A controversy erupted on Tuesday after the opposition parties tagged a video of DMK leader A Raja purportedly showing him making remarks that India has never been a nation, but a subcontinent with diverse practices and cultures, prompting strong response from the BJP which described the comments as a call for 'balkanisation' of the the country and demanded for his arrest.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said he does not see a 'middle path' to end the logjam in Parliament as the Opposition's demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue was 'non-negotiable' and the question of an apology over Rahul Gandhi's remarks in the United Kingdom does not arise.
New Delhi can strengthen its leverage by having better relations with the two than they have with each other.
Cricket fraternity and Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt unearths some never-told-before details of Narendra Modi's early life. Read on!
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
'Both reflect prejudice and short-sightedness peculiar to Mr Modi's way of thinking.'
We have a government with an extremely weak economic team advising a PM who hardly pays attention to their thoughts, says Jayanta Roy.
The only reason for the new deal is to give Rs 30,000 crore to industrialist Anil Ambani, the Congress chief alleged.
Political power has now been outsourced fully to the Modi government. Even if the RSS is still, in principle, his guru, nobody would dare to whisper a word of advice to Modi, forget some whiff of criticism. When the shishya grows into such a popular and domineering leader, the guru has to applaud from the sidelines, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'While Piyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and a clutch of former bureaucrats including R K Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and K J Alphons are loyal BJP members, none of them fit the mould of party apparatchiks.' 'In fact, many of the latter kind have been shown the door or have been given reduced charges.' 'That goes to show the prime minister's comfort level in dealing with professionals and administrators and the trust he reposes in them,' says Shreekant Sambrani.
The BJP game-plan: Take the top slot, or a close second, either for the 'Lotus' or the larger NDA, if it can and push the AIADMK to the third place, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
She could not believe how much India had changed since the last time she experienced it first hand.
The meeting between the two leaders lasted about 20 minutes.
'The Modi administration has access to so much evidence that it can rip apart the Congress, not just the Nehru-Gandhis, but almost the entire leadership structure of the party,' says T V R Shenoy.
'She should stick to giving her opinion on cinema.'
Asked about the talk of a rift between him and Chief Minister Baghel during the tenure of the government in the last five years, Singhdeo said there were no differences as such.
The Modi-Shah duo are standing with B S Yediyurappa: But B L Santhosh refuses to be silenced.
The known unknowns in Prime Minister Modi's Saudi visit assume great significance, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'New Delhi's rulers should be alert to lighting a dangerous tinderbox,' warns Sunil Sethi.
An occasional quiz to improve Narendrabhai's grasp of Indian history...
"They say I am anti-Hindu. No. I am anti-(Narendra) Modi, I am anti-Hegde, I am anti-Amit Shah. According to me, they are not Hindus. Mr Anant Kumar Hegde, who says he wants to wipe out an 'ism', a religion from the face of this earth cannot be a Hindu," Prakash Raj said.
"You will not see him (PM) hug a poor person," Gandhi said.
Gandhi said that the BJP government has clearly mishandled the economy that was built by the United Progressive Alliance government, and is now resorting to selling the country's assets as a "last resort" to generate some money.
The government has made its initial moves, good and not-so-good, while the roll-out in some cases has been slow.
Delhi University had claimed that unless the roll number of a student is not provided, it would be difficult to search the records.
The stone is expected to be brought to India by Sri Lankan high commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda.
Parrikar had moved to the South Block at the insistence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2014.
'We are calling for democratic accountability even as we talk about Digital India.' 'We are not against Digital India and it is important for India, but the government should not see what is applicable just to entrepreneurs but also to the vast majority of Indians who do not have the kind of advantages that many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have.'
Mr Modi should welcome the rupee's fall as overdue, not criticise it.
'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.
'In Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan, he is far more popular than the defeated chief ministers,' notes Karan Thapar.
Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday launched a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party saying the party which indulges in "doublespeak" on corruption cannot question the prime minister on the issue as the UPA has taken graft head on and its ministers have resigned on "mere" allegations.
Congress chief urged Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to answer the questions raised by the Congress on the multi-million dollar fighter jet deal.
So let's stop focusing the Modi agenda on India Inc and the capital markets, and let's start focusing on the Modi development agenda for the average Indian.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'Vajpayee would not have approved either of the way the BJP now functions or of the thoughts that it entertains in its mind,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
