The Centre on Tuesday promised to take action on the report of a fact-finding team which claimed that there were 15,000 incidents of post-poll violence in West Bengal in which 25 people were killed and 7,000 women were molested.
'Which will not happen.' 'Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has expressly refuted Beijing's statement that normalcy was returning to Sino-Indian relations.'
Journalist-turned-activist Teesta Setalvad in her new book 'Foot Soldier of the Constitution: A Memoir' has spoken of the rise of communalism and the aftermath of the '02 Godhra riots. In this interview with Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf, she discusses her book, the cases against her and the state of secularism in the country.
'I can't help it if people don't love the minorities, the Dalits and Adivasis; they are as much of this country as any other Indian.' 'If I love them, it does not mean I do not love my country.' 'It is ironic and funny that they have laid such severe anti-national charges against me.'
The ultimate consequences of Rahul Gandhi's yatra may be known only in 2024, points out Dr Sudhir Bisht.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
'Mamata will beat the living daylights out of BJP workers with the result that people who are not totally committed, they will promptly leave the party and go back to Trinamool.' 'Or when they find they cannot get what they came to the BJP for they will go back to Trinamool.'
Politics, bureaucracy, ineptitude, double-standards and an attempt to politicise the fight in pseudo-nationalistic terms have all hampered the fight against this deadly virus, says Vir Sanghvi.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said he would visit places in Nandigram, where post-poll violence was allegedly reported.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of pushing India into a dark age of religious polarisation to "subserve its parochial political agenda in the short term".
Jaishankar said all members would agree that India's approach should be guided by its national beliefs and values, national interest and by its national strategy.
'How can middlemen disappear as long as our political parties are sucking in massive amounts of black money?' 'There is an old political art well practised in New Delhi -- people create artificial problems and then solve it for you to earn your gratitude for a lifetime.'
There is nothing to suggest that the DMK stands to gain from the AIADMK split nor is there anything indicative of an extraordinary advantage for the BJP, independently or in the company of the AIADMK, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
A local Congress leader said that the alliance would not have any bearing in Delhi or in the coming election to the assembly in the north eastern state.
'When you see Modi standing there at the G20, or in New York or at the United Nations, amongst all the leaders, he stands out in the crowd.' 'He looks different, he sounds different, and he has something about his quality of presentation, his oratorical skills, which clearly set him apart from the crowd.' 'The relationship between Modi and the rest of the world and India and the rest of the world has been reset as a result of the election in 2014.'
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
'I get angry when people throw ink or slap him - but Arvind takes all this in his stride. People nowadays make fun of him and point out his mistakes but they haven't seen his sacrifice. If you understand his commitment towards this country, you will not dare say anything against him," says Dr Bipin Mittal, a longtime friend and family doctor of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
Political Pundit R Rajagopalan lists his big takeaways from the election results.
The party will need organisation, preparation, funding and ideological clarity, says Aditi Phadnis
Just as the superstars of Indian cricket only play IPL and international fixtures and ignore the Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies in domestic cricket, Narendra Modi should play a very limited role in state assembly elections, argues Sudhir Bisht.
'This exercise helped the Aam Aadmi Party and its leaders reach out to more voters and at the same time, fine tune the poll strategy.'
'I don't think there is a wave in favour of the Samajwadi Party, or against the BJP.' 'This election is largely about which party is able to build a larger social and political coalition.'
Launching the Ayushman Bharat scheme via a video-conference to extend health insurance benefits to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he said the three-tier panchayat system has fully taken shape in the UT, describing it as a realisation of Mahatma Gandhi's dream of 'gram swaraj' (village self-rule).
Some believe she should no longer be the face of the struggle to free Myanmar from the new military dictatorship, observes Prakash Bhandari.
Rarely have we seen such intoxication over power, which ignores the cries of those dying, notes Jyoti Punwani.
What we have in the Congress is a useful glue to hold a non-cultural, unified Opposition together. That is the sacrifice the Congress must be willing to live with if showing the BJP the door is what the collective Opposition wants, observes Shyam G Menon.
No prime minister of India ever had greater experience of running a state than Narendra Modi.
'The cast and crew of Tandav unconditionally apologise if it has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments.'
Shah said Modi's 'pro-poor policies' led the BJP to victory in UP.
For the 2019 polls, the BJP chief deployed over 7,000 leaders to oversee the work of polling committees on the over 400 seats the BJP contested. These committees were asked to focus on 120 seats the party had lost in 2014, but believed it could win in 2019.
As Delhi gears up for assembly polls, Upasna Pandey speaks to Aam Aadmi Party leader HS Phoolka about the Modi factor, the issues on which the Sikh electorate and why the AAP is likely to return to power.
'What was the message that was going to them?' 'The message was, we are a great country and we have beaten Covid!' 'No one talked about the precautions to be taken.'
The Rajiv Gandhi assassination, investigation and trial were all jinxed in parts, recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
From Sri Lanka's most popular political family to its most despised -- going by the voices on the streets calling for the Rajapaksas' ouster -- what went wrong for the clan? Veteran Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy offers an insight.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government has no other option but to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission wants to hold assembly elections in the state by the end of 2019.
It is time he stood up and assured the middle class that they can count on him as one of their own, says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
Bangladeshis are unwilling to give up peace and growing incomes for the chaos witnessed during the BNP-led four-party alliance rule, says Anand Kumar.
'Facing foes with a common intent is not something Modi-Shah's BJP has done before,' points out Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance looked set to return to power in Maharashtra while Haryana could be a cliffhanger with no clear majority for the BJP or the Congress, Election Commission trends indicated.
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