'For a long time Pakistan dreamt that India would break up and that it would be the predominant power in the region,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
'The existence of Section 295A on the Indian statute books sits uneasily with India's ambitions to be seen as a progressive democracy,' says Kanika Datta.
'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
By clinging to the past misdeeds of some Islamic rulers, present day Muslims are making reconciliation of communities an impossibility, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The ongoing civil war in the White House between representatives of the Alt Right, such as Steve Bannon, and the pragmatists has to end for Trump to complete a four-year term, says Hardeep S Puri.
Hours after three suspected Islamic State group suicide bombers targeted the international terminal of Istanbul's Ataturk airport, killing at least 36 people and wounding many others, Rediff.com brings you some of the deadliest attacks at airports, which have left several dead and hundreds injured.
'There is need to invent another enemy.' 'If you can add Maoists to Muslims, the tukde-tukde thread will tie in nicely.' 'You might even have a 'nation in grave danger' story by the summer of 2019,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Shymanondo Das, in his mid 50s, was hacked by three motorcycle-borne assailants when he was plucking flowers for morning prayers at a garden in the Radhamodon Gopal Moth premises in Jhenaidah, said Jbahar Ali Sheikh, additional superintendent of police in Jhenidah.
'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).
Sunil Gomes, 65, was found dead inside his grocery shop at around midday in northwestern Notore district, police superintendent Shyamal Mukherjee told PTI over the phone.
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.
'The Kashmiri identity and its unique blend of Sufi Islam, its culture and language can best survive in a plural and secular India.' 'Neither independence nor merger with Pakistan can achieve that objective.' 'Peace will return to Kashmir only when Kashmiris realise this, else they will be part of the 1,000- year war,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Even if I completely disagree with what Gulmehar says, I must, as a father, as an Indian, protect her rights and her dignity. Otherwise I am not entitled to be called an Indian, says Tarun Vijay.
She said no government can declare anyone dead without proof and her government does not believe in the theory of 'missing, believed to be killed'.
'There is a design of fundamentalists that the north east must become an Islamic country.'
Pakistan on said it wants dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues and welcomed all efforts to normalise bilateral ties, days after the two prime ministers spoke to each other amid a war of words between the two countries.
An insistence on only one language will inevitably be resented as a form of imperialism and resisted.
'The BJP, or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are celebrating their biggest ideological and philosophical victory in some time,' says Shekhar Gupta.
National flags were lowered and people bowed their heads as the silence began at 8:30 am local time, the time the first of the attacks occurred on Sunday.
I can't see what purpose can be served by an apology by a British government that cannot in any way be blamed for one sadistic man running amok 100 years ago, argues Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Polls opened at 7 am local time and would close at 5 pm with some 12,845 polling stations being set up throughout the country for 15.9 million voters, who will choose a successor to President Maithripala Sirisina.
'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.
'When we have a terrorist outfit in a neighbouring nation, we need to do whatever we can to neutralise that threat,' says Ramananda Sengupta.
"We did not vote for the BPF (Bodoland People's Front) candidate in Lok Sabha polls, that's why we were attacked," alleged 75-year-old Iman Ali.
The Al-Qaeda and its patrons seems to have outsourced, for the time being, the achieving of that larger, civilisationally retrograde goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle-East, to the ISIS. The symptoms are all similar; the difference lies only in the expressions, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
'For Muslims it is time to understand what sense of fears are in the minds of Hindus.' 'I think the conversation somewhere is not taking place.'
'Ladakh is a tiny salami-slice issue.' 'The big one for China is Arunachal Pradesh, more than 83,000 sq km.' 'Do they imagine they can grab any of this by force?' 'In the 21st century, nursing those thoughts only means you need to get your heads examined.' 'It isn't going to happen,' declares Shekhar Gupta.
'Unlike the Chinese army that has been largely a peace time force, the Indian Army is a battle hardened force,' explains Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'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.'
Bangladesh's decision to execute Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes committed in 1971 has provoked anger across the Muslim world. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar arrived in Dhaka hours after the execution, an important expression of India's support to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, explains Rajeev Sharma.
'The verdict must be seen as something more; as a historical balm, a moral restitution and the deliverance of justice to a people wronged,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
'Male domination is not coming down but women have started standing up and questioning the authority of men.' 'I was attacked in such a crude manner only because I am a woman. Had this been written by a man, he would not have been attacked like this.' 'If at all the fascists are using this as a stick to attack Islam, it is not because of my post but because of the intolerance of those who abused me in foul language.' V P Rajeena, who created an online stir by claiming that a madrassa teacher had sexually abused her, says what she wrote on her Facebook page is just a sample, more will follow.
Family members of the other missing persons said that from the Iraqi minister's statement, it was clear that the Indian government does have any concrete information about the missing.
Canada's Parliament came under attack on Wednesday with a barrage of gunshots fired both inside and outside the building as a soldier was killed in the assault and a man with a rifle was gunned down by security forces.
Crackdowns on bloggers often signal the ominous rise of religious fundamentalism
Hizb-ut-Tahrir has cleverly avoided any intense global scrutiny while spreading its ideology and support base in nearly 50 countries
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.
'Howdy Modi is an unforgettable celebration of the crowning of Modi as a world statesman,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
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