The prime minister took the first-ever flight by such a craft in the country on the last day of campaigning for the Gujarat polls.
'Blocking Parliament brings attention to a party that has poor speakers like Rahul Gandhi. It is unlikely to shine in debates, assuming we were a nation that enjoyed listening to sparkling intellectual exchange, which we are not.'
It may well be possible to defeat Modi. But nobody seems to know how, points out Vir Sanghvi.
'It is an important and significant election -- but there is nothing make-or-break about it. A victory is always great, but if the BJP wins, it can't make Mr Modi any stronger in his party and government than he already is,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'He always avoided eating non-vegetarian food in presence of his deputies if they were fasting for the month of Shravan.' 'There were no Hindu, Jain, Parsi and Swaminarayan festivals he would forget.' 'He was a conservative Muslim and therefore could get along well with conservative Hindus.'
Amit Shah now enters an unfamiliar and interesting phase of his political career. His success or failure will henceforth be assessed based on his performance as a key minister, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'...because we are truer to the spirit of the Hindu faith.' 'There is absolutely no question that the Hinduism of the mob lynchers, the people who have killed others because of what they are eating or how they are worshipping or the faith they belong to or what they're doing professionally, those are, to my mind, not Hindus at all.'
'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.
'If the school of bluffers includes those who get to the top not from deep knowledge but from delivering 'a clever quip or a leftfield surprise argument', then Modi is the undisputed Bluffocrat Emeritus,' says Sunil Sethi.
Modi also dared Rahul to speak in any language for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Siddaramaiah government without referring to a piece of paper.
'These are lies that Priyanka Gandhi rung up Sachin Pilot.'
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.'
'This term -- "Nehru-Gandhi" family -- is a misnomer. Nehru was not a dynast; he did not even name his successor... The big mistake she made was to push forward Rahul Gandhi who is a dead loss as a leader,' says Nayantara Sahgal, whom Sonia Gandhi calls 'Tara Masi.'
'India has jackboot laws legislated by all parties, a State prepared to stomp all over you, and citizens who don't often realise how easily they can be crushed under both,' says T N Ninan.
Tamil Nadu chief secretary said that the request could not be sanctioned, owing to the legal issues at Marina Beach.
'They (the government) want to tame everything.' 'The entire systems they are trying to change.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the management of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), that markets its products under the Amul brand, to "maintain status quo" on the issue of removal of Vipul Chaudhary as its chairman.
Top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme.
'Unlike in Gujarat, where he could ask for votes based on delivery, in 2019 he will have to appeal to his core Hindutva ideology, by firing over someone else's shoulders,' says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The argument that a Bharatiya Janata Party government has no business marking the 125th birth anniversary of Panditji makes little sense, says Virendra Kapoor
'If Mr Modi and Mr Shah have made a poisonous, polarising campaign their brahmastra for 2019, Mamata Banerjee is showing them its limitations,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Rakhi Sawant is as uncensored as they come.
'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Sachin Pilot once calculated that with a million Indians flooding the labour market every month, only an additional 12 million jobs annually could keep unemployment at the same level.' 'That's chickenfeed for the functionaries who cram my e-mail inbox every day with such a constant flow of job offers that trying to empty it is like trying to drink dry the horn connected to the ocean in Norse mythology,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Wednesday dubbed the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party as "KASAB", adding yet another acronym in the Uttar Pradesh poll campaign, and said development will elude the state till "Kasab is laid to rest".
Trains were set afire and blocked, and public vehicles attacked as protests over 'Agnipath' swept across several places in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu on Thursday amid partisan political voices in favour and against the new recruitment scheme for the defence forces that has set off a firestorm.
No one in Bihar will deny Nitish Kumar's contribution to governance, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Six men are in the news, and in very different boats
Rahul Gandhi has also slammed Hegde, saying he is 'unfit' to be a Union minister.
'India placed the order, primarily due to the IAF's 'critical operational necessity'.' 'The complexity of the IAF's requirements delayed the process for months.' 'It is these requirements which cannot be made public.' 'Can you image Indian politicians publicly discussing the pros and the cons of such military equipment?' 'It would provide India's enemies with indications about the IAF's tactical plans in case of a conflict.' 'It is crucial that they should remain secret to protect India's defence preparedness,' explains Claude Arpi.
Beset by troubles on multiple fronts within, the Congress faces the danger of imploding with party veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal on Wednesday sharply questioning the decision-making process, saying there are 'no monopolies', and demanded convening an urgent meeting of the Congress Working Committee for a 'dialogue'.
Congress, NCP, RJD members staged walkout in the Lok Sabha.
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.
'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.
Rajdeep Sardesai's 2014: The Election That Changed India, will make him a ton of money, says Shreekant Sambrani, but admits he is more interested in knowing whether the book lives up to its title.
'Modi wants to go down in history not necessarily as India's first overtly Hindu RSS pracharak prime minister, but as a world statesman who built the idea of India as a great nation.'
Governments make budgets to retain and consolidate their hold on power, not to please opponents or economists. They do so by trying to gratify as many as possible without causing harm to the others, says Shreekant Sambrani.
'There's nothing in the 2019 campaign air, the chunavi hawa that tells you it's a wave election, for anyone,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Modi must focus on other state-level reforms, such as those in labour laws, leasing of land and agriculture
'There appears to be in the Indian polity a link between being Single and being of prime ministerial timber. It is a trend, a preponderance -- not a statistical verity,' says Dr Shashi K Pande.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances