The issue combined with its alliance with anti-Congress parties in 1989 won the BJP 85 seats in Lok Sabha elections against mere two in 1984.
Can the Opposition disrupt Parliament proceedings at its will? Tell us.
BJP spokesman V K Malhotra said they would not allow any discussion in the Lok Sabha until the 'tainted' ministers step down.
India is too diverse to be governed centrally and with a single system. The way forward is for the central government to keep the monopoly of military power and a share of national resources while the provinces must have greater autonomy, recommends Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Thursday took the government to task for its moves to divest its stake in oil majors -- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Leaders hope the Ayodhya temple ceremony would pave way for harmony.
You'd wonder what madness seized Rahul that he has decided to play to the BJP's strengths, says Shekhar Gupta.
The electoral bounty reaped by the Congress was nothing more than an ill-gotten gain of a casteist, divisive campaign; nothing to be proud of and certainly not a moral victory, argues Vivek Gumaste.
A quick look at winners in the major categories.
Honorary Captain Bana Singh won the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest ranking gallantry award, for recapturing a Pakistani post on the Siachen Glacier. Living a retired life in a quiet village in Jammu and Kashmir, he makes you feel that his act of phenomenal courage was part of a soldier's day at work.
'Someone is needed to restore India back to Indians. So you decided you won't vote for Modi. But then, who will you vote for? List your leaders from the north to south and east to west, and ask your heart and mind, will any one of them be able to deliver and bring back India from the darkness it has fallen into?' asks Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay.
'When he has been retired against his will, Advani appears to have found the merits of tolerance.' 'It took his one-time pupil to teach the old man his own lesson,' says Aakar Patel.
The terrorists were armed with AK-47s, grenades, pistols, knives, many rounds of ammunition. Sepoy Jagdish Chand's weapons were his bare hands and enormous courage. He died, but not before he felled one of them. Archana Masih/Rediff.com speaks to the family of Sepoy Jagdish Chand, one of the 7 soldiers martyred in the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station.
Dr Kaushal Kishore Mishra, the prime accused in the assault case against Somnath Bharti, says he never attacked the AAP leader. He then explains the polarisation politics of Varanasi.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force started landing in Gujarat with the help of the Indian Air Force to undertake preventive evacuation of people living on the west coast, an IAF official said.
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday set out with much fanfare to file his nomination papers for Delhi Assembly election but had to put it off till Wednesday after his road show made it impossible for him to reach the election office in time.
Meanwhile, an independent MLA in Gujarat has declared his support to the BJP.
'Although the Congress party ethos resembles a court with courtiers, Sonia Gandhi's style was to be consensual.'
Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi's seventh chief minister on Saturday at historic Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, capping his party's stunning electoral debut in the December 4 assembly polls. The date for the swearing-in ceremony was finalised at a meeting Kejriwal held with Chief Secretary D M Spolia.
'In his 2014 election campaign, Mr Modi had boasted that he would apply the Gujarat model to the rest of India. We just have to ensure he doesn't start with Parliament,' says Shashi Tharoor in this fascinating excerpt from his new book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India.
The temples are concerned about the religious sentiments of the devotees who donate gold ornaments in the name of the deities
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar quashed the Centre's notification disqualifying the AAP MLAs, saying the the EC's recommendation against the legislators was "bad in law" and "vitiated".
As Delhi continued to face long power cuts, over 20 Aam Aadmi Party members of Legislative Assembly staged a protest outside Union Minister Harsh Vardhan's house in East Delhi demanding urgent steps by the Centre to improve electricity supply in the city.
'This is a negative campaign, of slurs and fears.' 'The BJP has no desire to fight a positive campaign as it did in 2014, on the issue of governance and achche din.' 'Where the BJP can use these tactics, it will,' says Aakar Patel.
'The Aam Aadmi's prophet is out of touch with both the city and his own flock.'
'Most Indians know very little about Patel which is a great shame.'
What makes Badrinath Ki Dulhania work, really, is the intent and the two principal actors, observes Raja Sen.
As his government completed one month in power, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said controversies surrounding the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation never affected its functioning and asserted that his team did a good job in addressing various challenges facing the city.
'The BJP must realise that a resurgent Rahul Gandhi will take the battle straight into its camp.' 'He is not going to be held back by the misdeeds of UPA 1 and 2, so there is no point harping on them,' says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Political parties are getting battle-ready, nominating their best candidates to contest Election 2014... Rediff.com's incomparable Sheela Bhatt begins a new column where she reveals the ground realities in the Battle for India, as only she can. Don't miss it!
'Whatever the result on December 18, Rahul has succeeded.' 'He has taken the battle to the rival's territory, and forced him to take him more seriously than he has done so far, or would have wished to.' 'A party, dominating and powerful as the BJP today, is spending all its time attacking the leader of one with just 46 seats in the Lok Sabha, and in the woods in Gujarat for 22 years.' 'This isn't the script the BJP had written,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Indrani Roy/Rediff.com explains what strengthened the saffron party's foothold in this eastern region of the country
The media wittingly or otherwise has been a key player in stymying the AAP. It is not so much the rivals, but the media, mostly the television and from its cues, large sections of the print segment, who got the trophy. The political parties, especially BJP and Congress, can now laugh in their sleeves, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The idea is to make unexceptionable broad promises so as to have the maximum freedom to devise policies if and when the opportunity arises, says Subir Roy.
'Arvind Kejriwal displayed crass male chauvinism and gender illiteracy in saying that "rape tendencies arise out of sex, prostitution and drug rackets." This shows a failure to grasp that rape has little to with sex, and even less with drugs. Such remarks are far worse than the deplorable comments of policemen and politicians who attribute rapes to women's "provocative" attire or their outdoor presence at night!' says Praful Bidwai.
The initial misadventure of an individual AAP leader highlights how the party not only has to bone up on tactics but should also constantly look within to root out ingrained and inherited prejudices, says Subir Roy.
There are several other famous temples across India that disallow non-Hindus to enter their place of worship, Rediff.com lists some of them.
The RSS realises that with a majority BJP government at the Centre and in several states, now was the best time to undermine and perhaps outdo the Congress-Left 'stranglehold' over campuses and young minds.
An emotional farewell was given to the valiant army jawans who lost their lives in the Uri attack, as their last rites were performed in their respective native villages with full military and state honours.
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