Vajpayee had always felt that India must act with conviction and panache. He decided that, irrespective of the attendant risks, he would undertake what many felt was a precarious course. A fascinating excerpt from N K Singh's Portraits Of Power: Half A Century Of Being At Ringside on Atalji's 96th birthday, December 25.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
A day after clinching the 50m pistol gold in the ongoing Asian Games, Jitu Rai said he has not spoken to his mother for the last one month.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has appealed to India, China and the US along with five other nations to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, saying the international community should complete the "unfinished business" of achieving a world free of atomic weapons.
Olympic organisers say they will not reveal the final torchbearer's identity until the torch arrives in the stadium on live television, watched by billions of spectators.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
If these reports are true, it means that it possesses something much more powerful than it has tested in the past. North Korea has run nuclear tests in the pasts, but this announcement has sent panic waves internationally.
Be ready to be amazed as Rediff.com encapsulates all the sporting action from the past week in this super photo feature.
'Living in Brazil, I had internalised the football mythology of that country, the way I had learnt Mahabharata stories in my childhood. The tragedy at the Maracana stadium in 1950, when a confident Brazil had lost to Uruguay in the finals. They tell the story of this debacle, this 'Hiroshima' that hit them, like the Shias lament the death of Ali. It led to the Brazilian team burning their white uniforms and switching later to Yellow and blue symbolising their national colours,' says Ambassador B S Prakash, India's former envoy to Brazil.
Yasuhito Endo chalked up another milestone in his storied career when Japan beat Iraq in the Asian Cup on Friday, yet his single-minded focus on team first was evident for all to see.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Japan has the capital and needs to pull out of China, which has been its major destination. India, on the other hand, desperately needs capital especially for infrastructure, argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
'While economic ties are making incremental progress, it is in the security and strategic domains that the India-Japan synergy is more compelling,' says Dr Rajaram Panda.
The strategic pacts were inked after the summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during which they also discussed international and regional issues of mutual importance including UN security reforms.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday.
'The talks held in Bangkok, virtually on Indian terms, is an event where Pakistan seems to have blinked first.'
'The World Cup is being played in the football crazy country after 64 years and nothing excites the Brazilians more than the sacred game,' says B S Prakash, India's former ambassador to Brazil.
In the media frenzy over inconsequential issues, the visit of the Emperor of Japan to India has been pushed to the margins of public discourse. Colonel (retd) Anil Athale explains the great historical and political significance of the visit.
What a year Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Saina Nehwal, Vijender Singh and Anirban Lahiri had!
If the radical Islamic movement had been largely peaceful, Headley would have probably found another way to ensure real life excitement.' 'But I really do believe that his relationship with radical Islam is real. Very real.' 'It was a match for his desires.'
'Diplomatic engagement will continue even as India keeps all its options open with respect to discretely targeting the Pakistani military and its terrorist proxies.'
Atal Bihari Vajpayee would seek to placate the hawks in the RSS by stating that the writing of history should not be one-sided. At the same time, he would project a moderate 'Nehruvian' image of himself as the archetypal liberal politician who would strive to attain a balance between conflicting viewpoints. A fascinating profile of the former prime minister and Bharat Ratna by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shankar Raghuraman.
