'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
With no apparent wave on the ground or pressing everyday issues, that's what it boils down for voters as Rajasthan readies for assembly polls this week.
'Nobody is killing you in Kerala because you are Hindu unlike in North India where Muslims have been killed only because they are Muslims and were carrying some meat.'
'Where should shudra-OBCs go because of whom the nation is surviving?'
The inaugural Sangamam turned out to be a political Hindutva function than a gathering on the Hindu religion, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
cution' of the Brahmins in the regime of Adityanath, a Rajput, accused of pandering to his caste's interests. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Political watchers say the caste survey report was made public to play the OBC-EBC card and stall the BJP's campaign to win most of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats.
'This is going to generate a new debate on reservation because the quota for Economically Weaker Sections is 10%, and that is for nearly 16% of the population.' 'For 16% you are giving 10%. This is set to raise eyebrows among the OBCs after the caste survey.'
'The Shankaracharya's supporters are shooting the messenger. What is Jayalalithaa's fault? Is it that she has allowed law to take its own course? Is she not supposed to?' asks Tamil Nadu government counsel, K T S Tulsi.
The BJP seems wanting to return to a 'Tamil Hindutva' agenda for elections in Tamil Nadu, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
Stoutly defending Sanatan Dharma, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Thursday dubbed the ruling DMK a casteist party that must be decimated, and questioned its track record on Dalit empowerment.
Godse's choice fitted with the Hindutva world view in which the assertion of masculinity, power and virility -- both discursively and institutionally -- occupied the central position. His close association with Savarkar seems only to have sharpened his uncompromising views on women.
Party insiders concede statements of the Raja kind have the potential to hurt the DMK's electoral chances in closely-fought seats in 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Both the DMK and ADMK are equally to blame.' 'When the question is violence against Dalits, they don't take measures to protect Dalits.'
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.' 'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.' 'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'
'But he was very quick and did a very stylish adab.' 'Of course, I didn't expect him to hug.'
'One has to move with the times to stay relevant.'
The foundations of the army's own peculiar secularism are potentially being destabilised
A group of protesters on Saturday marched to the office of a Malayalam vernacular magazine in New Delhi raising slogans, claiming that a novel serialised in the publication defamed Hindu women and the Brahmin community.
Chief Minister Stalin seems to have drawn a line between his personal beliefs and those of others in the family, beginning with wife Durga Stalin, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In both places the minority was disproportionately powerful.' 'Few people acknowledge it but at its core the Tamil Nadu problem between the Brahmins and the rest was one of power.' 'In Kashmir the Hindus held most of the land and the accompanying political power, while the Muslims were the peasants and powerless,' notes T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
There were Vedic mantras engraved along with prayer songs for Lord Shiva, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. Neither the government nor the people of Faisalabad demanded that the carvings be removed. I felt very happy to see Sanskrit shloka
The Kashmir Files has done a commendable job in highlighting the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, but has dealt only with the local factors. The cover-up has multiple reasons and it is time that a debate is begun to unmask the culprits who hid the truth, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The War of the Tiranga is a metaphor for a new battle of ideas in national politics, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'Segregation suits the BJP at the moment. It will not suit them forever.'
'Valmiki has not written anything about Hanuman's caste.' 'I want to clarify that Hanuman was not a Vanar, but an Adivasi.'
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Must every believing Hindu automatically be assumed to subscribe to the Hindutva project?' asks Shashi Tharoor.
Keshav Prasad Maurya's election from Sirathu in Kaushambi will be among the keenly watched contests in UP. If he and the BJP win, will he be luckier this time?
Strongly defending the move to revise school textbooks, Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on Monday alleged that confusion is unnecessarily being created among the people and students, along with attempts to create communal hatred by spreading falsehood.
'Just keep telling people that we have fixed the Muslims, and they will not be bothered about their empty stomachs or empty wallets.'
'If Rahul wants to pick up the sacred thread where his 'daadi' left it, especially when the BJP, which reduced his party to 44 in 2014, claims monopoly over Hinduism, it's smart politics.' 'Why cede your Gods to your rival?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Those who have 'sold their souls to outsiders from Gujarat' are insulting the Nandigram movement by playing the communal card, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday, and rejected the claim that she was an outsider in Nandigram.
In a state where Hindu social identity continues to remain in the overarching Dravida umbrella, the 'Hindutva' political identity does not have the same, or even near-similar electoral purchase, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In this May 2014 interview with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com, the politically conscious Karnad spoke of why he is concerned about Modi coming to power.
The concept of 'fairness by rulers' is deeply ingrained in Indians and any weakening of this dents the legitimacy of the ruler, warns military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
