The war of words between United Progressive Alliance government and the main Opposition BJP over the economic situation saw BJP leader Yashwant Sinha calling Finance Minister P Chidambaram a 'conceited person' for labelling L K Advani 'our own John McCain'. Advani, Leader of Opposition and BJP's prime ministerial candidate, had called a meeting of 15 top captains of Indian industry on Thursday to discuss the issues plaguing the Indian economy in the wake of the global meltdow
'Modi's campaign has been strikingly devoid of anti-Muslim rhetoric. After the kutta pilla incident, it has been several months since he said something horrible about the Muslims of India. It is the result of democratic constraints. He has to make compromises... He's trying to reinvent himself. He will politically hurt himself if 2002 becomes the definition of Mr Modi again', says political scientist Ashutosh Varshney.
Nowhere else has caste, power politics, and generational change come together to form a combination so potent that it is combustible.
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.
'If Khan Market today -- a neon-drenched spectacle of blingy shops and pricey eateries -- is what it is, it's not due to the dramatic shift in political dispensations, but because free-market India is another country,' notes Sunil Sethi.
Filmmakers Farhan Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap and Aditi Rao Hydari were among the prominent faces from the Hindi film industry to join the public protesting against the Citizenship Act at Mumbai's August Kranti Maidan on Thursday. The gathering included workers of political parties, students and also a smattering of Bollywood personalities, who made out a strong case against the Act and the National Register of Citizens.
'Mahatma Gandhi, even for those on the extreme Hindu Right who believe he founded the politics of Muslim 'appeasement', is suicidal to target,' asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'No country or society ever prospered or remained secure by marginalising more than one-sixth of its own,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
'Kangana thought some extra action scenes were needed and I concurred with her.' 'The film looks so much more spectacular with those war scenes.'
"Suppose the suit of Ram Lalla goes then you have no independent claim... You can't survive if the deity does not survive."
In his much-hyped swansong, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proved that though he is months away from retirement, he still has quite a bit of fight left in him.
Vikas Mohan last produced the film Aarzoo, which starred Madhuri Dixit and Akshay Kumar.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
'Akshay is in the same phase that probably Mr Bachchan has gone through.' 'He has that kind of success and stardom, but he does not let it go to his head.' 'That's what I love about him.'
Boney Kapoor performed the last rites with his daughters Janhvi and Khushi by his side.
'No one institution can cleanse it: Not the courts, government or activists.' 'And least of all the Indian Police Service,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Rahul Gandhi dared BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to make public his British passport number and other relevant documents.
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
A major slugfest erupted on Thursday over Bharatiya Janata Party MP Chandan Mitra's demand for stripping Nobel laureate Amartya Sen of the Bharat Ratna award and the economist offering to return it if Atal Bihari Vajpayee asks him to do so.
'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.
Mr T V R Shenoy, who contributed columns to Rediff.com from its birth, passed into the ages on Tuesday evening. As we grieve and mourning his passing, Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar bids adieu to an unusual human being, a sage for our times.
'So complete is Modi's takeover of the foreign ministry, that Swaraj today is less important than a minister of state for secularism in Modi's government!'
Can you recognise this actor?
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.
From Shah Rukh Khan, who makes a cameo in the film, to Salman's gorgeous rumoured girlfriend Iulia Vantur, most of Salman's pals wanted to watch the film.
'Both reflect prejudice and short-sightedness peculiar to Mr Modi's way of thinking.'
What do you have to say about their style?
In the Modi government, he was the mentor -- he groomed half a dozen of those who became ministers. Some remembered, others did not -- Jaitley seemed to care little. Aditi Phadnis reports.
In Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh wayward Romeos would all be in the lock-up, says Sunil Sethi.
Taking a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said he feared that there were grim indicators of Indian democracy being concentrated in one person's hand after the marginalisation of party veterans like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
'Think about how he would have handled Hyderabad, and JNU. He would have been very cross if he found two of his Cabinet ministers weighing in on the side of the ABVP.' 'And if Rohith Vemula still killed himself, he would have been the first to speak out in anguish and empathy rather than deny he was a Dalit.' 'And JNU, he would have simply said something like, 'let the boys speak, then they will grow up and join the IAS).' 'A good idea, when in crisis, is to apply the 'Vajpayee test' to your actions,' says Shekhar Gupta.
He is talking, making sense, and India is listening. Rahul Gandhi needs to listen to him, too, says Shekhar Gupta.
'The difference between black money in India and the black money out of India is, in India, it is tax evaded money and Indian money outside India is not only tax evaded money, but money which has been taken out of India's capital resources needed for India. So it is not only tax evasion, but treason too.'
Are you looking forward to Bollywood's new love stories?
'You must always feel the need to do something different, something new.' 'I don't think I should be content.'
Bombay Velvet was Bollywood's biggest flop this year.
Read what the ex-chief of R&AW, A S Dulat, told our readers on Rediff Chat!
'Look at what we are doing to the goats, the cows, the women, the children...'
'Minorities should not fear a Modi sarkar... Who has given the right to kill in the name of religion? No one! You are not James Bond 007, that you will just take a shotgun and kill anybody at your whims and fancies. We are not living in a banana republic...' The inimitable Shatrughan Sinha on Narendra Modi as a dabbang action hero, what a Modi Sarkar would be like.
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