On December 15, Mohammed Mustafa, an MBA student and IAS aspirant from Jamia Milia Islamia University, was among the students who were dragged out of the library and lathi-charged by policemen. In a conversation with Rediff.com's Divya Nair, the 26 year old recounts the ordeal he faced for a protest he says he didn't participate in or volunteer for.
All you need to know about intakes, proficiency tests and visas.
'The vitriolic campaign now in progress, the underlying threat of violence, and the elevation of Pragya Thakur as a star candidate are key markers in the BJP's obstacle-strewn march back to New Delhi,' says Sunil Sethi.
'In this season of inspired mean-spirited campaigning, it still seemed remarkable that we are more likely to learn civics lessons from school children than our leaders,' says Rahul Jacob.
'For Muslims, India is now a Hindu Rashtra, no matter what kind of Constitution is still in place,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
If Uddhav Thackeray is fazed by the BJP's attempts to build a narrative against his government in order to bring it down, he is not showing it. He has fought against all odds to remain in the CM's chair and faced difficulties with a smile, reports Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The two countries also signed memoranda of understanding in education and health sectors after visiting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera co-chaired the 9th Indo-Lanka Joint Commission meeting in Colombo.
India's majoritarian regime is now making a dangerously fast-paced move towards theocracy, like its western counterpart did a few decades ago, warns Mohammad Sajjad.
'The BJP has shown signs lately of returning to its trader mindset.' 'Several strong emotions get meshed in this: Nationalism, protectionism, mercantilism, and arrogance,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
The two sides agreed on forming a joint working group to oversee the repatriation process but its composition would be decided later by both the countries.
Hamid Ansari on Friday left for Lima on the first-ever visit at the Vice Presidential level to mineral-rich Peru and Communist Cuba as part of India's thrust towards Latin America.
According to officials aware of the matter, restarting the project could mean inviting the court's 'contempt' as the case -- in which the Supreme Court has held that biometric identification cannot be a criterion for a citizen's access to welfare -- has still not been closed yet.
The TMC team went there at the instruction of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
'This is basically aimed at vilifying Nehruvian ideals.' 'Why?' 'Because, Nehruvian leadership is seen by Hindutva forces as the one which did not let them have their Hindu Raj.' 'The Hindutva proponents have always assumed that had Sardar become the first prime minister, India could never have become a secular State,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
The man's Indian citizenship was denied on the ground of discrepancy in the name of his grandfather.
'If this is the India you're talking about, where there is no space for minorities, where you have hate, where people can enter universities and beat students up, let me be anti-national.' 'I'll carry that as a badge of honour.'
'This is a historic juncture when the US is in great need of an alliance with India to strengthen its hands in the fierce struggle with China in the Asian theatre,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Election Commission's recommendation to extend voting rights to NRIs through postal ballots has been accepted in letter and spirit.
Sami's passport, re-issued in 2010, expired in May this year and Pak govt chose not to renew it
Charles 'Biharilal' Thomson, an Australian who speaks fluent Hindi, on how India has bewitched him.
A spirited turn at the mic by Mahua Moitra, first-time MP from Trinamool Congress, in which she listed the "signs of early fascism", has been hailed as the "speech of the year" on social media.
Over two dozen Muslims have been elected to the Lok Sabha. This shows that all is not lost for India's Muslims, suggests Mohammad Sajjad.
In his first speech at Rajasthan's Barmer, from where expelled Bhartiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh is contesting as an independent, party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi did not utter a single word against the former party stalwart.
Isn't National Intelligence Grid and UIDAI engineered by vested interests, asks Gopal Krishna.
'The Parivar's ideology and politics was and remains the very opposite of what Dr Ambedkar stood for.'
United Kingdom will go to the polls on Thursday. This election is being dubbed the most unpredictable of all time.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
The prime minister sees himself as the "vikas purush". But realising his government's agenda for development requires not just a more efficient administration but also a credible implementation plan, says Nitin Desai.
Resettlement of refugees elsewhere is not the morally correct solution to the problem for it lets the perpetrators off the hook.
'The failure of the ECI to follow the Registration of Electoral Rules and create verified and audited rolls or even verifiable and auditable ones, highlight that the entire electoral roll is merely a compilation of names without any effort or intention for completeness, correctness or fair play.' 'We are fooling ourselves by electing our representatives based on faulty electoral rolls that do not represent the people of the constituency. Elections based on these rolls are neither free nor fair. Democracy is under siege,' says Dr Anupam Saraph.
The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. This plurality of our society has come through assimilation of ideas over centuries. Secularism and inclusion are a matter of faith for us. It is our composite culture which makes us into one nation.
Poor land-use planning, indiscriminate approvals of building plans and the absence of disaster-risk assessment in urban design have resulted in what experts term concentrated concretization, predisposing cities to disaster risks
An economist from J&K and a popular face from the RSS/BJP sat together to craftily weave an alliance in what is one of the most difficult agenda-setting exercises in recent history.
'The government has to take effective steps to strengthen democracy, rule of law, maintain communal harmony and safeguard the security of the country and its people.' 'The government has to carry all sections of the people with it irrespective of their race, caste, community, region or language,' and try to unite them by promoting fraternity among them,' says legendary Constitution expert P P Rao.
Following is the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 73rd Independence Day.
'We have 10 million votes, 15,000 votes per MP constituency. There are certain constituencies who will win by about 5,000 or 6,000 votes. So if we win this case, these 15,000 votes will play crucial roles in at least 50 Lok Sabha constituencies, which can change the dynamics of the entire political system,' Nagender Chindam tells Patrick Ward in an interview.
'Biometric Aadhaar-based surveillance is not only about violation of privacy, but also about the treasure hunt for unprecedented financial surveillance and economic intelligence in the economic history of mankind,' asks Gopal Krishna.
The compulsions of domestic politics notwithstanding, India and Bangladesh script a new story in bilateral relations, say Nayanima Basu and Aditi Phadnis
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