'What hurts people most is dynastic impulses and corruption under a family-ruled Congress party -- and Nehru has borne the brunt of it... I cannot be blinded by how the Nehru family has functioned but just as Gandhi can't be judged by his descendents, why should Nehru?' asks political scientist Ashutosh Varshney.
'This is a film that trumpets out its sex -- it is content in being a girl's version of the archetypical boy's locker-room picture.' 'And if it was just that, that would have been fun too, but Lipstick Under My Burkha doesn't want to affect your senses, it wants to control your mind!' Sreehari Nair comes away unimpressed.
People elected me to fight corruption, I'm doing what they told me to do, Modi said.
Only three percent of Indians pay income tax; our tax-GDP ratio is among the lowest in the world. This must change. Our elites must realise that India's poverty has damaging consequences for them, and that they can help decrease it. The food security bill, with all its limitations, will hopefully contribute to generating such awareness, says Praful Bidwai.
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest stories from around the world.
'The year in pictures' treks across the globe, looking back on the moments that shaped 2016. From the United States presidential race, to demonetisation in India to the refugee crisis, the news has kept pouring in. Here are our top 50 moments from the world.
Bajirao Mastani has the potential to do for Maratha 'history' what Mughal-e-Azam did for Mughal 'history', says Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
Following is the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 73rd Independence Day.
Looking at how the idea of gift giving and taking on Diwali has changed
The central government has drafted a law to restrict wombs for hire, and there is much to be said on all sides.
Can we make high speed 4G Internet available at 10 cents per GB, and make all voice calls free of cost -- that too in a large and diverse country like India? Can we make high-quality but simple breast cancer screening available to every woman, that too at the extremely affordable cost of $1 per scan? Can we make a portable, high-tech ECG machine which can provide reports immediately and that too at the cost of 8 cents a test? Can we make an eye imaging device that is portable, non-invasive and costs 3 times less that conventional devices? Can we make a robust test for mosquito-borne dengue, which can detect the disease on day 1, and that too at the cost of $2 per test? Amazingly, says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, all this has been achieved in India, not only by using technological innovation but also non-technological innovation.
Iraq is on the verge of collapsing and foreign military intervention is inevitable. But for those who follow the developments in Iraq and the Middle-East will understand the current situation is nothing but a culmination of US and western policies toward the region, says Dr Waiel Awwad
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation where he announced the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes with effect from midnight on November 8-9.
Raja Chari is in training to go to space in 2019. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel presents the story of his journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to NASA. A Rediff.com Exclusive!
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron is one madly indulgent film says Raja Sen.
In villages in Palghar district -- in Mumbai's backyard -- more than 254 children have died from malnutrition.
Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami met a hero's end battling Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists in the jungles of Kashmir. His valour earned him the nation's highest gallantry award in peacetime this Republic Day. Archana Masih/Rediff.com travelled to Lal Kuan, Haldwani, to find out who this hero was.
True Indian scenes most often lie on less travelled routes, along roads that have fallen off the map, after modern highways have come up. On the fourth leg of their 2,148 km journey, Rediff.com's Archana Masih and photographer Rajesh Karkera discover one such forgotten place in the Thar Desert.
The apex court's decision, which was handed down in eight minutes, has dashed any hopes for the Jayalalithaa aide to become CM.
The new Spider-Man film gets everything wrong except the girl, feels Raja Sen.
Gangster Chhota Rajan, arrested in Bali on Monday and who is likely to be extradited to India, was not one to forgive or forget easily. Mumbai's foremost crime writer S Hussain Zaidi recalls the time when Rajan was almost killed in an attack by his rival Chhota Shakeel, and how Rajan extracted revenge across continents.
Nine hundred and forty-seven people are said to have died in grief after J Jayalalithaa's demise on December 5. But how true is this claim?
Under threat from the Maoists, and jailed by the police, AAP's Soni Sori plunges into the election for all she holds dear. Aman Sethi reports
What happened in Uttarakhand is a national tragedy. Why couldn't Dr Manmohan Singh announce that he was forming an Uttarakhand Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, with himself as chairman but inviting Narendra Modi to become the deputy chairman, asks T V R Shenoy.
Here's everything you need to know about To Kill a Mockingbird.
If the high security notes introduced in 2015 were kept in the system, the pain due to demonetisation can be ameliorated to a certain extent. But unfortunately, such thought process have no place in the hasty demonetisation decision.
The following is the full text of US President Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of the Congress on February 28, as prepared for delivery and released by the White House press office.
