'When Nawazuddin Siddiqui -- one of India's finest actors -- was told not to perform in a Ramleela, I realised how much Hinduism has been hijacked by Hindutva forces in the last 30 years,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Senior Congress leader and Pro-tem Speaker Kamal Nath has defended Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's decision not to lead the opposition in Lok Sabha. Speaking in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, Nath also said the Congress will provide an effective opposition.
Ignoring all previous protests and opposition to the deal, the saffron party has changed its stance, without providing any explanation. What has changed? Accountability and explanations on this U-turn will be welcomed.
As the year 2014 draws to an end, we at Rediff.com take to look at some of the ridiculous remarks made by some blundering politicos.
'So, why did Kejriwal, the crusader against corruption, choose such an officer as his principal secretary? He has to explain. After that, he realises that Kumar's case is not picking up, so he changes tracks and picks up Jaitley for the DDCA case.' 'I personally feel this is part of Kejriwal's strategy. If he has evidence against Jaitley, then why doesn't he file a first information report like he did in the petroleum case?'
'One is forced to wonder whether Modi is serious about all the bills people want him to pass. Because to me he has made no real honest effort at getting things moving legislatively,' says Aakar Patel.
Lalit Modi's interview with television news channel explaining how Vasundhara Raje took his wife to Portugal for cancer treatment shows that he is seeking revenge against the Rajasthan chief minister.
It is unlikely that Delhi's outgoing chief minister will be able to make a comeback in politics. For her, the innings is truly over, writes Pankaj Vohra.
It is quite likely that the Parliament itself could now attract people's scorn. That would be terrible, and not the people but the politicians would be responsible, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Rajkumari Kaul's death over the weekend brings back memories of phone conversations at a time when landline numbers were still in vogue, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was still to become prime minister, remembers Girish Nikam.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's style of functioning, his preconceived opinions and lack of patience has distanced him from the party cadre. Anita Katyal reports.
The 'Atal-Advani era' in the BJP is truly over, believes Karuna Shukla, the niece of party stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Nitish Kumar is on the brink of taking another wrong turn. It is hard to fathom why he would tie up with the Congress, which has little political capital left in Bihar. Aditi Phadnis reports
Amit Shah is the man of the moment. The architect of the BJP's stunning transformation in the Hindi heartland during the Lok Sabha elections is all set to emerge as the CEO of Modi's political dreams and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's cultural passion, says Sheela Bhatt.
Arun Jaitley and Janardan Dwivedi have rewritten the rules of politics in the Age of the Internet and its young and restless user base, reports Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
'The debate, by being mostly in Hindi, lost much of its educative relevance to the southern states.' 'All the prime minister's debating skills and oratorical prowess went over the heads of the South Indian audience,' points out B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Very few old-style RSS workers-turned-leaders have survived Narendra Modi's political ambush in state politics. Harin Pathak's end closes the chapter for Modi who started his post-2002 riots journey with a new mix of profit-centric development and middle class-pleasing commerce, technology-driven communication with voters, and an unspoken Hindutva that speaks only through posturings and symbols. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reveals the real reasons for the Modi-Pathak rupture.
Democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for rooting out corruption
While PM Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dominated the national executive, senior chief ministers and 'margdarshaks' LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi were ignored
'Nobody would dare directly target Modi, and while there are murmurs about Amit Shah after Bihar, nobody is willing to say this openly. Arun Jaitley, in some calculations, is most expendable for Modi,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Sparks flew in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday as the raging Jawaharlal Nehru University row and suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula was taken up for discussion, with opposition accusing the government of muzzling the voice of the youth and "mercilessly crushing" the principles of democracy.
'I have tried to make it easier for the small scale entrepreneur to do business and cut through the red tape.'
'Amit Shah and Modi have a disciple and guru relationship. But Modi and Jaitley's relationship was based on friendship. That's the difference.'
The decision of the Union Cabinet based on the Group of Ministers recommendations only creates an illusion by removing the political executive and creating a proxy institution instead, says Arun Jaitley
The decision of the Union Cabinet based on the Group of Ministers recommendations only creates an illusion by removing the political executive and creating a proxy institution instead, says Arun Jaitley
BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is predicted to win both seats -- Varanasi and Vadodara. Kejriwal is places at number 2 in Varanasi, says the ABP News-Nielsen exit poll. Senior BJP leader L K Advani is likely to win the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha for the sixth time.
At a time when the BJP is facing a perception battle, is Sambit Patra, its national spokesperson, helping the party's image?
Kejriwal believes in good governance and takes pride in his Hindu identity, points out Sudhir Bisht.
The fate of 1,351 candidates will be sealed by 1.63 crore voters in high-stakes multi-cornered contest in Haryana which goes to polls on Wednesday with top guns including the kin of the three famous 'Lals' battling it out in the state.
What Shekhar Gupta would have really liked to know from Pranabda: Why did Sonia prefer Dr Singh to him as PM? Why did he deny finance first, why did he accept it 5 years later, and why did he make such a mess of it? How did he force Sonia to nominate him for President and not Hamid Ansari? And how does he justify that most toxic legacy -- the Vodafone tax amendment?
On the eve of the budget session of Parliament, the government on Sunday reached out to the opposition
In the third reshuffle since coming to power, Prime Minister Modi raised the strength of his Council of Ministers from 73 to 76.
'Till the time the MSM and Modi don't trust one another, expect more Nirmala Sitharamans springing out from nowhere,' says Sudhir Bisht.
PM said Kovind will make an 'exceptional President'.
Despite criticism of a lack of transparency and communication from the Modi-led government, BJP leaders point to "good beginnings" on several fronts to defend its performance. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports.
In a sharp attack on Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign centric around him, expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh on Sunday deprecated "veneration" of an individual and said world was full of graveyards of those who are considered indispensable to their nation.
'There has to be an 18-month transition.' 'But if the government had some prior knowledge that the high value notes were being used for an imminent terrorist activity in the country, then we have to accept the step.'
It has been said that by 2025, India could become among the top five economies in the world. If India does become a $5 trillion economy but gets all its rivers polluted, food chain poisoned and genetic pool depleted and biometric database of Indians sold or stolen at the behest of commercial czars, will it not be a pyrrhic economic victory, asks Gopal Krishna.
'I had to submit my resignation from the BJP after just two weeks because they were very regressive.' 'There was no space for a free thinking individual.'
Forty years after the declaration of Emergency by Indira Gandhi, the Sunanda K Datta-Ray recalls life when civil rights were suspended and press censorship was in force
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