'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Gandhi also took a potshot at the RSS, saying it was bent on changing the country's Constitution.
In Rajya Sabha, the Opposition and the government clashed over technicalities of the passage of an anti-graft amendment bill with the latter insisting that it should be adopted without debate.
'There is too much news about film stars. There is too much fawning over wealth and power. There is a grey area between seriousness and triviality in news reporting now.' 'Mumbai is still a magnet. All the politicians have property in Mumbai. Politicians are the biggest racketeers here.' Olga Tellis, the legendary reporter who completed 50 years in journalism, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com about her life and experiences.
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest and funniest stories from around the world.
'The present government's greatest weakness is its intolerance. Tolerance is the key tenet of democracy. How can any government stop someone from speaking one's mind?'
'Biplab Deb said it was unfortunate.' 'If he continues to respond this way, then further damage will not happen.' 'But if under pressure from his party members he does not take action, then the future is dangerous.'
Read what the ex-chief of R&AW, A S Dulat, told our readers on Rediff Chat!
The Trinamool Congress won 211 seats.
'It does not appear to me that the campaign of 2019 will be positive. By that I mean it is unlikely that there will be an 'achche din' style slogan either from the government or the opposition.'
'When you go through the ups and downs of life you need someone who says that no matter what happens to you, whether you are successful or not, I am there with you.' 'In the absence of that person and that love, you have a society which is depressed.'
From Arvind Kejriwal to Priyanka, this has been a media-determined election. Two forces stand poised, the people inventing new politics and the media inventing its own version of that politics, says Shiv Visvanathan.
Simultaneous activation of both Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal low-pressure systems has led to the state receiving an excess 65 per cent rainfall.
The Bhartiya Janata Party along with the Lok Janshakti Party are all set to fight a pitched political battle against the ruling Janata Dal-United and also the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal combine in Bihar. But there's one thing in common between the five major parties of the state -- all of them have fielded bahubalis, criminal-turned-politicians and their wives in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
The year 2015 was a mixed bag for the Grand Old party --with the performance in Bihar being a consolation while the the National Herald case came back to haunt its leadership.
Protesting Congress members had on Tuesday too blocked a debate on the bill. The monsoon session ends on Thursday.
Utkarsh Mishra imagines what is it that Baba Gandhi would say if he got the chance.
Another 24 filmmakers including Kundan Shah of "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro" fame and Saeed Mirza and writer Arundhati Roy today returned their National Awards over "growing intolerance", voicing fears that the country's robust democracy might be "coming apart" in the current atmosphere.
Netas in Uttar Pradesh are using Rajkumar Hirani's film PK to play the politics of polarization.
Bomb blasts on Thursday rocked Assam and Manipur during Independence Day functions injuring one person even as chief ministers asked extremists to abjure violence and return to the mainstream.
'The Left is dying, but its economic ideology rules, unchallenged.' 'Modi is its newest standard-bearer.' 'Even in today's bitterly polarised politics, if there is one thing on which not just the BJP and Congress, but all other parties agree, it is that socialist economics is the only way to survive,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Thirty-five per cent of the 64,41,634 voters exercised their franchise till noon on Monday in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam where four persons clashed with CRPF personnel demanding that they be allowed to cast their vote first in Kaliabor constituency.
Opposition parties forced early adjournments in both Houses of parliament as they continued to press for a debate on demonetisation under any rule that entailed voting, a demand that the government has refused to accept. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi led a walkout by the Opposition over no obituary references being made for the seven Army personnel who lost their lives in the terror attack on an Army base in Nagrota, Jammu and Kashmir.
'The Communist rule in Tripura was exceptional while it lasted for a quarter century in giving good governance.' 'The chief minister himself was the paragon of virtues in his dedication in public life.' 'But all that still didn't add up when the BJP's dream merchants came up with their famous 'development agenda'.' 'One thing that emerges indisputably in the Tripura election results is that needs and aspirations more or less narrow down to one little word -- jobs,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
'It would be too sweeping to say that the elites and the middle-class don't care about liberty.' 'It is just that they are always calculating the trade-offs: What's in it for me, what could it cost me?' 'To that extent, we haven't changed in 40 years,' says Shekhar Gupta.
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