'If at all human beings require a religion, the future religion will be Hinduism.'
Debutant legislator Rekha Gupta was sworn in as Delhi chief minister along with six ministers on Thursday in a grand show of strength full of colour and spectacle to mark the Bharatiya Janata Party's return to power in the city after more than 26 years.
The CBI arrested Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, an absconder carrying a Rs 10 lakh reward, in connection with the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed. He is allegedly part of a conspiracy hatched by the banned JKLF.
'The question for the TMC is not whether it can hold its bastions, but whether it can expand effectively into regions where the BJP already possesses a good ecosystem.'
Even if D K Shivakumar wanted to oust Siddaramaiah, whose support would he take?
The shrewd politician that he is, Siddaramaiah figured his rival had no option but to lump it, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, D K Shivakumar, responding to several media queries regarding the current 'internal conflict' in Karnataka Congress in reference to the chief ministerial position, said on Tuesday that he doesn't want to embarrass or weaken the party.
The Deepa Thoon controversy, if not allowed to die a natural death, could take the election focus away from the anti-incumbency impacting the DMK and into the secular space. Stalin would love to have it that way, all over again, after the three past elections, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It is high time to recognise that this is the greatest issue India is confronting.' 'Even the BJP should be raising concerns because polluted air suffocates everybody's child.'
If he cannot do it this term by using his bureaucracy and experts from different fields, it will be a tragedy, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Voting for the Delhi Assembly elections began on Wednesday, with prominent leaders like President Droupadi Murmu, Union ministers S Jaishankar and Hardeep Singh Puri, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and Delhi Chief Minister Atishi casting their ballots early in the day. Other notable figures who participated in the electoral process included Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, and Delhi Chief Electoral Officer R Alice Vaz. The election is a triangular contest between the ruling AAP, BJP, and Congress, with the AAP aiming for a third consecutive term. Polling is underway at 13,766 stations across Delhi's 70 assembly constituencies to decide the fate of 699 candidates. The results will be announced on February 8.
Actor-politician Kangana Ranaut was granted bail in a defamation case in Bathinda, Punjab, after expressing regret for a 'misunderstanding' arising from a social media post. The case stems from a retweet concerning Mahinder Kaur, a complainant from Punjab, during the farmers' protest.
Five of the seven newly sworn-in ministers in Delhi, including the chief minister, have declared criminal cases against themselves, while two are billionaires, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The findings are based on self-sworn affidavits submitted by the ministers ahead of the 2025 Delhi Assembly Elections. The report highlights that five ministers, including Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, have declared criminal cases against themselves, with one minister, Ashish Sood, facing serious criminal charges. On the financial front, two ministers are billionaires, with Manjinder Singh Sirsa having the highest declared assets worth Rs. 248.85 crores and Kapil Mishra having the lowest at Rs 1.06 crores. The average assets of the seven ministers stand at Rs 56.03 crores. All seven ministers have declared liabilities, with Parvesh Sahib Singh having the highest at Rs 74.36 crores. Six ministers have declared educational qualifications of graduate level or above, while one has completed only the 12th standard. Five ministers are between 41 and 50 years old, while the remaining two are aged between 51 and 60 years. The cabinet includes only one woman minister, the chief minister.
The prolonged delay over electing J P Nadda's successor possibly stems from the RSS leadership wanting a person who is at least equidistant from the Sangh as well as the Modi/BJP edifice, observes BJP-RSS watcher Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Over the medium and long term, the BJP hopes to devour the AIADMK, they having identified the party as 'ideologically not as sound as the DMK', predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
On November 18, 1962, 114 soldiers of the 13th Kumaon fought till the last man, and last bullet, in sub-zero temperatures, to beat back the huge Chinese army. We salute the Heroes of Rezang La.
'... Rahul Gandhi's name came to my mind at that time.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the BJP-led NDA parliamentary party meeting, focusing on current issues, the upcoming vice president's election, and likely addressing opposition concerns.
'Arundhati Roy is like a ballerina performing on a high wire, cool, supremely at ease but conscious of all the adoring eyes on her,' notes P Vijaya Kumar.
The two weeks that EPS took fending off the Sengottaiyan rebellion has since become lost time for the AIADMK as that was also the time Vijay took to go all-out against Stalin and the DMK, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Punjab AAP MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, wanted in a rape case, denies firing at police and claims a conspiracy by a 'Delhi lobby' within the party.
'With tears in his eyes, he told me in Gujarati, "What have they done to this country? It has so much potential." That feeling for the country -- it was striking.'
The cabinet expansion of the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government is likely to take place by December 14, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said on Wednesday.
'You can say it was a moment that can be described as unimaginable or unbelievable.'
'The message is loud and clear: "If you're not falling in line, we will open a line of understanding with the MNS, and then the Shiv Sena will be in trouble".'
If the DMK is able to sustain the momentum until the assembly polls, the AIADMK especially and the PMK and possibly the infant TVK too would find it hard to sign up with the BJP, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
Singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh on Monday visited BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill at the latter's residence in the national capital.
The current situation in Kerala politics is perhaps best described as a case of the state's traditional two front politics now seeing a third front (the BJP) muscling in with the potential outcome being either a messy three front affair or a renewed endorsement of the two front pattern but with one of the old fronts compromised or quashed, observes Shyam G Menon.
He posted a picture of Soren meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
'If delimitation is not handled well by the Centre, the southern states are certainly going to challenge it.'
'We can't afford to fight each other.' 'We have to win the 2026 election.'
The Delhi battlefield may not be a cakewalk for the Rhodes Scholar.
'Something very drastic must have happened.'
'In the Congress, only those people who suck up to the leadership have value. I am not one of them.'
'It will split people and create caste clashes. Unity of people will be affected for the time being.'
'Will the LG be ready to rule with a light hand, having been vested with powers that amount to using a hammer to kill a fly?' asks Aditi Phadnis.
Vijay is counting on what was once proclaimed as his last filmi outing, Jana Nayagan, or 'People's Hero', to do the trick for him, when it releases on January 9, 2026, only months before the assembly poll, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A cross-party delegation led by Congress MP Dr Shashi Tharoor is visiting key American nations to rally global support for India's counter-terror stance under Operation Sindoor, spotlighting regional stability and Pakistan-backed cross-border threats.
'This is just the beginning. You have to wait and watch to see things getting better.'
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shaurya Doval has said he has never expressed desire to contest elections but is open to the idea if the party decides to field him.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
