Louisiana Governor Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal may not have been among the top 10 Republican presidential hopefuls at the first GOP primary debate in Cleveland, Ohio. But he sure did make a strong pitch for his candidature, ripping apart President Barack Obama and forcefully putting across his thoughts on contentious issues like immigration and foreign policy.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Republic nominee said, 'I created lot of jobs, built great structures. Sure those are sacrifices.'
'Why isn't the BJP ready to give reservations to Muslims despite the high court telling it to do so?' 'A K Antony said the Congress lost the 2014 election because of Muslim appeasement. Antony should have gone to the jails of Maharashtra and found out how many Muslims were arrested during Congress rule. I don't know what kind of appeasement this is.' 'We reposed faith in so-called great secular leaders and they deceived us.'
'Nowhere in the country, except perhaps Jammu and Kashmir, do extremist groups enjoy political patronage as they do in Kerala. Terrorists are exported from Kerala to Afghanistan, Syria.'
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But through social and political reformers, not by courts, argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Congress gave Muslim conservatism support and here the BJP saw a window of opportunity'
'What is required is to make Pakistan less war-like and more modest in its ambitions. To normalise with India and to reduce the State's fondness for religion.' 'It is pragmatism and not charisma that it required and it is by being boring and not heroic that this can be achieved.' 'This is the moment of realisation which brings the Pakistani leader into conflict with the army.' 'Imran Khan will learn the lesson in time,' says Aakar Patel.
BJP leader Vinay Katiyar alleged that the issue was being delayed 'under pressure' from the Congress, which denied the charge.
The billionaire businessman beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to become the 45th president of the United States.
'After the NRC it is proved that whatever the BJP was saying about illegal Bangladeshi migrant was a lie and Indian Muslims have their documents to prove their citizenship.'
Women came out in large numbers to vote on Wednesday despite terror attacks and repeated threats.
In this series, Rediff.com presents a selection of the year's most enduring moments year from around the world.
Don't forget to make your pick for the newsmaker of 2015.
While it took the Congress nearly a half century to earn the hatred of other political outfits, the BJP appears set to reach there in around six years, says Arun Bhatnagar, former secretary to the GoI.
Expelled BJP ideologue Prof Hari Om speaks to Pervez Majeed.
'The original dream of people like Faiz was that Pakistan would be something different from the old India: Progressive, forward looking, democratic (if not socialist), tolerant, diverse and pluralistic.' 'I don't think anyone foresaw the catastrophe that Partition was to become.'
By pegging the exact area of the Babri Masjid site at 0.313 acres, and not the original 2.77 acres, the government hopes to be in line with the court ruling in the 1994 Ismail Faruqui case which mentions return of land to original claimants once the exact area needed for acquisition is determined, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
Air Commodore Nitin Sathe discovers how the IAF trained Pakistani air force pilots, during the 1971 War, which led to the birth of the Bangladesh air force.
Rajya Sabha also rejected an opposition sponsored motions to send the bill to a select committee of the House and for making triple talaq a civil offence with 100 votes against it as compared to 84 in favour.
The government's leaks to the media and General Singh's very vocal comments on the charges against him have played right into the hands of separatists and their cross-border sponsors, says Nitin Pai
'Modi is the first BJP leader to try to include Dalits in its fold.' 'But the rank and file of his party is backward and want to bash up Muslims and Dalits whenever they have a chance.'
"A true nationalist must have a "sense of shame" for the crimes his government commits and accept that his country is not perfect," said the eminent historian.
'Continuity in a common agenda is essential, not to disrupt the progress achieved so far,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Should India engage Pakistan's generals directly, bypassing Imran? Ambassador G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan, ponders Delhi's diplomatic dilemma.
Relations between India and America will always be transactional. It is true that the two countries share common values -- democracy, rule of law, separation of powers, etc, but these have failed to establish a long range, lasting and compatible relationship, says Ambassador C R Gharekhan.
Shankar Acharya gives ten predictions on key politico-economic developments in the world and ten for India.
Trump refuted allegations that Putin is helping him out in this presidential elections, by first hacking into their emails and releasing them.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has positioned himself as a credible partner for Bangladesh. He has scored by getting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to travel with him to Dhaka, says Srinath Raghavan
'The emphasis is on nationalism, which the party apparently feels will have greater resonance than one on religious identity which may have lost some of its appeal in recent years.'
'The objective is not to make India into a one religion place, but to ensure that there is harmonious and peaceful co-existence of all faiths with each of them having their cultural personality.'
"The RSS is trying to change the nature of India. Other parties haven't tried to capture India's institutions," he said.
As the international community focuses its attention on the presidential elections, front runners Nasheed and Abdullah Yameen have warned of poll time violence, reports Shubha Singh
Kashmir remained on the edge with six more persons, including a cop getting killed in violence on Sunday.
A day after media reports stated that 39 Indians in Iraq had been killed by terrorists belonging to the Islamic State, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Rajya Sabha said that there was no evidence to corroborate the same.
Aseem Chhabra introduces us to the best of Berlinale.
For the family and supporters of blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in Dhaka in February, it is a time to reflect on where Bangladesh is heading, says Indrani Roy.
Pakistan's powerful army chief has stepped in to mediate between the embattled government and the protesters seeking resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, bringing the military back into the centre stage and signaling a possible end to the high-political drama.
