Rediff.com does a quick checklist on what the two manifestos have to say on hot-button issues of the day.
Hearing of the sedition case against hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and four others for their alleged anti-India speeches was preponed by a fortnight by a Delhi court. The court, which earlier had fixed the matter for hearing on May 5, today advanced it to April 19 following a plea for early hearing by complainant Sushil Pandit.
The UPA's failure to reach out to Kashmiris and the NDA's 'anti-Muslim' stance has fuelled anger in the Kashmir valley.
A Delhi court is likely to take a decision on March 10 on a plea seeking a direction to the police to file a chargesheet in a case lodged against hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and four others in a case of sedition for their alleged anti-India speeches.
"I plan to go to the field, listen to the ground, to the youngsters and important stakeholders and then take a decision," he said.
Virtually launching the party's campaign for 2014 elections, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday talked about the need to "heal the wounds" of Kashmiris and connect its aspiring youths with the national mainstream for the development of the state.
The Finance Minister and senior party leader Arun Jaitley said the Congress does not deserve "even a single vote" for its promises, such as doing away with sedition law.
India is not making a choice of war over peace. Rather it is at war, a war thrust on it by a sick militaristic State, says Sankrant Sanu.
Do the students who chanted pro-separatist slogans and their teachers/supporters want the army to withdraw from Kashmir or not fight the terrorists?
'Everything they read on social media, they believe, is the truth.' 'One of the biggest challenges in the country today is how to counter fake news and propaganda.'
This is the meatiest role of Sidharth Malhotra's career and the man sure enough gives it his all. There's charm, swagger, warmth, empathy, verve, authority -- a lively portrait of a lion, a legend, applauds Sukanya Verma.
Seventy-one parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states voted in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections.
'Let me stick my neck out and say that Tamil Nadu will keep alive its reputation for landslide election verdicts, with the DMK front winning at least 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats going to the polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The apex court lashed out at the law enforcing agencies for allowing the 'instigators of violence' to get away and said they should act as per law without waiting for somebody's nod.
In an Independence Day Special series, Rediff.com celebrates India through the lives of her people. Today: Dr Ruveda Salam, the first IPS officer from the Kashmir Valley.
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.
Communalising law and order situations is fraught with danger; we need to tread cautiously. Interjecting a communal angle into what is purely a law and order issue does nobody good; it muddies the picture, fuels unrequited passion and distracts us from the core issue, says Vivek Gumaste.
If Aylan Kurdi was a Bangladeshi boy on the border with Assam or West Bengal, would you call him an infiltrator, asks Mango Indian.
2016 saw the worst unrest in the Kashmir valley in 26 years.
Many said that scrapping of Article 370, which gave special status to the state, could lead to change in its Muslim-majority identity.
'Past experience shows us that cross-border strikes have not prevented Pakistan from continuing with further terror attacks.'
The former IAS officer said the main reason for not contesting the polls was to focus more on the mass contact programme.
The government on Tuesday asserted in Lok Sabha that it will not allow anti-national acts.
'The fabric of democracy is fraying,' says T V R Shenoy. 'It is being attacked not just by terrorists in Kashmir or by zealots in the North-East, but is being ripped apart even in Allahabad, in the Hindi heartland.'
He said time has come for freedom of PoK and it would be part of India soon.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
Writers from across the country gathered at Shri Ram Centre near Mandi House and marched towards Sahitya Akademi in the capital, wearing black ribbons on their heads as a sign of protest.
From belonging to an endangered tribe, somewhere along the line I had turned into a dangerous species myself; a lying, scheming traitor, who had let the country down -- in short, an anti-national, says Durba Dhyani.
'Modi should not feel shy of proclaiming as the meaning of secularism regard for all religions in proportion to their numbers in tune with the spirit of democracy and adopting it as State policy,' says B S Raghavan.
A group in Kolkata was allegedly denied permission to organise a seminar on refugees of Balochistan and Kashmir after a club hosting the program said the police was "not willing" to show a green signal, "apprehending that it might create problems in the city".
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government has no other option but to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission wants to hold assembly elections in the state by the end of 2019.
'To re-establish the writ of the State and resume governance, frayed tempers in the streets and in the media need to be calmed.'
Kejriwal believes in good governance and takes pride in his Hindu identity, points out Sudhir Bisht.
'Increasingly, there is a tendency to magnify 'victimhood' of the minority for electoral gains and vote bank politics.'
'There is no doubt that there is a worldwide rise in Islamophobia. There is a tendency amongst some in India to react to this in the Indian milieu,' says Colonel Anil A Athale(retd).
Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
'In a democracy, how can you be scared of Amit Shah?'
'I'm getting to play different characters now, from the ones in my earlier years, when I was a leading actor. Then, you fought with the villain and got the girl at the end of every film. Today, we have different shades of characters -- a man on wheelchair, a 13-year-old child, a mad character like mine in Shamitabh. The roles are wonderful.' Amitabh Bachchan gets ready for Wazir.
Ignoring the boycott call by separatist groups and braving cold weather, nearly 70 per cent polling was on Tuesday, in most of the 15 constituencies going to polls in first of the five-phased polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
'Modi has shown political courage by instituting several economic reforms which include demonetisation, ushering in GST, eradication of benami transactions...'
For a Valley on the boil, there is ample proof that New Delhi simply does not care.
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