'I love to meet people.' 'I love that personal connect when they express their genuine, heartfelt feelings.'
'Many MPs felt they were going to take out a weapon and shoot us all.'
Congress leaders are a jubilant lot after the results.
'There is some deep rot that has set in the Congress party. This requires an organisational surgery.'
'All these farmers and tribals were told to bring their own wood and ration to cook food during the march.'
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf's excitement knew no bounds when he laid his hands on the 'poor man's iPad'. But the supposedly 'revolutionary' and 'game-changing' piece of technology that sells at Rs 2,500 a piece went kaput in 30 minutes flat. Yes, we are talking about the Aakash Tablet PC. Firdaus pours his heart out.
'Aspiring doctors have put in years of their lives to study in preparation for NEET exams as they start studies from Class 9 to get good marks.' 'And today, after the NEET paper leak, these students even after getting good marks are unable to get admission in any good medical college (because of inflated merit marks due to the paper leak).' 'They are thinking, was it worthwhile to study so hard for the examinations to become a doctor?'
'Congress leaders are ready to lose the election and not form the government, but are never ready to share seats with others.'
'We accept EVMs cannot be hacked because it is not connected, but can they be manipulated?' 'Are you allowing us to check if EVMs can be manipulated?'
'...or go to jail.' 'The government is getting them silenced.'
Dominic Xavier offers his take on how Sachin Pilot is keeping everyone guessing about his future move.
'Not disclosing information to the public indicates that there is something wrong with Project Cheetah.'
'People have got into the habit of sitting at home (and watching films).' 'They don't want to watch movies in theatres because they do not want to waste as much as Rs 1,000 on tickets.' 'They feel there is no point in watching a film on the big screen because it will anyway come on OTT in a month's time.'
'I went to jail and met my father to convince him to join politics and believe in the Constitution.'
'Under this amendment, in any dispute over Waqf properties, the Waqf Board cannot approach the court.' 'This is very surprising because the government instead of protecting Waqf properties they are snatching it away and not allowing them to go to court.' 'The third biggest landowner in India is the Waqf Board after the Indian Army and Indian Railways.'
'There is no peace in the Kashmir Valley.'
'The real leader is not the one who builds flyovers and bridges. The real leader gets into the space of the human hearts which are at war and brings them together.' 'Gandhi did that. There cannot be a nation which is vibrant and strong where there is hatred which is tearing you apart,' filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
The realities at the nerve centre of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement are glaring with lack of development, rampant unemployment and 12-hour long power cuts making life miserable. And most of the people are hopeful that Narendra Modi will change the situation in Ayodhya. Syed Firdaus Ashraf speaks to some Ayodhya residents to get a hang of their real issues.
'The wave of terrorism is over in Kashmir. Local people do not support it.'
The luminous Waheeda Rehman will be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award this year,
The realities at the nerve centre of the Ram Janambhoomi movement are lack of development, rampant unemployment and 12 hour-long power cuts. Most residents hope Narendra Modi will change the situation in Ayodhya.
'They made so many toppers in NEET that automatically the paper leak issue got exposed.' 'The first mistake they did was announcing 67 toppers in NEET. No way this figure was possible.' 'The maximum numbers of toppers that you can have are two or three at best every year.'
'If my brother was a criminal they could have filed a case against him and put him on trial. Why kill him?' This is not justice.'
'If you can come with some arrangement with the Pakistanis that Pakistan ceases to stop creating trouble in Kashmir in return for the Indians not arming Afghanistan, everyone wins.' William Dalrymple discusses his new book Return of a King, Afghanistan, the Mughals and, of course, India with Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Narendra Modi can never be Vajpayee because the poet-prime minister had a heart. Modi doesn't. He only understands the language of business, of profit and loss. It is beyond his capacity to understand a complex country like India, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'The Election Commission cannot be regulated by the government.'
'Akhilesh Yadav made voters think why is the BJP asking for 400 paar.' 'They understood his words and believed the BJP wanted 400 paar only to demolish the Constitution and end reservations.'
'All of these guys who are opposing the Supreme Court judgment are from dominant scheduled caste communities and none of them come from the scavenging community.' 'Not a single scavenging leader will oppose this Supreme Court judgment.'
'...but subjecting our heritage to rigorous evidence-based understanding.'
'Rahul Gandhi is raising the issue of a caste census though his party has been doing injustice on this front from the 1950s.'
'Every Haryana assembly seat has its own unique problems to earn victory for a political party and you as a politician need to know what are those issues and tackle it.'
'Heavy rains are not the primary reason for landslides in Wayanad.' 'There are all sorts of (human) intervention going on in that area.'
Jaswant Singh's biography of M A Jinnah has cost him his place in the BJP. Syed Firdaus Ashraf looks at Jinnah and his controversial place in India's history.
'Modi will do himself a favour if he starts studying about Mahatma Gandhi.' 'I feel pity that we have a PM who has no idea of our own history.'
'If a Brahmin child by birth is poor then he must get reservation benefits rather than an OBC child who is rich and born in a rich family.'
Deepika Padukone talks about her upcoming film, Karthik Calling Karthik, and Ranbir Kapoor.
'The BJP will not win a single seat in Punjab.'
The movie has everything going for it. A total paisa vasool film!
'I like to tell stories that are real. When you say something true, it becomes controversial. It's not that I desire controversy; it's just that I want to tell the truth.' Director Rahul Dholakia talks about his new film Lamhaa and the Kashmir issue.
'And be confident that we will do a successful operation... Don't ask for a deadline. It is very difficult to say in such cases,' says Major General R K Hooda.
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