From melodrama to mockery (remember Amar and Prem's phony separated-at-Kumbh Mela reunion in a gag of Andaz Apna Apna?), there are numerous instances of its presence.
The BJP holds 28 of the 59 Rajya Sabha seats that will soon face election.
The new government that presents the full Budget for 2024-2025 in July should be ready to restructure the way divestment is managed and implemented, proposes A K Bhattacharya.
It is in power on its own only in three states -- Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana -- with a big question mark on whether it can even stake claim to be head of the INDIA bloc.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday sought to give credit to his party for the women's reservation bill but Home Minister Amit Shah refuted his claim, saying that the legislation brought by the Manmohan Singh government had lapsed following the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
'For the last two elections, the Congress manifesto has been thrown into the dustbin.' 'This manifesto will also be thrown into the dustbin.'
'Vajpayee used to consult the Opposition; Indira Gandhi used to consult the Opposition. Which khet ki mooli is Modi?'
The income-tax department continued its searches in different places linked to an Odisha-based distillery group on charges of tax evasion for the sixth consecutive day on Monday after recovering unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 353 crore, the 'highest-ever' haul in a single action by any probe agency in the country, officials said.
The BJP is the preferred choice because it offers what the Mughals and later British offered in their time: A stable polity and an environment in which business could function, explains T N Ninan.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
To understand Modi, listen to what he does not say -- vide NRC, suggests Prem Panicker.
'I'm talking about that predator in your house, and how one should protect one's children from him.'
With land acquisition completed and infrastructure work streamlined, India's bullet train dreams are slowly, but finally, inching closer to reality.
President Murmu reached the new Parliament building in a six-horse buggy accompanied by the Presidential Bodyguards riding horses.
In 2017, a retired R&AW officer conveyed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was keen to get monarchy restored in Nepal and suggested that I support these efforts.
'The makers of The Accidental Prime Minister would have to get an NOC from Manmohan Singhji, Sonia Gandhiji and all the other politicians who are part of the narrative,'
Sharmishtha, who has quit politics, also clarified that she has not tried to tweak her father's views about anyone.
Pranab's earlier fear of Sonia relying too heavily on a coterie due to her lack of experience turned out to be unfounded. As per Pranab, Sonia had her close advisers but she did not follow anyone's advice blindly. A fascinating excerpt from Sharmistha Mukherjee's Pranab, My Father: A Daughter Remembers.
Aaditya Thackeray had a brief meeting with Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence in New Delhi.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will set a record by presenting the sixth Budget in a row -- 5 annual Budgets and one interim -- a feat achieved so far only by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. With the presentation of interim Budget on February 1, Sitharaman will surpass the records of her predecessors like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who had presented five budgets in a row. Desai, as Finance Minister, had presented five annual Budgets and one interim Budget between 1959-1964. The interim Budget 2024-25 to be presented by Sitharaman on February 1, will be a vote-on-account that will give the government authority to spend certain sums of money till a new government comes to office after the April-May general elections.
Pakistan is scheduled to open the Kartarpur corridor for Indian Sikh pilgrims on November 9.
The Union home ministry has cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) for alleged violation of laws, a move the public think-tank termed "incomprehensible and disproportionate" and vowed to seek legal recourse against.
"India is a welfare state and, therefore, we cannot allow either extreme poverty or inequality," he said.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
Chidambaram said he was honoured that the two leaders visited him.
Modi was at the receiving end of criticism from across the political spectrum, dubbing the barb as demeaning.
Journalist Tarun Tejpal told the Delhi high court on Friday that he will publish an apology in a national daily stating that an Indian Army officer, against whom he had levelled allegations of corruption in defence procurement, had not accepted any money.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth straight Budget ahead of the Parliamentary elections, matching the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Sitharaman in her pre-election Budget, which technically is a vote on account and popularly termed an interim Budget, will seek Parliament's nod for a grant in advance to meet the central government's essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April. A new government elected after the April/May general elections will present the full Budget, likely in July.
'Singh has two options. Either he asserts the authority of his office or makes way for someone who is not a proxy for the Family and can command the Congress Parliamentary Party's loyalty.'
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
Modi also said the grand old party was being run not by its leaders but by some "behind the curtain" elements who are in nexus with anti-national forces.
'If democracy does not exist, if there are no political spaces, there is no media, there is no civil society, what do we rejoice?'
In the 76 years since India gained independence, 53 recipients of the Bharat Ratna have been there. That's less than one every year, which is a healthy ratio given there is the sanctity of this gem of an award to preserve. But four recipients for the year were announced in a few days in addition to one announced earlier. That took the total number in 2024 to five in less than a month, the highest for any year, post-Independence, notes Shyam G Menon.
'However, to establish a quid pro quo, one can potentially see several things, like whether they got any benefits from the party that they gave money to. That is something that people (of India) will gauge. But to finally establish that there was money paid as consideration, it would require an investigation, a proper investigation, to be able to come up with such conclusions.'
While about 8,000 people are in the long list of invitees, the select list features 506 A-listers, including prominent politicians, leading industrialists, top film stars, sportspersons, diplomats, judges and high priests.
His five-year rule saw the Babri Masjid demolition, the rise of the saffron forces and also the country being placed firmly on a new economic path, away from the Nehru years of public sector socialism.
The prime minister's insistence that his voice cannot be suppressed left me both puzzled and amused. He has at his call, the government's official news dissemination/publicity channels, the pliant newspapers and television channels that were eager to prostrate themselves before a powerful government and yet, the dominant voice thinks it is in competition with other voices! exclaims Shyam G Menon.
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
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