'The Maharashtrian Congressmen's decision to break away from their reluctant leaders in Delhi to side with the Shiv Sena is seemingly the first sign that the 'high command' is not as powerful as is believed,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea of the wife of an Indian Army officer seeking repatriation of her husband and other Army officers believed to be held under illegal detention as prisoners of war by Pakistan since the 1971 war.
Will a time come when people will look beyond what they see as Modi'S strengths and begin to wonder why they have got poorer or sicker under his rule, asks Vir Sanghvi.
'Minus Modi, the BJP will get only 50 seats.' 'He is planning 25 big meetings in Gujarat and that will make a difference.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday night announced a statewide curfew in Maharashtra for 15 days from April 14. However, he clarified, essential services were exempt from the curbs.
While Modi had a party and an organisation that supported him, all Mulayam, a self-made man with no inheritance in politics, had was a set of (fairly flexible) beliefs.
We love a leader who oozes authority and firmness, notes Virendra Kapoor.
At sunrise the following day, a hunt was organised for the queen to shoot a female tiger. But she decided a monarch should not make the kill and handed her gun to one of her staff to deliver the fatal shot.
Vice President Dhankar's and Law Minister Rijuju's recent interventions have the danger of destabilising the Constitutional equilibrium, cautions N Sathiya Moorthy.
The long-delayed declaration that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for prime minister had a certain air of inevitability about it. But the last-minute drama should not take away from the plain fact that, in naming Modi, the BJP has merely acknowledged that it has in him a politician of rare skill and charisma -- of a degree unseen in national politics perhaps since former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will soon get around to reworking their organisational set-up and administrative priorities to regain lost ground in the wake of the Delhi electoral debacle, but there's third course available to them as well. That is to introduce the presidential form of government, which prime ministers Indira Gandhi and A B Vajpayee flirted with before abandoning it. Will Modi go further than them? N Sathiya Moorthy analyses the scenario.
The Haryana assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution seeking the completion of the SYL canal and the transfer of Hindi-speaking areas from Punjab, while denouncing the neighbouring state for staking its claim over Chandigarh.
Governors must be impartial, fair, and above narrow politics to uphold the values and spirit of the Constitution. But in a rapidly changing political culture where the unstated rule is to crush the Opposition, such values have no meaning. At stake are Constitutional values, federalism and governance, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Ghulam Nabi Azad said Congress was not afraid of "targeting" by the Modi dispensation and asserted that the more the party is attacked, the sooner it will return to power.
Besides his strategic and tactical acumen, it was his amazing personality, quick wit and ability to remain unflustered under any circumstances that stood him apart from almost any leader one has read about or known, recalls Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Pawar and his Manch can deliberate to their hearts' content, but so long as the Congress does not play ball the BJP has little to worry, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Fiscal discipline has been maintained but toxic assets worth Rs 7 crore are a massive headache
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dig up the perceived past of the DMK rival, now under a new leader in M K Stalin, may not gel with the voters, both old and new. If they are still going to vote for the AIADMK-BJP combine, it will be for entirely different reasons, and despite Modi's poll speeches, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
While West Punjab became part of West Pakistan, East Punjab was given to India, and Bengal's division saw a large swathe of its eastern territory forming part of East Pakistan.
Union minister Jairam Ramesh termed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as a "blot" on the country and the Congress and suggested that more needs to be done for the victims and to bring the guilty to book.
'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Describing the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand as "one steeped in corruption", Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Saturday asked the people to dislodge it from power and help the lotus "bloom" in the state.
Kick-starting the poll campaign in her mother Sonia Gandhi's constituency Rae Bareli on Wednesday, Priyanka Gandhi made a veiled attack on Narendra Modi, saying only one man took all the decisions in the Bharatiya Janata Party.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Earlier this month, the Central government said in a reply in Parliament it had taken measures to double farmers' income by the end of FY23 and the progress made so far indicated it was "on the right track". However, a close look at the data and at the assumptions made shows that as of now, it appears the country is unlikely to achieve the goal in real terms.
'The sadhus and sanyasis of UP are not for any economics.' 'They only know the religious agenda and the RSS will support them.' 'Modi does not have full control of the party at the ground level like Indira Gandhi had.'
'Rahul Gandhi wants a group under the name 'new generation'. But look at the people who surround him.'
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
Modi and Shah's next focus will be South India, and the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Shah is unlikely to abdicate control over the party even after he joins the government. Modi and Shah both know only too well that the party makes the government, and not the other way round.
On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, 34 years and 19 days later after the horrific crimes, two men were sentenced to death and life in prison for their involvement in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in which over 3,000 Sikhs were killed. It was the first verdict after the riots-related cases were reopened by a Special Investigation Team in 2015. In his novel Man With The White Beard, Shah Alam Khan recalls a calamitous time in India's history.
'Although Narendra Modi had no direct participation in the Ayodhya agitation, he would not have been in the dominant position he is now had it not been for the Ram Janambhoomi agitation.'
Sajjid Chenoy, India economist at JP Morgan is the new part-time member.
'I think public awareness should be created and laws should not be made only for the sake of politics'
The prime minister said the opposition's hatred against him was reaching new levels daily and they have a competition over who abused him the most.
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'As a course mate who has followed closely this star on the Bombay Sappers firmament, my heart swells with pride to see his extraordinary brilliance and focus; his commitment and his dedication; his hard work; and his technical as well as tactical knowledge,' says Colonel K Thammayya Udupa (retd) of his batchmate General Manoj Pande who will take over as chief of the army staff on May 1.
'This is a fascinating side to Sonia Gandhi, the way she disarms her opponents.'
In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
'It was more than ego.' 'It carried with it a sincere belief that he was the quintessence of the country, that the country's destiny was irrevocably intertwined with his destiny.' An excerpt from T J S George's The Dismantling of India: In 35 Portraits.
The Rajiv Gandhi assassination, investigation and trial were all jinxed in parts, recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
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