'We expect mobs on the subcontinent to hand out punishment without trial.' 'To have ministers doing it and then being proud about it says something about how the law is treated in India and how seriously ministers take their oath of office,' says Aakar Patel.
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
The post mandate comments that 'darkness has descended on India' shows the kind of opposition Modi has to overcome. It is this aspirational India that is attempting to throw away shackles of Macualayism. Make no mistake it is a tectonic shift and a beginning of the end of Maculayan mindset that has 'ruled' India for close to 60 years, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale.
In India, the pollution levels are highest in the north.
'The scheduling of Imran Khan's visit to Beijing and its focus on the J&K situation underscores that Beijing shares the Pakistani concern that tensions with India are only going to escalate further in the period ahead,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India Test skipper Virat Kohli has said captaincy won't be an added pressure for him in the tough assignment in Sri Lanka and he will look to play good cricket in the three-Test series starting next week.
'India has to understand that the permanent state of war that exists between India and Pakistan has to be expected,,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). 'The only way to ensure peace or absence of war is to maintain a militarily-dominant position over Pakistan.'
Australia's premier all-rounder Shane Watson said that he will decide on his international future after the ongoing ICC World T20 held in India. Watson retired from Test cricket last year after Australia handed the Ashes urn back to England. "There's no doubt I'll have a bit of time to think about it (international retirement) after the T20 World Cup. I'll reassess from there," the 34-year old said. Watson admitted he was 'pleasantly surprised' when he got the call-up for Australia's T20 side to take on India in January after he was overlooked for the preceding one-day international series. With a record-breaking 124 not out in the final match at the SCG, Watson booked his ticket to the subcontinent as part of the 15-man World T20 squad.
'If they are going to get into a battle verbally, if it gets the best out of them, then go for it' Australia captain Steve Smith suggests that he won't hold back his players if exchanging words with the opposition will fire them up.
'What will this supposedly more business-friendly government do if it gets a second term?' 'Important labour law and land reforms remain off the table.' 'Witness the arm-twisting of foreign players in e-commerce and all but one player in telecom -- and it is very hard to justify this perception that the BJP is business friendly.' 'There will also remain the real risk of ideas seemingly gleaned from the pages of Amar Chitra Katha, overlaid with PowerPoint presentations,' predicts Rahul Jacob.
Zakir Naik, a gentle, rockstar televangelist, is dangerous as young Muslims may be swayed by his fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and justify victimhood and extremism, says Shekhar Gupta.
The US on Tueday released new set of documents that it recovered from the Abbottabad hideout of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
On a visit to India in 2013, writer Ved Mehta -- who passed into the ages on Sunday January 10, 2021 - gave Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel a rare glimpse into his state of mind and what he thinks of the changes he encounters in his motherland.
'The Left brands any criticism of Islam -- its history, its dogmas -- 'Islamophobic', conflating criticism of an ideology with criticism of a people,' notes Vikram Johri.
Historian and writer Sunil Khilanani lists King Ashoka's teachings, the Constitution and EVMs as some of India's finest treasures.
'He has led India to wins in the World T20, the World Cup and the Champions Trophy. Which other captain in the world can boast of such a record?' 'And if it is about form, then Virat Kohli isn't in the best of form. Neither is Shikhar Dhawan. So what do you do? Drop them all?'
'Today the Chinese think they can slap India, and there will be no consequences.' 'They must be made to feel the consequences through any and all means,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, who shot dead 166 people, had confessed to details that should have been enough to hang him, but Pakistan enjoyed his anti-India rhetoric and let him spread his tentacles. A revealing excerpt from Khaled Ahmed's Pakistan's Terror Conundrum.
...it won't be a cakewalk Former England opener Mark Butcher says a series win in Australia will seal India's greatness
A 22 year old took the honours on Day 3.
Rajneesh Gupta presents some interesting numbers from Day 4:
Passengers will get the thrill of riding under the sea while travelling between Mumbai and Ahmedabad
Of the 600 young change makers who made the cut this year '1:6 are immigrants from 44 countries' -- an important ratio in the age of growing protectionism.
Young India pacer Khaleel Ahmed is learning everyday on his maiden tour of Australia and getting the much needed help from senior pro Bhuvneshwar Kumar on how to bowl on the hard and bouncy tracks Down Under.
The collector king Sayajirao Gaekwad III, who lived a century ago, put together a fantastic world of Indian and European art for his subjects.
'Indira Gandhi, it appears, did not to consult her Cabinet colleagues, or diplomats, or civil servants when she decided to sign the agreement in Shimla.' 'We ruefully recall Bhutto's perfidy and the Indian prime minister's gullibility,' says Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd).
'He is wily and has everything that a political leader needs to succeed at that level.' 'He would be outstanding as a counter to Modi in the Lok Sabha, if he had the Opposition benches behind him,' says Aakar Patel.
'Any conventional conflict could trigger a nuclear war with results that neither India nor Pakistan could survive easily.' >A revealing excerpt from Shuja Nawaz's The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship And A Tough Neighbourhood.
The BJP knows the CAA, combined with a fresh nationwide NRC process, is an idea that's dead on arrival. Where it lives on is as a divisive, polarising instrument as its rivals have to take a position against it and thereby be exposed to the charge of 'Muslim appeasement' again, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Australia will struggle on their tour of India where they will play four tests against the world's top-ranked side in spin-friendly conditions, former captain Ricky Ponting has predicted.
With tempers expecting to reach the ugliest limits during the India-Pakistan World Cup match, the Adelaide administration has issued a 85-point "code of conduct" for spectators - one that specifically bars religious messages and anti-national chants.
Devdutt Pattanaik, who has simplified the ancient Indian scriptures for millions of readers, highlights what our scriptures have to say about homosexuals and transgenders.
The 34-year-old suffered the injury bowling for Islamabad in the T20 tournament in the UAE and immediately withdrew to fly home to Sydney for scans and an assessment
A disparate global network of violent fundamentalist Islamic groups threatens India's eastern flank as much as the north and west with a real possibility of these spilling over into our borders, says Shyam Saran.
Countries in the region like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Maldives face serious existential threats from a mix of terrorist groups active in the region and elsewhere
'Even if your soldiers are Sunny Deol and Vicky Kaushal, Pakistanis are no Johnny Walkers.' 'The one lot who never takes them lightly is India's professional soldiers.' 'That's why they keep winning the real wars,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Legendary Pakistan paceman Wasim Akram marked his 50th birthday on Friday, saying life is "exemplary" and that his Australian wife told him the half-century "is the new 40". Regarded as one of the best left-arm pacemen ever to grace the game, Wasim -- who celebrated with family and friends -- said cricket had brought him great fame, adding: "1.5 billion people across the subcontinent and beyond love me". "My wife told me 50 is the new 40," he told AFP. "So it's enjoyable." Wasim, popularly dubbed the 'sultan of swing', lives in Karachi with his second wife, Shaniera, and is a renowned cricket expert on various television channels. He said cricket had transformed his life.
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'Faith, and the notion that it has been 'outraged', is used to justify the most outrageous, illiberal and regressive acts,' notes Shuma Raha.
