'This is the era of images; no speech that Mukherjee could have given could counter the sight of a senior Congressman, elevated by the party to Rashtrapati Bhavan, standing rigidly next to the RSS gerontocracy as those worthies delivered the organisation's faux-fascist salute,' says Mihir Sharma.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the centre of attention today at the 'At Home' function hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of the 68th Independence Day.
It is a sight that both warms and breaks the heart. The women of Shaheen Bagh seem oblivious of the cold, these women and their children, the latter ranging in age from 19 days to early teens, who have been occupying the road for over two weeks now. Some of them have not gone home for days, but their faces are clear, unlined by fatigue, their eyes bright and fierce as those of the falcon, shaheen, the area is named for.
Departing from the protocol, President Pranab Mukherjee will visit the former PM's residence to confer upon him the prestigious award.
It's been 15 days since Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent ripples across the nation when he announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would be demonetised immediately. Here are some of the protests that the country has witnessed since then.
'Both Nehru and Patel were thorough gentlemen and whatever their differences never disrespected each other.' 'Neither Modi nor Rahul Gandhi has much in them to claim such legacies.' 'They are symptomatic of the sad days that have befallen the nation midwifed and contemplated by Nehru and Patel,' says Mohan Guruswamy.
Thanks to Sharad Pawar and him alone, Maharashtra has shown that the Modi-Shah duo can be halted. The next step is to take the battle to Dilli, says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
'All statue-building is an exercise in hubris, but Mr Adityanath's enterprise begs a question: Can a state with rampant child malnutrition and 325 children dying in a Gorakhpur hospital afford Rama's benediction?' asks Sunil Sethi.
'Let us celebrate the fact of his having lived amongst us, and our having lived in his time.'
'We saw how vigorous democracy was when it dislodged authoritarianism under Indira Gandhi. We saw its vigour again when it voted Mr Modi out of humble origins as prime minister. It was Nehru who laid that foundation for India and what is worrying today is Modi's rather imperial style of functioning,' says writer Nayantara Sahgal.
Kamla Advani, the wife of Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani, died on Wednesday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences due to heart failure.
'The Sena can quickly reduce most solutions to violence.' 'When in power, it will revert to this gene which is coded into it and we will no doubt produce entertaining and frightening moments,' says Aakar Patel.
Modi visited his 97-year-old mother Hiraba in Gandhinagar and took her blessings.
President Pranab Mukherjee talked though on the ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers as he questioned three Union ministers -- Law Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. He sought minutes of the Cabinet and all party meetings after which the United Progressive Alliance withdrew the decree.
Eleven more deaths were reported on Thursday, taking the total death toll to 38, a senior Delhi Health Department official told PTI.
Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva will be sworn-in as Governor of Goa on Saturday after predecessor B V Wanchoo resigned last week. Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Mohit Shantilal Shah will administer the oath of office to the Governor at Durbar hall of the Raj Bhavan at 6 pm on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the state government.
From the Aadhaar verdict to #MeToo's arrival in the country to the entry into the Sabarimala temple -- India had a newsworthy 2018. As we step into 2019, these are the top moments from the year gone by.
In a shake up ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan resigned on Saturday from the Union Council of Ministers and more may be in line for being drafted into party work.
He dropped those perceived to be non-performers or whose integrity came into question, and also where it was felt they needed to learn a lesson or two in humility.
How has Raj Thackeray, who is as much a businessman as politician, been able to pull it off, when most Opposition politicians live in fear of IT and ED and CBI, asks Krishna Prasad after attending a Raj rally in Nashik.
Modi said both sides expressed commitment for an open, efficient and rules-based regional architecture and to expand bilateral maritime cooperation further.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama on Sunday held talks on a range of crucial issues, including removing hurdles in operationalising the long-stalled civil nuclear agreement and enhancing ties in defence, trade and commerce and climate change.
'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.
Speculation over Justice Gogoi's appointment as the next CJI arose after the court's four most senior judges, including Justice Gogoi, called a press conference in January and criticised Justice Misra on various issues.
'This country belongs to each of us and to all of us -- every group and every community, every region and every identity.'
The action came a day after party vice president Rahul Gandhi condemned the public slaughter of the animal.
A highly respected figure in the field of music, Balamuralikrishna featured in the popular national integration song "Miley Sur Mera Tumhara" in which he rendered Tamil lyrics.
Yeddyurappa has 15 days to prove his majority in the assembly.
With these three recipients, 48 eminent people have been conferred the award so far.
The statements made by the opposition parties after the preemptive air strike on terror camps have made only people of Pakistan happy, he claimed.
Taking the battle on the land bill issue to social media, Congress on Saturday launched a "Zameen Wapsi" website on the eve of its farmers' rally which is expected to see the first major attack on the government by Rahul Gandhi after his return from leave of absence.
When Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Tomar arrived in Shimla, they could not have anticipated the scene that awaited them.
Delhi was just one riot. Add Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and you can count a few scores dead. It could, regrettably, be just the beginning of a very long, dark phase for India, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Gotabaya will expect India to observe the red line.' 'He even dispensed with any gesture welcoming India as an interlocutor on the Tamil issue.' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Going by precedence, the 15th presidential election scheduled to be held on July 17 this year will see a contest, notwithstanding the frenetic political confabulations for a consensus candidate.
20 legislators disqualified from the Delhi assembly for allegedly holding offices of profit.
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?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held comprehensive discussions and took stock of full range of bilateral relations, including political and economic.
A third team to combat chemical or radiological leakage or attack incidents has also been based at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
