The finance minister's Budget presentation is a sombre affair, yes, but it wasn't as if the Lok Sabha was all serious through the speech.
Justice Gogoi's tenure as judge and as CJI was marked by some controversies and personal allegations but that never came in his way of his judicial work that was reflected in the last few days when benches headed by him delivered some path-breaking judgments.
'Narendra Modi is one person who came up fighting many injustices. So, he is a fighter all the time, and that makes all the difference.'
Kerala state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala has called upon the government to conduct a detailed investigation into the violence in Kasargod on Sunday, when two Muslim League workers lost their lives.
'As people have moved from cities to small towns and villages, they have carried the infection into new territories.' 'Poor healthcare infrastructure in these places should be a big worry in the days to come.'
'The return of India to its own civilisational values can never endanger freedoms as pluralism is the bedrock of our culture,' assert Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The organisers of the controversial 'Kiss of Love' event against moral policing have claimed that their Facebook page and accounts of at least 5 persons linked with it have been hacked.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
'Earlier, Sri Sri told me we (Muslims) must give up our claim to the Babri Masjid site and be large-hearted.' 'Sri Sri has always taken sides on this issue, and isn't neutral at all.'
Tarun Vijay on why the victory in Uttar Pradesh belongs to Narendra Modi and the road ahead.
Only nine out of India's 29 states have Hindi as the official language, so why impose Hindi on the other states, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
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.
The humility with which the BJP deals with these 10 lessons will determine the outcome of 2019, says Shekhar Gupta.
"They call themselves the champions of speech and expression. But deny the same for the people of Kerala."
'Modi is given a longer leash by his fans than any other leader of our time.' 'Will he be able to continue putting himself above the fray if other scandals continue to emerge in his term? No, the erosion will inevitably come, given the awful state of this country. But for now, he has managed to shine through a period that would have tarnished any other leader but him.'
Group rivalry in the Kerala Congress unit has intensified further as the political mission of chief minister Oommen Chandy to induct Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ramesh Chennithala into the cabinet has failed.
Coming down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka in the wake of the Mangalore incidents, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury on Saturday said there was a breakdown of law and order in the state where Talibanisation is happening. "All instruments of democracy will be used to stop such incidents," she told reporters while commenting on Friday night's kidnapping of the daughter of a Kerala Member of Legislative Assembly and friend.
The judges said both the matters were similar involving entry of women in the religious shrines, and hence they would like to see what view would Supreme Court take on the issue before they give a ruling on the interim relief sought by the petitioner in the Bombay high court.
Kerala is one state where the Congress may do well in the general election and it where Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated why he is serious about rebuilding his party, says T V R Shenoy.
'The Sabarimala issue is no longer in splendid isolation.'
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'My feeling is that these parties will not learn their lesson despite their electoral drubbing. They cannot put forward a leader. They have no record of improving their constituents' lives by providing basic services. All they offer is their "'secularism",' says T V R Shenoy.
In a meeting with the President on behalf of these 18 non-National Democratic Alliance parties, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said he has requested the President to return the bills, and only give his assent after they have been passed after following proper rules and procedures.
You'd wonder what madness seized Rahul that he has decided to play to the BJP's strengths, says Shekhar Gupta.
'With Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the unemployed jihadis will certainly turn their gaze to India and Kashmir.' 'Despite this imminent danger to national security, defence preparedness does not find a mention in the ongoing electoral campaign,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
At its heart, the furore over 'love jihad' reveals an anxiety over the increase in inter-religious marriages and women's freedom, says Charu Gupta, associate professor of history at Delhi University, whose areas of research include the colonial history of Uttar Pradesh and issues of gender and sexuality.
'Beef-eating is the new media frenzy that is being orchestrated to wrongly implicate the BJP government and is reminiscent of the false anti-Christian acts highlighted by the media when the BJP first came to power in 1996,' says Vivek Gumaste.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani clarified on Thursday that neither he nor his party had any role in the recent controversy where two Muslim drivers of Kerala Police were allegedly removed from his motorcade and said his party did not believe in discrimination on the basis of religion.
'The BJP will take time to come to power in Andhra.'
The letter was written by 49 eminent personalities, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, actor Soumitra Chatterjee as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal in July this year.
Kerala, West Bengal, Puducherry slam the government's decision to ban sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter; meat traders fear spike in cow vigilantism.
Dr Tiju Joseph, a foreign service officer who studied medicine, has set up the first public online blood donors registry in the UAE.
A Muslim youth, one of the four from Kalyan on the outskirts Mumbai who left their homes and joined the Islamic State also known as ISIS in Iraq, has been reportedly killed.
'When you have the freedom to have mosques, the freedom to have madrasas and the freedom to pray, why should you turn to terrorism?' 'Both mother and father are equally important to every person. Similarly, both our country and religion are important for a citizen.' 'I would say that terrorism has no religion. A small segment of people from all religions are terrorists.'
'If the Opposition believes the BJP is out to undermine the principles on which the Constitution rests, they had better start behaving as though they believe in those principles,' says T N Ninan.
'I do not believe that they have become terrorists and have gone to Syria to fight.' 'I feel they have only become very orthodox Muslims.'
A total of 37 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and Telengana and one from Karnataka, ministry data stated.
Security has been put on high alert across the nation as the Supreme Court of India is all set to deliver its verdict in the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, Sabarimala case and a host of other legal wrangles.
'If Mr Modi and Mr Shah have made a poisonous, polarising campaign their brahmastra for 2019, Mamata Banerjee is showing them its limitations,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The 21-day coronavirus lockdown in force since Wednesday has triggered a mass exodus of migrant workers across the country since the last few days.
