'Senior Vatican officials were pleasantly surprised at the number of Indians who had come to witness the ceremony.'
'The general idea is to unite all the anti-Modi parties into an alliance, to dent the PM's image as a vote-winner, and then stymie him in Parliament -- particularly in the Rajya Sabha -- in order to ruin his credentials as a reformer,' says T V R Shenoy.
'Mr Modi may have the aura of an irresistible conquistador now, but he is human. He isn't an 'avatar,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Kejriwal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not talk about fighting corruption as a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Karnataka was not arrested despite a huge amount of cash was found at his home.
Modi had hit out at Rahul Gandhi, saying: "Your father was termed 'Mr Clean' by his courtiers, but his life ended as 'Bhrashtachari No 1."
'This is still a relatively immature defense and high-tech relationship.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday traded barbs with her party dubbed as 'Behenji Sampatti Party' and she punning on his initials calling him 'Mr Negative Dalit Man'.
Teen Murti Bhavan served as the official residence of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
'I told President Obama, "Mr President, do you realise that the person who is likely to become the prime minister of India in two weeks, does not have a visa, and you are talking about having great relations between India and the USA, how are you going to do it?".'' 'His answer was that this is not right and that he'll have somebody from the White House and the State Department reach out to me.'
Dikshit, a former three-time chief minister of Delhi, however, added that there was a feeling that the PM is doing it all for politics.
'Modi is nobody's fool. He recognises that China has a sort of quality that attracts and repels. It attracts in terms of its performance and it shows in a sense a mirror image to India of what it could be if everything went right in terms of economic performance,' says Ashley Tellis, senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and head of its South Asia programme.
'Many veteran leaders in the Odisha BJP had met them, but their problems were never sorted out.'
Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said the first priority should be to hold a comprehensive and detailed discussion on the Manipur situation in Parliament, going by the fact that people have been killed and the chief minister himself has admitted that several such incidents have happened in the state.
'I wouldn't say it's difficult to enter the film industry because Hindi films have evolved, and newcomers are always welcome.'
It may well be possible to defeat Modi. But nobody seems to know how, points out Vir Sanghvi.
Rahul said that although Modi repeatedly attacked him, his father Rajiv Gandhi, grandmother Indira Gandhi and great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, he gave him a hug.
Reserve Bank of India's former governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday joined Rahul Gandhi during the Congress-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan.
The Supreme Court Tuesday said it would hear on October 26 a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, challenging the Special Investigation Team (SIT) clean chit to Narendra Modi, who was the Gujarat chief minister during the 2002 riots in the state.
24 hours before campaigning ends in Thiruvanathapuram, Archana Masih/Rediff.com discovers Shashi Tharoor and his BJP rival Rajeev Chandrasekhar are busy getting their message across to voters.
'Mr Prime Minister, you have violated the time honoured principle of Indian foreign policy of not interfering in the domestic elections of another country'
'If we can award Madan Mohan Malaviya who died in 1946, then why not the Mahatma who died in 1948?' 'Why not go a little further back in time and give the award to Rabindranath Tagore who died in 1941?' 'And should we mark Lokmanya Tilak's 100th death anniversary in 2020 by giving him a Bharat Ratna,' asks Amberish K Diwanji.
As Modi prepares for his first meeting with United States President Donald Trump, we can't help but wonder will the PM go in for a hug or will 'The Donald' opt for one his 'famous' handshakes?
The Congress sought her intervention in helping bring normalcy in violence-hit Manipur, and called for the constitution of a high-level inquiry commission headed by a serving or retired Supreme Court judge to probe the incident.
Asked about the selection of chief ministers in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he said there will not be any issue and it will be done smoothly.
'The prime minister is talking to his Chachaji and he is crying in the PM's lap, it was such an emotional scene.'
The note ban is Modi's make-or-break gambit for 2019. Opposition leaders see a vulnerability and won't gift pre-eminence to the Congress, says Shekhar Gupta.
The chief executive officer of Pakistan's Dawn Media Group, Hameed Haroon on Friday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'shrewd politician who makes strong moves without making too much of noise prior to them happening'.
The Chinese aren't after territory. Their target is our national will, morale and the sense of autonomy we feel in making our strategic choices. They are attacking India and the Modi government at their weakest point, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Moitra said she has been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that does not exist and that there was no evidence of cash or gift given to her.
Happy at the clear mandate given by voters to the BJP-led NDA, India Inc on Friday exuded confidence that Narendra Modi will initiate bold and decisive policy reforms to promote economic growth.
He said all his phones have been tapped and his friends informed by intelligence people that this is being done.
Struggling, corrupt construction industry will be challenged by the prime minster's $250-billion plan
"My heart goes out to the families of the victims and the injured," Modi said.
'Anyone can string together a few alliterative words, but are they a substitute for serious thought?' 'And do they make for a strategy or plan for coherent action?' asks T N Ninan.
Narendra Modi, says T V R Shenoy, is 'busy trying to woo back two constituencies that were crucial when the BJP won power in the elections of 1998 and of 1999, namely UP (and the Hindi belt in general) and educated youth.'
The advertisement with the PM's face has not amused social media. In fact, it wondered if the usage of the image was even legal.
Instead, increases in foreign-direct-investment levels; and reforms to make labour, land and capital more mobile.
'The PM who is first among equals, who has to listen to others, take their point of view into account and who would have to be a good manager'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington, DC, on Wednesday on an official visit to the United States during which he will hold the first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, attend the maiden in-person Quad summit and address the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
'Mr Kejriwal is almost exactly the package that Mr Modi offers: Personal aggrandisement, the building of a personality cult through full-page newspaper ads day after day, populist schemes involving subsidies (whether affordable or required), abandonment of secular principles, exaggerated claims and no checks on leadership,' points out T N Ninan.
