Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the vote of thanks to the President's speech on the opening day of the Budget session.
In an emotional response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's jibes at her Italian origins, Sonia Gandhi on Monday said India is her home and "it is here that my ashes will mingle with my loved ones".
To remember Jawaharlal Nehru only for his mistakes on Kashmir or China is unfair. A democratic and secular India is in no small measure the awesome legacy of India's first prime minister, says Amberish K Diwanji
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is on his way out, according to Congress sources, and Union Minister Harish Rawat and state minister Pritam Singh are emerging as the frontrunners for the top job in the hill state.
'In the first elections, Hindutva forces got only 6% of the votes and won only 10 seats.' 'It was a great defeat for them.' 'They have held that grouse against Nehru since then.'
Shah said the BJP-led government had only brought an amendment to the law which was enacted by thr Congress and whose provisions were later made stringent.
'When the story of Elections 2019 is told by an independent writer, the BJP's role in lowering electoral standards will be etched in indelible ink,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
The issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin cropped up yet again with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj saying on Thursday she was still opposed to the idea of her becoming the prime minister.
'Both the governor and the President enjoy an enormous array of 'grey' powers.' 'All parties criticise these when in the Opposition. But why does no government dismantle them when these parties come to power?' asks Aditi Phadnis.
"The Congress has failed despite ruling for so many years," she said.
'His prowess in Aikido -- a Japanese martial art that focuses on harmony with the opponent to peacefully resolve conflicts -- gives Rahul Gandhi an advantage that fanatical adversaries lack,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Parliamentarians, who have been slugging it out for past the few days in Lok Sabha over several issues, were seen mixing freely at a dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday night to commemorate three years of his presidency.
'Nehru once told JRD, "I hate the mention of the very word profit".' '"Jawaharlal, I am talking about the need of the public sector making a profit!" JRD replied.' 'Nehru reiterated, "Never talk to me about the word profit, it is a dirty word".' A fascinating excerpt from Shashank Shah's The Tata Group: From Torchbearers To Trailblazers.
Hitting the streets against the controversial land bill, Congress on Tuesday accused the Narendra Modi government of being "anti-farmer" and "pro-corporate" and vowed to take the battle across the country but both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were conspicuous by their absence.
Four decades of federal evolution made India more secure, but coronavirus is reversing that. Modi's central government has tasted power again and is unlikely to give it up, notes Shekhar Gupta.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.
If Jammu and Kashmir comes under Governor's rule, it will be for the eighth time in four decades.
'In a party run by 'two-and-a half men', Kovind fits the bill perfectly because, unlike the BJP's previous choice for the Presidency, A P J Abdul Kalam, he is unlikely to return a bill as Kalam did with the office of profit legislation,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
'Narendra Modi could be too old to change his personality. On the other hand, his attachment to the RSS could be mostly sentimental. So one must hope that if he becomes prime minister, he is able to detach himself from the RSS view of the world as completely as Narasimha Rao detached himself from the Congress's First Family.' 'India cannot be governed by the autocratic methods by which he has governed Gujarat. If he becomes prime minister he will have to learn to speak in a more civil language about his political opponents,' historian Ramachandra Guha tells Arthur J Pais/Rediff.com
The CPI-M leader also demanded the setting up of a House Committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities.
Shortly before going to the Raj Bhawan to submit his resignation to Governor Aziz Qureshi, the former high court judge-turned-politician said he was resigning on the directives of the party high command
With Pinarayi Vijayan set to be chief minister, what will be the role for party patriarch V S Achuthanandan? And what are the key takeways from the election results in Kerala?
Kerala is one state where the Congress may do well in the general election and it where Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated why he is serious about rebuilding his party, says T V R Shenoy.
Ahead of VK Sasikala's return to Tamil Nadu on February 8, there are some important questions facing her. One, does she carry electoral weight more now than her brainchild AMMK had in the 2019 LS polls? Two, can she retain or build upon the five per cent vote-share from that time? And finally, is there space for Sasikala to retrieve, first within the AIADMK and then across the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Can un-democracy be the foundation for a democratic party that aspires to be different from all other parties in India.
Mukherjee's family and relatives paid their last respects clad in PPE kits while conforming to COVID-19 safeguards.
The opposition battled it out with the Centre over farmer issues, the suspension of 6 MPs and the privileges of MPs.
Stepping up his attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family, Narendra Modi on Friday said Rahul Gandhi was talking of changing the system when it was his father and grandmother who made it and distorted and misused it for their personal gains.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
Uproar was witnessed on Tuesday in the Lok Sabha as several parties got together to demand a resolution to condemn Israeli raids in Gaza Strip but the government did not oblige.
Protests broke out in several areas in Jammu on Thursday against raising of Pakistani flags and pro-Pakistan slogans at the rally held by separatist leaders in Srinagar on Wednesday.
'He is a BJP man among Dalits, not a Dalit man in the BJP.'
The Citizenship Amendment Bill would possibly be the first piece of legislation that is perniciously discriminatory on the basis of religion/faith, says Mohammad Sajjad.
If one were to go by the degree of clout, Jaitley was the undoubted No. 2 in the Modi government.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
Mufti's political graph shows his fondness for courting unpopular, politically hazardous ventures in pursuit of his ultimate objective to vindicate his leadership. Towards the end of his life, Mufti's public profile had come to assume the dimensions of statesmanship. One reason being his willingness to learn from his experience, says Mohammad Sayeed Malik.
'The central learning of the day was that if the BJP leadership can cajole, coax and convince regional parties to vote for bills, it would not be a stretch to see the same votes cast in favour of the land bill,' a senior Congress leader from a northern state told Rediff.com
'The autonomy of essential institutions is clearly under question as the Modi government seeks to influence them politically.' 'The credibility of institutions such as the EC, the CBI, the CVC, the UPSC, the RBI, media, and universities, has been compromised,' notes Zoya Hasan, the distinguished political thinker.
'This term -- "Nehru-Gandhi" family -- is a misnomer. Nehru was not a dynast; he did not even name his successor... The big mistake she made was to push forward Rahul Gandhi who is a dead loss as a leader,' says Nayantara Sahgal, whom Sonia Gandhi calls 'Tara Masi.'
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