Ahead of the Yoga day, the prime minister posted a video on his Twitter handle giving a message that yoga is a 'passport' to health assurance.
'The Pakistanis were lulled adequately to provide one of the fundamental prerequisites for successful execution of such an option: Surprise.' 'The other requisite: Deception in terms of selection of areas for launch/time of offensive action,' explains Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Little has changed in Digital India. The issue that rocked the nation 100 years ago still creates a furore in Indian society, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
A five judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was apparently not in agreement with the argument of the Travancore Devaswom Board running the over 800-year-old Lord Ayyappa temple that the "practice and belief" that have continued uninterrupted cannot be tested on the ground of "modern ethos".
Colonel Anil Athale (retd) recalls how the Battle of Panipat, 258 years ago, changed the history of India for the next century and half.
'The Pakistani military has encouraged and supported terrorist organisations, especially in Kashmir, as a means of waging proxy war against the Indian military and the country's superior economic resources.' 'The evidence is irrefutable with the recent killing of 46 paramilitary troops being just the latest example.'
'Tension is being created in society because of this green flag, which is not even an Islamic flag.' 'There is no history of such a green flag being used in the Muslim world.'
The fact that known terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin have been able to hold huge rallies in Pakistan's main cities is a reflection of the state of affairs in Pak, said India.
Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But through social and political reformers, not by courts, argues Shekhar Gupta.
How will the Modi Sarkar's likely return affect other nations?
The 51-year-old televangelist, who is currently abroad, is being probed under terror and money-laundering charges by the NIA.
'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.
In Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh wayward Romeos would all be in the lock-up, says Sunil Sethi.
'The rise of IS and intolerant Wahabism are the real dangers to Indian democracy and pluralism, not the RSS,' says Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay.
'Small bands of terrorists believe they can destabilise superpowers if they are ready to become martyrs.' 'Since the road to paradise is under the shade of swords, it is a win-win situation for those ready to die for the cause of Allah.'
We celebrate Bhattsaab and his greatest gems.
'The test of true secularism in India is when a girl in your family decides to marry someone from another religion. If you accept her decision happily, then you are truly secular. If you don't, it means your secularism is fake,' argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The Al Qaeda, the Islamic State or Daesh, as it is also called, will continue to exploit the fault lines and the many contradictions in the approaches of different countries, says Hardeep Puri.
'We need to be in a perpetual state of aggression, and able to swiftly change the goal posts to keep Pakistan in a state of imbalance,' argues Sanjeev Nayyar.
The evacuation mission mounted by the government helped more than 5,000 Indians leave war-torn Yemen. The author goes behind the scenes to find out how this was achieved
Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, chief imam of the All India Imam Organisation, who led a delegation of 30 Muslims to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 3, tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com how the meeting came about and what was discussed during the 75-minute convivial meet.
Taking a strong stand against the call by its ally Shiv Sena for the scrapping of Muslims' voting rights, the government today said such suggestions were not acceptable to it and that these "should not be discussed even hypothetically".
'The Kashmiri identity and its unique blend of Sufi Islam, its culture and language can best survive in a plural and secular India.' 'Neither independence nor merger with Pakistan can achieve that objective.' 'Peace will return to Kashmir only when Kashmiris realise this, else they will be part of the 1,000- year war,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Contemporary records speak of Chhatrapati Shivaji's resolve to liberate Hindu holy places, and the later Maratha rulers carried forward his legacy, Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) reveals in a forthcoming book.
'One one hand, the BJP puts Uniform Civil Code as a goal in its manifesto, and on the other, it pushes massive discrimination against Hindus.' 'This is not sabka saath, sabka vikas. Rather it is "Haj ka saath, church ka vikas",' argues Sankrant Sanu.
Sanjeev Nayyar suggests 16 measures by which we can tackle our unrelenting and untrustworthy neighbour.
'After it was finished, Shah Jahan visited the Taj only twice.' 'There is a letter from Aurangzeb to him after a visit, reporting that the dome was leaking and needed to be fixed.' 'Shah Jahan wasn't bothered: He had moved on to designing his next project, Shahjahanabad,' reveals Aakar Patel.
In order to formulate a Uniform Civil Code, the Law Commission has sent out of list of 16 questions to gauge public opinion,
Swaraj is in Bahrain for a two-day visit to attend the first ministerial meeting of the India-Arab League Cooperation Forum to be held on Sunday.
Muslim scholars on Friday trashed as "cheap publicity gimmick" and "childish" Bahujan Samaj Party leader Haji Yakub Qureshi's alleged statement hailing terrorists who truck at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and demanded strict action against him.
Mohan Bhagwat said the temple would be constructed in the same grandeur as it existed before, using the "same stones" under the guidance of those who were the flag-bearers of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for the last 25 years.
Modi has debunked the uncontested wisdom of foreign and strategic policy remaining unchanged and running on a broad national consensus. This is clearly seen in his unhesitating embrace of the US and the clear hardening shift in India's stance on Pakistan, says Shekhar Gupta.
French journalist Nicolas Henin was captured by the terrorist organisation, the Islamic State, and spent 10 months in captivity explains how the growth of the Islamic State is result of the West's limitation in seeing the IS merely as a terrorist organisation while ignoring its political message and goals.
Since 1950 successive governments have tried various options but failed to reduce alienation amongst the people, for different reasons, of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. It is best to accept this reality and let each region charter its own path, within the framework of the Indian Constitution, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
C Christine Fair, an acclaimed Pakistan expert who teaches at Georgetown University rebutted some of the common perceptions of Pakistan.
'What we are today witnessing is the final act of the Pakistani army trying to retain its turf,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The BJP is not the party it was 10 years ago. It has changed. It is emerging like the Congress.' 'Sometimes, I feel the BJP has taken the Congress' space.' 'Its politics is also resembling the Congress.'
The Saudi-Pakistan nuclear weapons cooperation is meant to sound alarm bells in Washington, reminding the Obama administration that its overtures to Iran would have serious negative consequences in terms of its ties with its closest allies in the region, says Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad. Exclusive to Rediff.com
A 'soft' approach must be nurtured to complement the hard-line of spending billions in physical conflict; that is the only way to 'degrade and destroy' ISIS.
'We have Hindu values, Hindu customs, Hindu philosophy, Hindu way of looking at all religions as acceptable.' 'These are all great assets of India.'
