'If anything, he is a fiscal hawk.' 'He has avoided fiscal profligacy completely for the past four years.' 'The fiscal deficits since 2014 are clear proof of this.' 'The point is not that it is not 3 per cent yet; it is that it is not 6, 7 or 8 per cent, which it could easily have been.' 'For this he needs to be congratulated.' 'He has recognised it no longer pays to spend other people's money to win elections,' points out T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'If he plays his cards well; develops a thicker political hide; complements his populist 'Left of centre' image with a sounder understanding of economics, foreign policy and national security; and plays the waiting game with fortitude, who knows, India may well have a rejuvenated Congress party with a reformer and a statesman as its leader in the years ahead.'
Rahul Gandhi also predicts a NDA collapse 'not seen in many years'
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
What does a Muslim in politics do? Where does he go?
An occasional quiz to improve Narendrabhai's grasp of Indian history...
The wedding took which took place today morning was attended by a lot of people from the Telugu film industry.
'The Republic is currently captained and crewed by people who seem interested in the safety and well being of only a select kind of passenger, advising the rest to swim for Pakistan,' points out Mitali Saran.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law said that he was a political victim but never misused his position or ran away with anyone's money.
'He is 47 years old and not married. Since his son or daughter can contest for Parliament only 25 years after being born, the earliest, if he marries in December, would be 2043.' 'So this, pretty much, is the end of the road for dynastic rule in the party,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
Why did Kamal Haasan name the leaders he did?
'What was the message that was going to them?' 'The message was, we are a great country and we have beaten Covid!' 'No one talked about the precautions to be taken.'
'We cannot ignore the role of public institutions in driving development... I don't see much focus on institutional renewal.'
"He (Modi) has created an environment in Jammu and Kashmir of hatred and anger, and the only people who benefit from violence and hatred are the Pakistanis," the Congress vice president said.
The Congress president accused the AAP of taking a U-turn over alliance talks.
'If Mr Modi continues growing as a Hindu Hriday Samrat, better that it is done by restoring ancient temples than demolishing medieval mosques,' says Shekhar Gupta.
At the end of the six short stories, Feels Like Ishq is uneven yet watchable, feels Sukanya Verma.
'We are not a dictatorship. If the people do not desire some law, it is impossible for any government to implement it,' says BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose.
'Look at the number of billionaires, the number of new billionaires in India.' 'Adani and Ambani are not the only ones.' 'What's wrong with people making money as long as it benefits us?'
Believe it or not, national leaders have been talking in code language during the Karnataka election campaign.
'If the Modi government does not waive farm loans, we guarantee to waive farm loans if voted to power in 2019'
Reaching out to present and former employees of the defence PSU at an interaction with them, Gandhi said, work done by HAL for the country was tremendous and the country owed debt to it for "protecting us" and creating a scientific vision.
According to sources at AIIMS, the BJP leader was admitted following complaints of chest congestion and breathing issues.
If the finance minister's tax proposals have stimulated demand at all, it's for CAs, notes Kanika Datta.
Top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme.
Prime Minister Modi needs to call Biden next month and clearly say: 'Mr President, the threat from China is clear and present. We, in New Delhi, have determined it to be an urgent national priority to outfit our submarines and aircraft carriers with nuclear propulsion and we want to cooperate with America on this programme",' advises Ajai Shukla.
'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.
The Congress leader asked the government to not resort to further unorthodox, short-term economic measures that can cause any more uncertainty in the economy.
'This is not a moral but a political question yet its importance is likely to grow with every passing day,' says Karan Thapar.
DLF, the company under the cloud due to its not-so-transparent business relations with Robert Vadra, has come out with its defence. The four-page long defence is to help take the pressure off from Congress president Sonia Gandhi whose reputation is at stake.
'If Mahatma Gandhi could fight to eradicate corruption at the age of 78, why can't I try at 60?'
'My advice to all young musicians/artists out there would be to keep working hard.' 'Be humble, be grateful that you all are blessed with this beautiful art of music.'
With the talks between the Centre and the agitating farmer unions stalled since January, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday expressed readiness to resume the dialogue to resolve their objections to the three new agri laws, but the unions remained adamant on their demands for a repeal of the legislations and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.
Neither Modi nor Shah had held legislative or executive power in Delhi before 2014. They have no training in appealing to the diversity of India as represented in Parliament. Their prism is the provincial politics of Gujarat. An exclusive excerpt from Vinay Sitapati's fascinating new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi.
Rahul Gandhi dared BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to make public his British passport number and other relevant documents.
The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Party will decide when the time was right to pass on the baton to Rahul Gandhi, says senior Congress leader Ambika Soni.
'All that Mr Modi needed to do was to call Urjit Patel over for a cup of tea and ask him nicely, and this fuss would never have happened.'
'The biggest danger is that majoritarianism is getting normalised, insidiously and overtly... We are bringing the worst, not the best in us... We are looking for new enemies - Muslims, urban Naxals, tukde tukde gang, some enemy or the other which keeps this majoritarian wheel turning,' says journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
