'In the 30 years since the Ayodhya movement began, the RSS has created a generation of Hindus who are the mirror image of those fanatic Muslims who take to the streets at the slightest, even imagined, 'insult to Islam,' argues Jyoti Punwani.
'"Life-changing" clearly denotes an exceptionally high level of regard for Narendra D Modi.' 'One has to find out if the UGC used such an adulatory term for any other speaker, whether from politics or from academe,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'The fabric of democracy is fraying,' says T V R Shenoy. 'It is being attacked not just by terrorists in Kashmir or by zealots in the North-East, but is being ripped apart even in Allahabad, in the Hindi heartland.'
Thackeray said the BJP's perception of being a "world winner" had been shattered with the results of the just-held state assembly polls.
Sukanya Verma looks at the colourful portrayal of this festival on the Bollywood screen.
Why do the biggest, most talented and successful film-makers of India suck up to the establishment so breathlessly, asks Shekhar Gupta.
They said it was then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who on February 1, 1986 got the permission for starting prayers at the disputed site and got the locks opened.
Luka Chuppi is as much about live-in as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was about pigeons.
Senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Giriraj Kishore, who was actively associated with the Ram temple agitation, died in New Delhi on Sunday evening following prolonged illness. He was 94.
The 'Shatrughan Sinha of the South' plunges into politics.
'Mercifully, the Supreme Court is currently playing the role of the elderly wise to prevent wrong-doing,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The founder of the Republican Hindu Coalition first attracted attention in the US as the "Punjabi tycoon" who was a huge supporter of Narendra Modi in the US. 'He will be best for India. There is no better ally for the US than India in the region,' Shalabh Kumar tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Celebrating the poet-saint's legacy in our times.
'I have only this to say to those who talk about Mewar rulers and Akbar's brutality -- do you expect a king to not expand his kingdom?' 'You have entire cities named after Muslim rulers. It's time our heroes got their due.'
The party is looking at Amit Shah's visit to Tamil Nadu and the PM's to Sri Lanka to boost its expansions efforts in the state for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, reports Archis Mohan.
In the dangal of UP politics, much as Muzaffarnagar wants to leave its past behind, the shadows are never be far behind.
The letter says Maoists want to assassinate Modi the way former PM Rajiv Gandhi was killed, say Maharashtra CM and the state police.
The Rajya Sabha MP, who lost out to Bachchan in the race for re-nomination to the upper house and on Monday quit the Samajwadi Party to join the BJP, had said at a press conference that the SP denied him the RS ticket and gave it to somebody who used to dance and act in films.
23-year-old Geeta, who can neither speak nor hear, is stuck in Pakistan for 13 years
Once Ram temple is built it will become a 'ghoshit (declared) Hindu Rashtra', a VHP leader told the gathering.
'From 10 am on Tuesday to 3 am this morning, we must have made not less than a thousand phone calls.' 'We kept fighting till the end and we did not leave the room till we got 113 certificates.' 'Two-three losses would have changed the game and the BJP wanted to become the largest party which they did not become.'
The BJP's losses in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the UP CM had addressed nearly 75 rallies, has put a big question mark on his ability to deliver in high-octane contests, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Mrinal Pande remembers Rajendra Yadav, one of the most prolific fiction writers and thinkers of Hindi literature in the recent times, who passed away on Monday.
'If the BJP wants to build a minimally inclusive and secure society, in which vulnerable groups and religious minorities don't feel persecuted, then the Sangh Parivar, the party and its government must change their ways. Or else, they risk dividing India further -- violently and irreparably -- for narrow political ends,' argues Praful Bidwai.
Karnad, a recipient of Jnanpith Award, was also conferred the Padma Shri in 1974 and the Padma Bhushan in 1992.
'The current BJP leadership believes the party's expansion across India, and thus their own survival at the top, depends on injecting communal tension into areas where it has so far been largely controlled,' argues Mihir S Sharma.
'Of course, I would like a world in which candidates don't ask for my vote on religious (etc) grounds.' 'But will we ever live in a world free of such appeals?' 'More important, will a Supreme Court verdict, by itself, ever deliver such a world?' asks Dilip D'Souza.
More than 25 years after the Babri Masjid was destroyed, another generation proclaims its commitment to building a Ram temple.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
Delhi University has announced the second cut-off list for admission to its undergraduate programmes, with a marginal drop in its percentages even as various colleges closed the enrolment to popular courses such as BCom Honours and Economics Honours for various categories.
'It is only for a particular kind of Indian. The thing is: Even some of those types of Indians do not like it,' says Aakar Patel.
As M Karunanidhi passed into the ages, we look back at some of the legendary scriptwriter's greatest movies.
Mohammad Sajjad profiles Professor Riazur Rahman Sherwani, 94, versatile mind, intrepid intellectual.
In an era when the misguided youth of today are trying to build political careers by subscribing to divisive ideologies, they need to look to independent thinking icons such as Acharya Kripalani, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'Muslims are depressed and disillusioned.' 'The safety valve is that we still have a multicultural mosaic in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.'
'Are we seeing the beginning of the communalising of one of the most iconic film industries in the world?' asks Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
Will Malik's worldview, shaped by his years with the socialists, Charan Singh, the Congress and V P Singh, help him govern the troubled state? Or would his rule have the imprint of the party he joined in the latter years of his chequered political career?
The BJP sees investments, both foreign and domestic, as their pathways to political power and not the construction of the Ram temple or a nationwide ban on beef. It will have no option but to let commerce prevail over religious sentiments, says Amulya Ganguli.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to expand his cabinet when Parliament breaks for recess during the Budget Session. Archis Mohan reports
Can the Election Commission step up to the plate and exert its Constitutional powers with non-partisan conviction, asks Mitali Saran.
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