'Only time will tell how difficult it would be for the BJP when Mr Modi may not be in a position to actively run affairs of the party and be its biggest vote catcher.'
'Then the BJP could even split.'
The video of the speech he made in Gujarati has gone viral.
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad during his retirement speech in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday summed up his more than four-decade-old political career in few Urdu couplets and a brief speech.
Since 2014, India has left its moorings as a pluralist, modern, secular State because that is how the BJP wants it to be, notes Aakar Patel.
'Adivasi seats will sound the bugle of the end of the BJP regime in Gujarat.'
In its order of June 12, which was made available on June 15, the court of additional sessions judge Harsh Trivedi also slammed pseudo-secular media and politicians for claiming that the riots were planned.
'Muslims have been exploited for 65 years. They have been reduced to a community of committees and commissions. Nothing happens. Since 1947 they are worse than Dalits.' 'Muslims voted en-bloc once upon a time. Not now. Muslims are fragmented everywhere. They have the same choices as the Hindus in that area.' 'Muslims are not alienated. The alienation is between the haves and have-nots. Poverty in India has both Hindus and Muslims.'
='The Gujarat results show a wide chasm between the issues facing the common people and the way the BJP engineers electoral successes.'
I think the 'What-if-it-had-been-Patel?' sentiment represents a yearning for more of what we are already seeing around us in India today, observes Aakar Patel.
The number of people living in England and Wales identifying as Christian has fallen below half the population for the first time, while those identifying as Muslim or Hindu have registered a small rise, according to the latest census figures released on Tuesday.
Not many modern democracies have gone down this path before, setting it upon themselves to use the law and media to target citizens, points out Aakar Patel.
'It is creditable that the BJP builds the organisation set-up and then looks for leaders.' 'The Congress on the other hand has to care for the leaders more than the organisation.'
It reinforces the Muslim stereotype, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Many films and shows go back in time to bring alive so many fading and forgotten memories.
But it is less adventurous. It seems, at last, that in its eighth decade, Pakistan has settled into being a parliamentary democracy just like Bangladesh has and like we have always been, observes Aakar Patel.
'Everyone is entitled to their opinion because we live in a country like India and not a place where Shalini is taken, where forget having an opinion, women can't even talk to their family on the phone.'
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave a candid and controversial interview to Shahid Siddiqui, editor of the Urdu weekly Nai Duniya, where he spoke about the Gujarat riots. For doing the interview Siddiqui was suspended from the Samajwadi Party, which he has joined recently after quitting the Bahujan Samaj Party.
'The BJP while being in government in Gujarat continues to campaign like an Opposition party whereas the Opposition does the opposite.'
Ahmedabad is home to the strangest of cuisines and is a city of contrasts, if you look beyond the tourist places.
The Congress won 77 seats or 42% of seats in the 2017 polls. How then can Gujarat be called a BJP bastion, asks Sanjeev Nayyar.
Upadhyay, in his plea, challenged the validity of section 2(f) alleging that it gives unbridled power to the Centre terming it "manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and offending".
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday hit out at the BJP for opposing Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray's directive to state police to keep a record of migrants coming here from other states, claiming the BJP was raking up the 'outsider' card with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and Mumbai civic elections due next year.
Alia has connections with several places about the globe -- Gujarat, Kashmir, UP, Germany, England -- and hails from a splendidly multi-cultural family.
Behind this never-say-die attitude of the BJP is probably the calculation of the Roman emperors that if bread is scarce, give the people circus, observes Amulya Ganguli.
'There were any number of Congress leaders who disliked Sonia Gandhi, but they were very close to Ahmed Bhai and he would listen, and give a shoulder to cry upon.'
It was a unique celebration; there is no other instance where Harijans were feted to celebrate India's Independence, says Prakash Bhandari.
No plaque marks the historic meeting place of the fathers of two nations. And no history textbook tells us about that first meeting and their mutual admiration, common ethos and comradeship.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for seeking en bloc voting by Muslims for the Trinamool Congress and said had his party made a similar appeal to Hindus, it would have been criticised and censured.
'Afzal Guru was convicted of supporting the attack on India's Parliament. The Supreme Court said "the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded" to Guru.' 'Till we can think up similar justifications for hanging non-Muslims, I do not think we can delink terrorism from religion in our minds,' argues Aakar Patel.
'By the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, they moved back to the BJP almost totally and later their backing helped us win the local body elections.'
Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, the first Gujarati rector of the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, is finding himself in the eye of the storm, barely 10 days after he appointed to the post. The Muslim community across the country has been up in arms against Vastanvi after his remark on 'prosperity of Narendra Modi's Gujarat'.
Naturally, the West Bengal chief minister is not leaving anything to chance, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
'The BJP's solo aim in Mumbai and Maharashtra is to finish off the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP.'
In this video, Hardik is seen appealing to Gujarat's Dalits who have been violently protesting thrashing of four young Dalit men in Gujarat's Una by 'gau rakshaks' for engaging in cow slaughter.
As Melania Trump arrives in Ahmedabad, Sheela Bhatt offers the First Lady Of The United States a primer on one of India's oldest, and historic, cities.
It is Gujarat that is preventing Modi from becoming a pan-India leader. Gujarat wants Modi to be an all-India leader only on its term: As a strong votary of Hindutva. But that very position is a recipe for disaster on the national stage, feels Amberish K Diwanji.
Ashrafbhai Pathan of Sanand, Gujarat, is an ardent Narendra Modi fan. "Ask any Gujarati today what Narendra Modi means to them and the future of the next generation and hear them articulate about Modi's achievements and vision," he tells anyone who cares to listen. Prasanna D Zore and Reuben NV report
The Congress forget Modi has demigod status in Gujarat and there is no way he can be defeated in the state, argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'From his persistent fuelling of pan-Hindu nationalism to pandering to narrow Gujarati chauvinism, Rambo rides again, using fair means and foul -- and often foul -- to gain the battleground,' says Sunil Sethi.
The police do not have it in them to confront the Hindutva groups in a country ruled by a Hindutva party. No wonder Munawar Faruqui feels this is the end for him, asserts Jyoti Punwani.
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