... A fascinating excerpt from Jonathan Gil Harris's book, Masala Shakespeare: How A Firangi Writer Became Indian.
Even as political parties in TN have decided not to field a candidate against CM Jayalalithaa in the assembly by-election, the BJP's ambivalence has shown up once again.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa died in Chennai tonight at a private hospital after battling for life for the 75 days.
Arun Jaitley and Janardan Dwivedi have rewritten the rules of politics in the Age of the Internet and its young and restless user base, reports Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, which has already crossed swords with the Congress, is all set to launch its campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from the bastion of Gandhi family -- Amethi and Rae Bareli -- on February 9. The party, while announcing its plan to organise Brahmin Sammelans across the state, has decided to organise its first convention in Amethi, parliamentary constituency of All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
The actor is excellent in a double role in this Telugu film directed by V V Vinayak. The film revolves around the story of twins separated at birth and is quite a hotpotch of different films.
Durex took liberties and posted: 'Congrats Deepika and Ranveer for officially putting a ring on it', along with the caption, 'We have got you covered'. Any high-profile event these days, says Veer Arjun Singh, is also a fast-action marketing exercise for brands.
Bowing to intense pressure from Hindu groups and political parties both at home and abroad, Nepal's Maoist government on Wednesday reversed its decision to replace the Indian priests at the Himalayan country's most revered Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu with the local Brahmins. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Prachanda during a special address to Parliament telecast live by the state-run television.
The logic behind the BJP targeting Mayawati's votes.
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
She has been losing her party's core voters since the 2007 assembly polls, whereas the Samajwadi Party has managed to keep its flock together. The BJP believes she is a soft target.
Dausa, represented by the Pilot family for 25 years, sees a complicated contest with no Pilot around.
'The government says it will file a review petition against the Supreme Court, but there is no conviction here.' 'It is doing this purely because it is worried.' 'It comes from the same sentiment as asking BJP MPs to spend two nights in a Dalit village,' says Aakar Patel.
The newspaper said efforts are being made to incite caste violence in the state by exploiting the clashes which took place at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1.
In a major blow to the Samajwadi Party, Ranjana Bajpai, chief of the SP's women's wing, joined hands with the party's avowed rival Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday.The move comes in the wake of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision to withdraw her ticket as the party nominee for the Sitapur Lok Sabha seat.Attributing her decision to the 'neglect of Brahmins in the Samajwadi Party', Bajpai pointedly accused SP general secretary Amar Singh of having "hijacked the party."
Almost all prominent leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as members of the National Democratic Alliance and North-East Democratic Alliance accompanied Modi.
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
The Varanasi versus Azamgarh story is about the fears and insecurities of two of our strongest leaders, Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav, says Sheela Bhatt.
'If we encourage such forces, then tomorrow they will try to intimidate every teacher who doesn't teach their idea of what is right and wrong.'
The Malayalam movie directed by Diphan lacks substance.
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