Unlike the LDF and NDA nominees who are at ground zero and campaigning hard every day, the Congress candidate's campaign is undertaken in absentia, dependent on an army of local and imported from the rest of Kerala Congresswomen and men.
'Slightly more than 50 per cent of all Keralites are Hindus. If we can unite as many as we can, we can create a huge difference in the political scene in Kerala.'
'We were supposed to be a united nation based on unity and diversity.' 'Now what we are doing is there will be a class called Marathas, Dangars, etc.' 'The 100 per cent of our nation's population will be in classes and you will be allocating the nation's education and service resources in terms of classes.' 'How does it work out in terms of equality? Where is your equal nation?'
Kejriwal, who had joined International Yoga Day participants last year along with Lt Governor Anil Baijal and the then Union minister and now Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, was found having high blood sugar following his nine-day, arduous sit-in at the Lieutenant Governor's office.
It is ironic that Raja Mahendra Pratap's Jat connection is being used for vote bank politics. He could not have cared less for his caste.' 'He was aware of the hold caste had on people's lives, and always rose above this kind of narrow thinking.' 'He mentions that once when he landed at Dwarka the priests asked him about his caste. He replied that he was a sweeper. The priests denied him entry. "I did not care to visit it," he writes, "when it was surrounded by people who had no regard for humanity".'
'Madras is a Tamil word while Chennai is Telugu. Without the English, there would have been no Madras. The erection of Fort St George laid the foundations for the growth of the first modern city of India,' Historian JBP More tells Shobha Warrier.
The Hindutva brigade's silence on the rape may possibly be explained that this incident is an intra-Hindu affair for them. What is even more intriguing is that vocal gender activists have preferred to almost ignore the incident. Why? Is it because homosexual rape does not involve the woman either as victim or as aggressor, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
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.
"Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad," Obama said as tears streamed down his cheeks in the East Room of the White House in the presence of a large number of victims of mass shootings.
Indian officialdom enjoys well over a week of Sundays every month
'More so, if it is their daughters wanting to marry someone of their own choosing.' 'Children are seen as property. That's why the problem is so messy.' For young Indians wanting to marry outside their religion, expressing their right to love and live as they choose is becoming increasingly hazardous.
'Like it or not, the Congress is still the only party with the potential to challenge the BJP at a pan-Indian level,' says T V R Shenoy.
'I do not believe that they have become terrorists and have gone to Syria to fight.' 'I feel they have only become very orthodox Muslims.'
Almost everyone in Gorakhpur has a story about an Adityanath intervention that helped push through a piece of work that would've been otherwise impossible.
'People don't like me wearing saris. But I am an Indian drag queen. I will wear a sari.'
A brainchild of Vishva Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, many find its agenda divisive
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel glances at the life and political career of Alexey Navalny who has been banned from challenging Vladimir Putin in Russia's presidential election.
Laughter was a component of Parmeshar Godrej's large-hearted Punjabi spirit, recalls Sunil Sethi.
French journalist Nicolas Henin was captured by the terrorist organisation, the Islamic State, and spent 10 months in captivity explains how the growth of the Islamic State is result of the West's limitation in seeing the IS merely as a terrorist organisation while ignoring its political message and goals.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
Ever wondered what happens when Hollywood A-listers turn protestors? Take a look.
Presenting a list of words from 2015 that we should leave behind.
The tenth annual iPhone Photography Awards received thousands of entries -- all submitted by amateur photographers from more than 140 countries around the world.
'We do not oppose any parent admitting his child to any English school.' 'We are opposed to the government grants that are to be given to such institutions.' 'If local languages are to be kept alive, at least they have to be taught at the primary level.'
Narendra Modi's mother washed utensils to make a living. Madhusudan Mistry's grandmother, who brought him up, was a vegetable vendor. Mistry's trajectory from poverty to membership of the all powerful Congress Working Committee is moving. the man who has Rahul Gandhi's ear and is all set to take on Narendra Modi in Vadodara, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a fascinating interview.
'I may not indulge in chest thumping to express my patriotism every day.' 'I may be cynical about many things happening in our country.' 'I may not roar Bharat Mata Ki Jai at the top of my voice. But I still love my country, just as one loves one's parents with all their weaknesses.' 'Does that make me any less of a patriot?' asks Shobha Warrier.
In an online chat with readers overseas education consultant NNS Chandra addressed queries related to international admissions
In the pitch dark of the African night, a herd of cape buffaloes gather at the watering hole for a drink, taking care to stay by the edge to avoid the crocodiles lurking in the depths. In Gangiova, a village in Romania, a doctor places her stethoscope to the chest of a newborn baby, listening intently for the beating of his tiny heart. These are just some of the moments that have been picked by the judges for the Sony World Photography Awards. For the 2017 competition, photographers entered 227,596 images across the awards' Professional, Open and Youth categories. The Open competition winner will receive $5,000 (Rs 3.3 lakh), Sony digital imaging equipment and flights and accommodation to the awards ceremony at Somerset House in London. Sony World Photography Awards has been kind enough to share some of their shortlisted pieces with us.
Anecdotes and laughter peppered the launch of Renu Kurien Balakrishnan debut novel, Four Aleys.
'The incidents that used to happen in our time, have they stopped now?' 'Can you imagine they made an acid attack victim consume acid? And when did this happen?' 'When the CM was inspecting the thana...' 'History tells us that a party does not remain in power permanently.' 'Finally, they will have to deliver.'
'A vote for Hillary means a vote for endless wars of trying to overthrow governments and rebuilding foreign countries.' 'A vote for Bernie Sanders means an end to these interventionist wars, and instead spending our money and precious resources rebuilding our own country,' Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the only Hindu-American in the United States Congress, tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com
Israel is no longer the valiant and beleaguered underdog, but increasingly seen as an increasingly arrogant oppressor seeking to crush another old nation under its jackboots, says Mohan Guruswamy.
Rediff's Love Guru has answers to all your relationship problems.
"They call me the Class 10 vice-chancellor," he says as his thin lips flirt with a smile. You almost feel that the tall man of spare build is being facetious. And then you see that his deep set eyes are not twinkling. There is a sense of the combative in them.
A 25-year quest by nearly 1,000 scholars to document and present one of the world's oldest living traditions came to fruition when the 'Encyclopedia of Hinduism' was unveiled in Columbia.
Is Shivraj Singh Chouhan paying the price of being in the wrong camp? Aditi Phadnis and Shashikant Trivedi find out.
It would be wrong to blame only Bollywood or the fairness cream industry, or the masses that cater to both, because clearly, all of us encourage this lust for whiteness that films and companies only cash in on.
Rediff.com's Love Guru has answers to all your relationship problems.
It is always wonderful to discover a gem of film at an international film festival. It is even more exciting when that film is from India.
'When I woke up on New Year's morning last week, it occurred to me that nobody had bothered to investigate how Christmas and the year end were different in my adopted home town of Bournemouth -- a charming place on the south coast of England -- from what played out on the streets of Pala in Kerala. This was clearly an important omission,' says Chindu Sreedharan, and sets out to correct it.
