President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Union ministers, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and various other top leaders have condoled Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's demise and paid glowing tributes to her.
He regretted that whatever measures governments in the state and Centre should be taking for normalisation of situation were being taken by the opposition parties.
"What is the hurry," Modi said, while referring to Gandhi's hand gestures when he came across to PM's chair.
'The Modi government's greatest blunder is to exploit sensitive external relations in its domestic politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'An ardent advocate of nuclear disarmament, Obama may even be secretly heaving a sigh of relief that the NSG is unlikely to reach unanimity of opinion on India's candidature,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Yakub Memon, who was convicted for helping finance the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993 in which 257 people were killed, was hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday morning shortly before 7am.
'This man has aged, but does not know the difference between words spoken on the streets from those of spoken in Parliament.' 'He does not allow his hair to turn gray, so he hasn't learned or matured.' Rashme Sehgal reports on how Subramanian Swamy has riled the Congress yet again.
Talented, rebellious, obsessive: Ranjita Ganesan and Dhruv Munjal find traces of the actor's different streaks in Mandi, Chandigarh and Mumbai.
'The middle class you can hurt anytime. For revenues, politics, pleasure, anything,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Speaking at a rally in poll-bound Bihar, Modi said that the Congress has no right to talk about tolerance after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
'Modi's more than dozen interviews are helping him fine-tune the rough edges of his campaign. He is trying to influence floating voters, undecided voters, non-committal and caste-neutral voters into deciding whether to go for the Lotus or not. These could have been Congress voters, but its divided house, torn between the old guard and Rahul Gandhi, seems to have got completely confused.' Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt lists what the Congress did wrong to find itself in such a sorry mess today.
From the Aadhaar verdict to #MeToo's arrival in the country to the entry into the Sabarimala temple -- India had a newsworthy 2018. As we step into 2019, these are the top moments from the year gone by.
Following objection from petitioners who claimed conflict of interest.
All opposition parties from J&K to apprise President of Kashmir situation.
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.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, Left parties and CMs of various states congratulated Kovind.
In Vrindavan, work is on to build the world's tallest religious structure, a new temple for Krishna by ISKCON-Bangalore
The three main regulators have different approaches to grievance redressal and different standards to stop harmful from coming pitched at the consumer.
With Tamil Nadu's economy getting increasingly debt-ridden with each passing budget, any concession to the Centre on the tax front, the state government has argued, would only help forgotten 'minor parties' to start hoping of a revival, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ramesh says that since the attitude of the Narendra Modi government is deliberately provocative and confrontational, it should not expect cooperation from the Congress.
On the face of it, some clauses in the new land ordinance looks pro-farmer but in reality it is not so. The problem is two-fold. The first is the vagueness of the law itself. The other problem with this ordinance is that it is against the very ethos of judicial interpretation, says Vidhan Vyas.
As a child, Sufal Das used to dream of becoming a dhaki. But a life full of adversities, and dwindling popularity of the dhak, has made him regret his dream.
Based on the GDP numbers and the remarkable stability of the taka Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, is a better manager than our 'economist prime minister',' says TVR Shenoy.
The Ganga agitation and the question of preserving the Himalayan ecology has become a deadly cocktail of politics and religion. Behind the scene, of course, at play are powerful business interests. What is needed is an independent scientific assessment of the problem and preparation of a blueprint for preservation of the Himalayan rivers and associated ecology, says Dinesh C Sharma.
'A President who is a living embodiment of high principles can tone up the entire national fabric,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
The city readies itself for the biggest economic, political and social event of the year
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
The prime minister is checking in with baggage of the kind that will make history, any which way things take a turn, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
'A close look at the time-lines tells you that exactly as the back-channel negotiations were in their most crucial stage, "somebody" was planning the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai,' says Shekhar Gupta questioning Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's account of a peace deal with India.
BJP claimed close to 116 lawmakers from rival parties appeared to have voted for Kovind.
'Previous governments in India had reservations about working with Israel.' 'Modi has shed this tag.' 'Disengaging itself from its traditional and ideological foreign policy approach in the Middle East shall serve India's long-term interests.' Rajaram Panda explains why the significance of Modi's visit to the Jewish nation goes beyond markers like the first-ever visit to Israel by an Indian PM and 25 years of diplomatic ties.
In July, IRS officers in Mumbai held an incendiary meeting where they criticised the alleged interference in 'operational matters' by the department of revenue.
With the Rafale fighter deal stuck over price negotiations, can the prime minister step in and find a way out for both countries?
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan came down heavily on Congress leaders for "persistently and willfully obstructing the House" and suspended them for 5 days. The members who have been punished include a president's son, ex-chief ministers' sons and an ex-CM's grandson. Rediff.com brings you the complete list.
'Power sits lightly on Arun Jaitley's shoulders. Just because earth-shaking election results have brought his party in power, he has not gone recklessly ambitious. "Too soon, too fast" is not what he likes,' says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com about Budget 2014.
'The top level will be development and then sab ka saath, sab ka vikas.' 'But at the street level, the tongue will be vicious.'
Moushumi Chatterjee, one of the biggest stars of her time, gives us a peek into her life.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended the demonetisation move, the united opposition hit back at the government over common man's suffering.
'People didn't know of my presence until they saw my saris at the Lakme Fashion Week.'
'Under the present Defence Procurement Procedure, it would have been a nightmare, and a long, long one at that, to build 108 Rafales in India. Modi realised this and took the wise decision, though it is a definitive setback for his Make in India scheme.'
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