Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com on Priyanka Chopra's appointment as a brand ambassador for India, despite her frankness on intolerant India.
'Only then will we withdraw the agitation.'
'It is not the duty of government to protect minority religions or promote it.'
'When she left on June 8 after some kind of fight or break-up she did not think Sushant would die.' 'She did not think his family after his death would level such horrible accusations against her.' 'She did not think three agencies would be tasked to prove her to a bad woman.'
'The Akali government is not responsible for the Punjab power crisis as Mr Sidhu is saying.'
'We cannot afford to be complacent about our food security needs.'
'A political party taking the law into its hands is objectionable, especially in the context of the 2002 incidents in Gujarat.'
'If timely action was taken by the CBI, the other three murders could have been prevented.'
'George Fernandes will always be remembered in history as the man who successfully called the railway strike.'
'The police wasted nine years of his precious life. Who will compensate him now?' a relative of Abdul Wahid Shaikh, the only person acquitted in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, ask Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'We are moving away from the path of democracy and towards Hindu religious dictatorship,' scientist P M Bhargava, who announced his decision to return the Padma Bhushan, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'Transparency is us watching the government and not the government watching us'
Where do the four members of the Supreme Court appointed panel to interface with farmers stand on the Modi government's farm laws?
Less than half the ministers in Team Yogi are not long-term BJP members. Many old-timers have been dropped.
'There is no point in just saying, 'hum wapas bhej denge (we will send Kashmiri Pandits back)'.'
'Use of the word 'genocide' for Kashmiri Pandits is absolutely wrong.'
'They also think that if all opposition parties rally behind him, then 2024 will be Rahul versus Modi and that will be advantage BJP'
'The culture of the BJP has changed and the party too has changed with this new culture. 'The BJP is having bad political management, bad man management, personal management and inter-personal relationships.' 'Therefore, people like me are not in the BJP.'
'Priyanka did draw huge crowds and eventually all of those ended up voting for the Samajwadi Party.' 'The voters today are smart enough to vote for the party which they know is going to win or they know this party will come second, but no way will they vote for a party which will come third or fourth.'
'You need a leader whom India can identify with and I cannot think of any other leader except Sachin Pilot in the Congress party.'
'Today in Uttar Pradesh all big parties like Samajwadi Party, BJP or even Bahujan Samaj Party are out to woo smaller parties as they know the Hindu votes are getting divided.'
'If Mayawati had performed better, then the BJP would have had a much tougher time to win UP.' 'The present gap in number of seats between the BJP and SP would have got reduced.'
Glimpses of the CWC meeting, which was meant to formulate a plan to revive the party from the death throes of electoral irrelevance, but...
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
'Piyush Goyal is the chief and it is always the chief who is considered to be responsible.'
'Putin has set aside all the rules and now he is deciding the rules.'
'Earlier, a lot of fear was in the minds of people that the BJP is anti-Christian and anti-minority, but over the years people have learnt to accept that the BJP is just another national party.'
'The message the BJP is sending is that they are in no way responsible for Uddhav's downfall and it was only Shinde who is to be blamed.'
'The BJP had a big threat from the Congress in J&K, therefore they were threatened by us.'
Facing ire over his alleged inflammatory speech warning Muslims of a 'final battle', Union Minister of State for Human Resource and Development Ram Shankar Katheria claims he did not make any such comments.
The Janata Dal-United, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, opposed the government's move on Article 370 through a fresh Presidential Order ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir. On Monday, opposing the Narendra Modi-led government's decision, they walked out of the Rajya Sabha where the bill to split the state into two Union Territories was passed. Similarly, on Tuesday, the JD-U walked out of Lok Sabha while the bill was being discussed. In Patna, JD-U national spokesperson K C Tyagi said: "We completely differ with the Central government's move on Jammu and Kashmir. There was a need for wider consultations on it, but no consultation was done even within the NDA. We own the legacy of socialist leaders Ram Manohar Lohia and Jai Prakash Narayan, who had opposed attempts to tamper with Article 370 during Congress (government in the past)." Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com on the same, the JD-U leader said that 'walking out of Parliament won't affect their ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party'.
'You haven't heard a peep out of Kashmir so what is going to erupt? What repercussion will be (there) in long term, you will have to (wait) and see'
'The Government of India should start a dialogue with the people of Ladakh, but the trouble is they are not willing to listen to our grievances.'
'BJP takes Lingayat support and later on they throw them out, ditch them and humiliate them.' After months of speculation Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa resigned from the chief minister's post. A powerful Lingayat community leader, Yediyurappa could not even complete his term, owing to the internal politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party. So how does Lingayat community view his exit? Congress working president, Karnataka state and Lingayat leader Eshwar Khandre speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, said, "The community which voted him and felt that they will lead the government are now disenchanted."
'They just want to show that the Congress is in disarray.'
'Since the RJD came to power, criminals have stopped fearing the law.'
'In IIT, most faculty members have a bias against SC/ST students.' 'SC/ST and OBC students have no idea whom to approach for support.'
'I am happy Sanjay Raut and Sharad Pawar changed the game of Maharashtra politics.'
How the demonetisation drives in India and Venezuela have played out.
