Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's remarks on Pakistan sparked a political row on Friday, with his party quick to dissociate itself from the comments while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party latched on to them, accusing the Congress of being an apologist for Pakistan and the terrorism emanating from its soil.
The former Union minister said the question that was posed to the country then and faced it today was whether Muslims in India felt accepted, cherished and celebrated.
Many were hoping that with Vajpayee's NDA gone, there would be a return to the Congress normal. Nobody was prepared for the opposite. Sonia Gandhi was sceptical. This became the only issue over which Manmohan Singh took on his party bosses and risked his government. Politically, it was riskier than the 1991 reform, recalls Shekhar Gupta.
'While the meeting on December 6th was perfectly legal, was it ethical?' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
It would be best that Rahul remains party chief, but at the same time, Rahul's own wishes must also be respected, Aiyar said.
A chastised Aiyar did proffer a conditional apology, but that did not apparently smooth the ruffled feathers of the troubled Congress leadership.
'From his persistent fuelling of pan-Hindu nationalism to pandering to narrow Gujarati chauvinism, Rambo rides again, using fair means and foul -- and often foul -- to gain the battleground,' says Sunil Sethi.
''At this stage we are closer to military confrontation than at any time since 1971.' 'Given the known positions of the two governments, it will not be surprising if this happens sooner rather than later,' says Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
Many of the stories, the pictures going out of India worldwide lately with these provocative processions, taunting of Muslims, bulldozers targeting mostly their properties, the sweeping 'othering' of a community of 200 million are painting the front pages and TV screens in the democratic world. That is where most of the friends we covet lie. Soon enough, these will also make our vital friends among the Muslim nations, from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, uneasy. The best time for course correction is now, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
At some stage this fall in the quality of life will begin to hurt anybody's popularity, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Shashi Tharoor speaks to Shobha Warrier on the controversy over his article seen as praising Narendra Modi and what the future holds for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.
'N Ram and I met on the lawns of Mani Shankar Aiyar's bungalow.' 'I pulled out a rolled printout from my jacket and handed it to him.' 'In the cut-throat world of journalism, this was like high treason.' 'But letting a story be killed because you can't publish it is a bigger crime than passing it to the competition,' recalls Shekhar Gupta.
John Elliott, the author of Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality, on his Riding the Elephant blog, says the sacking of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata and Sons was in line with Ratan Tata's personal style of dealing with executives
The meme contained photographs of Modi, United States President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May engaged in a conversation.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The government's position on a meeting that a journalist had with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed got endorsement from an unexpected quarter on Wednesday with Congress leader Salman Khurshid saying it was a "private initiative" and the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had nothing to do with it.
The opposition to Gajendra Chauhan's appointment has more to do with his background and less with anything else, feels Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is regarded as credible by global financiers.
'I see you as a man who has split the nation into two. Vajpayee or even Advani would hold it together. One senses you cannot do this. To heal, to apologise, and to glue together a nation seems beyond you,' Shiv Visvanathan tells the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
'The people of Pakistan and India will begin to understand what the bottom lines are. What India can accept maximum is known to Pakistan. What Pakistan can accept minimum is known to India.' 'In the absence of atmosphere you can't even talk, you can't think of writing agreements and frameworks. You have to have the right atmosphere. With the previous BJP government it had started and I hope the new BJP government will continue with that.'
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