'It is the regional parties and their leaders who are the ones we have to watch.'
'We were supposed to be a united nation based on unity and diversity.' 'Now what we are doing is there will be a class called Marathas, Dangars, etc.' 'The 100 per cent of our nation's population will be in classes and you will be allocating the nation's education and service resources in terms of classes.' 'How does it work out in terms of equality? Where is your equal nation?'
The ten-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi culminated on Sunday as thousands of devotees immersed idols of the elephant-headed deity.
'He failed to foresee that the campaign of hatred need not be continuous; a sporadic, scattered campaign is enough.' 'What was important is to keep the pot boiling, not let it overflow like happened during the masjid-mandir days,' notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Several protests -- some peaceful, some violent -- erupted across India on Monday against the police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia and the controversial citizenship law as students and political leaders took to the streets, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi called these protests "deeply distressing" and appealed for peace.
The BJP's panicky return to basic-instinct majoritarianism in Bihar has pushed Muslims back into the 'secular' basement, says Shekhar Gupta.
Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Ansari believes a national debate on a Uniform Civil Code is a must. 'The need of the hour is to debate this issue at length in order to create a consensus,' Ansari tells Rediff.com, adding, 'Such a debate must take place at the grassroot level. We must understand all the divergent viewpoints before any draft can be prepared.'
An estimated 47 per cent voters exercised their franchise on Sunday in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation polls
Hrishi Satawane, who found love in Vinh from Vietnam, says "Society is more open minded than you think."
'I have only this to say to those who talk about Mewar rulers and Akbar's brutality -- do you expect a king to not expand his kingdom?' 'You have entire cities named after Muslim rulers. It's time our heroes got their due.'
Several activists belonging to Muslim women groups held placards demanding entry for females into the sanctum sanctorum of the historic dargah, which receives hundreds of devotees everyday.
'If the RSS should be saluted for choosing such a scholarly statesman to address its highly trained cadre, one must also praise Pranab Da's sagacity for having gracefully accepting the invitation, thus disapproving any ideological apartheid,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
Last year, he was the BJP's darling. Today, Arnab Goswami is a hated figure for the Modi bhakts. What changed?
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday attacked the coalition partner on issues like Pakistan, beef, Ram temple and inflation but ruled out walking out of the Maharashtra government any time soon.
The rationalist has proved to be a greater voice of reason in death than he was during his lifetime.
'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.
'Muslims eat beef, some Hindus and poor people also eat, so why should we stop them from eating?'
In the heat and dust of a Baramati rally with Supriya Sule.
Long queues outside grocery stores, inflated prices, difficulty in getting important items -- these were some of the problems encountered by people in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The BJP took a gamble and won; Uddhav Thackeray is down, but not out; Sharad Pawar accepts Modi's clout... The many meanings of the election results.
'Neither the Congress nor the BJP has the political will to take on the Sanatan Sanstha.'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced hearing to revisit its two-decade-old 'Hindutva' judgement for an authoritative pronouncement on electoral law categorising misuse of religion for electoral gains as "corrupt practice".
The government is following a path where it will not be irresponsible or profligate with public money but will intervene in the interest of the poor
The Sindhis are a lesson in perseverance. Once uprooted, they've started all over, often reinventing themselves
Trupti Desai's fight earned women the right to enter the inner sanctums of the Shani Shingnapur Temple, the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple and the Haji Ali Dargah. Her next target is Sabarimala in Kerala. Aditi Phadnis reports.
The massive protest has been called by the All India Government Nurses Federation and the Delhi Nurses Federation seeking redressal of issues related to pay and allowances.
The National Investigation Agency has accused the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad of planting evidence and coercing witnesses, but its own investigation is incomplete and leaves many questions unanswered.
Ram V Sutar, 89, has already created more than 200 distinct statues, many of them massive. Now, he is a leading contender for the commission to produce the world's largest statue: A 597-foot tall rendering of Sardar Patel, an independence leader who played a crucial role in uniting India's fractious states.
2019 will be 'a match between the old caste politics and something new which we have not fully understood in UP,' says Aakar Patel.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
Despite the indisputable facts demonetisation and its pain is yet to have a quantifiable political backlash. But this is provided the government can limit the damage to the next one week.
The counsel claimed that the ground-level situation in these states was worrisome as the cow vigilante groups were resorting to violence there.
'We are known political activists, so the police put our names in.'
'All that Maharashtra can give someone whose husband has died is a piece of cloth. That was extremely tragic for me.' 'If you go back historically there is no reference to Maharashtra whereas there is complete reference to Vidarbha.'
'65 per cent were males.' 'Age group of deaths: More were seen from age 51 to 70.' 'Saw some deaths from age 21 to the 40s.' 'About 76 to 77 per cent of patient deaths had some kind of a comorbidity.' 'The main comorbidities were the presence of diabetes, hypertension, some kind of heart diseases.'
'I stand by what I said. It is understandable that Rushdie got angry and called me names. But it also means it hurt him because there was some truth in what I said.'
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who will demit office as the Chief Justice of India in a week's time, has etched his name in the annals of history by giving finality to one of the most politically and religiously sensitive cases, the Ayodhya land dispute, which dates back to even before the Supreme Court came into existence in 1950.
'They thought he can separate the Muslim votes and win, but the Kerala mind is completely different.' 'It is a secular mind because Hindus, Christians and Muslims live together.' 'We don't like somebody coming from outside, contesting in our state, winning and going and avoiding us.'
It was Gadgil's idea to print a wedding invitation on fabric with temporary ink so it can be used later as a napkin.
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