No one can make the audience laugh like Govinda, raves Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'This committee underscores the Indian State's longstanding conventional approach to leverage top-down conflict management in North East India in general and Manipur in particular.' 'Trying to 'manage' violent conflicts top-down has not worked in the past, and apparently does not seem to work this time either.'
'Writers are always nervous.' 'If you go to a party, you will notice that the writers are always in a corner of the party, looking anxious, sweating and tense about something or the other.' 'I am that kind of person.'
'They will be in prison all their life and they will understand what suffering means to Reuben's and Keenan's families.'
'Assam is not a dumping ground for Bangladeshi Hindu refugees,' says Assamese actor Ravi Sharma who joined the BJP in August and quit the party on December 10 in protest against the Citizenship Act.
'Deeply hurt by Modi's conspicuous silence for over a month-and-a-half since the outbreak of violence, people in Manipur came on the roads and crushed their radio sets to express their frustration and anger.' 'The fact that Modi's Mann Ki Baat did not have a single reference to the Manipur violence further accentuated this hurt and anger.'
'You need to have enough funds to maintain the primacy of public transport and it should not suffer because of lack of funds.'
'Badle ki bhavna (revengeful politics) was never seen in Maharashtra and Indian politics, but now we are witnessing all that today.'
'We cannot accept that this incident was not in the knowledge of the home ministry.' 'If they had no knowledge about this incident, then it is a big intelligence failure as the Union home ministry has no idea what is going on in Manipur and what the state police is doing.'
'Mamata Didi is the only politician who can take on the might of Modi.'
Coolie No 1 is a cheap comedy for silly people, asserts Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'We do not want Kashmiri Pandits to migrate from Kashmir.'
Sanju is a repeat of Munnabhai, feels Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'Farmers must get Maximum Support Price instead of Minimum Support Price.'
If Govinda wants to give Bollywood's filmmakers a wake up call, he needs to do a film that showcases his acting talent, writes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'Switching loyalty from one party to another is completely unfair as it devalues my vote.'
'My father's life sends a message that there are positive things happening between India and China, no matter what happens at the border.'
'Even if not me, there are other deserving candidates from Maharashtra in the Congress who should have been given the Rajya Sabha ticket.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com recounts the history of the Indian flag and how it has evolved over the years.
Over 1,200 Indian students stranded at Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine make a desperate call for help.
After watching Uri: The Surgical Strike, Syed Firdaus Ashraf gets the feeling that Modi has added another tool to help him win the 2019 Lok Sabha election: Hindi cinema...
Syed Firdaus Ashraf applauds The Kapil Sharma Show's reincarnation.
'Israel has received an extremely hard and rude reminder that it cannot go ahead and talk of normalisation of relations with other Arab countries without addressing the issues pertaining to Palestine.'
Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha's tenures in the Rajya Sabha end this month.
Hamid Nihal Ansari, a software engineer from Mumbai, returned to India in December 2018 after spending six years in a Pakistani jail for illegally entering the neighbouring country from Afghanistan, reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online. He was arrested in 2012 and lodged at Peshawar jail after Pakistan had slapped espionage charges against him. The decision to release him was on account of relentless pressure from New Delhi and Sushma Swaraj, who was the external affairs minister and was personally monitoring the case. Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, Ansari recalls the time he spent with her and says that if it wasn't for her efforts, he would still be rotting away in a Pakistani cell.
'Had it not been for the complicity of the state and Biren Singh's leadership, these riots would not have spread this far and for so long.'
'All this while he has been maintaining that he is innocent and, if that is the case, why will he run away?'
'Therefore, these people want Imran Khan out of the elections whenever it is held.' 'For this, he will have to be disqualified from contesting on the basis of cases against him, declaring that he is not sadiq (honest) and ameen (righteous).'
'Siddaramaiah was openly taking on the BJP's communal agenda, which very few non-BJP politicians do.'
'He was provided sustenance by the British.' 'Many times he wrote to the British that he needed an increase in pension.'
'I was not there at the spot and I don't know who was driving the car.' 'It is a matter that needs to be investigated by the police and it is their job,' says the father of the journalist who was killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.
'The Indian Army and paramilitary have to land more in Assam as the situation is very bad, especially in upper Assam,' says BJP MLA Binod Hazarika whose home was burnt down by mobs.
Indians waiting patiently in serpentine queues outside Mumbai banks tell Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf they are ready to suffer for the larger good of the country.
'The collegium system will remove any such doubts from the minds of people and the political parties.'
'All is well in Visakhapatnam for now.'
'The people of Jharkhand know that Modi is not going to become chief minister, so why should they vote for the BJP?'
'Since I was held at gunpoint I had no option but to give them the car keys.' 'They took the car and drove away.'
'When the Congress is put against someone like Narendra Modi, they do not have anything new to offer to the people of India.'
'People of my constituency told me they will continue loving me, but will not vote for me if I am with the BJP.'
'With the Citizenship Amendment Bill, Hindus from Pakistan can come to India. They have got a way,' says Gurumukh Jagwani who came to India on his honeymoon, loved the country so much that he stayed back and got Indian citizenship.