Read what the ex-chief of R&AW, A S Dulat, told our readers on Rediff Chat!
'She was the only prime minister who won a decisive military victory.' 'She won a real war; she didn't play video games on prime time TV over surgical strikes!' 'She understood power better than any other politician, saw it as her birthright and used it with inborn expertise.' 'Every politician today who tries to be a "supremo" through populism and absolute control over his or her party is referring to the Indira Gandhi playbook!'
'There was an overt campaign and there was a covert campaign. The overt campaign may be development, government, and all this nonsense. But the covert campaign, which Mr Amit Shah was doing, was far more important with the help of RSS cadres. This has been an RSS election. From day one I have been saying, this is not Congress versus the BJP, this is Congress versus the RSS,' says Jairam Ramesh, one of the key strategists of the Congress party.
Nothing 'accidental' about this movie, feels Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The oil companies can increase the price differential and justify the higher price by offering enhanced services to those who pay more per litre of petrol or diesel.
Data collected from the Registrar of Companies, or RoC, show that The Firm, as McKinsey is reverentially referred to, has been making steady losses in India since 2004-2005, except in 2006-07. It ended 2007-08 with a loss of Rs 2.26 crore, which was a lot better than the figure in some of the earlier years.
'George was a politician with a difference. He had the ability to stand alone, take a position, however extreme, and sustain that position,' remembers Arun Jaitley.
'Differences will almost certainly arise over how the minorities are to be viewed and how educational institutions are to be treated.'
'These issues would be non-negotiable for Mr Modi's BJP.' 'So he may well refuse to lead a government in which his freedom of action is constrained by others in the coalition,' feels T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'The Vajpayee government is bringing ignominy and shame upon itself by honouring a fanatical leader like Mr Sharon.'
With Bharatiya Janata Party set to accomplish its Mission 25 of winning all seats in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje on Friday said 'good days' have arrived as the country is now 'free' from Congress.
Prime Miniser Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Monday condoled the death of Henning Holk-Larsen, one of the founders of Larsen and Toubro, describing him as a lover of India who contributed significantly to the country's industrialisation.
'Mr Mehta's jousts with owners and politicians taught many in the trade that editorial freedom is not given, it has to be fought for daily, and seized, especially in these times when the borders between journalism and paid-for-content masquerading as the real thing has permeated almost every newspaper in the land barring a couple.'
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
Details about the farmer who died at the AAP rally are emerging, including he was a champ at tying turban.s
'We know each other for quite some time.' 'He could provide stability to the country for five years.' 'But he could not provide confidence to the countrymen that he is our leader.'
'Could the Chinese have taken a leaf out of our book?' 'That their unprecedented build-up is their attempt at coercive diplomacy with India?' 'And if so, what is it that they could be expecting as a quid pro quo?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
'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.
The Budget chose to stick to an ambitious disinvestment programme for 2016-17.
'A close look at the time-lines tells you that exactly as the back-channel negotiations were in their most crucial stage, "somebody" was planning the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai,' says Shekhar Gupta questioning Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's account of a peace deal with India.
Pakistan has taken too much of a chance with Pulwama - with the wrong government in India, and at the wrong time.
'Mr Modi has inherited a system that taxes businessmen and fritters the money away over ministries.'
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the United States Congress.
'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.'
'Lending to Mr Mallya was the bankers' season ticket to corridors of power and glamour. Borrowing from them was like a favour Mallya did to them,' says Shekhar Gupta.
"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 era was already over anyway! The real question is: Has India opened a new, post-coalition era and I'm very doubtful about that,' Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on Indian politics, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com, analysing Mandate 2014.
Leader of the House Arun Jaitley maintained that the governments in Goa and Manipur are being formed as per the democratic norms.
'Across the political spectrum, especially from the side of the NDA itself, there is complete disillusionment (with the way the BJP is treating its allies).' 'This leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.'
Exit polls often go wrong in India because pollsters don't sample voters in the poorest parts of the country or the core support bases of different political parties, explains Professor Atanu Biswas of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
'What are the circumstances at that time? Had you thought Modi will come after Vajpayee?'
'This Ram Navami -- the birth anniversary of Lord Ram -- presents the majority community an opportunity to shed its minority complex and offer an olive branch and discrimination- free society to the minority,' suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'A CEO is successful if he is able to retain the confidence of his shareholders. And the shareholders of India Inc have backed their prime minister-CEO to the hilt,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday took up the four bills related to the GST, with the Opposition urging the government to insulate taxpayers from harassment and questioning how the new regime was "ideal" when 40 per cent of the revenue base of the GDP was kept out of its purview.
'Engagement should never stop.' 'Reassure Kashmiris that they will be treated at par with the rest of India.' 'The peace you crave will be peace with honour.' 'Your special status will not be tinkered with.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met Bollywood actors and filmmakers, including Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, and released a cultural video with the theme 'Change Within' to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
'The prime minister's advisers might have told him that going along with this AIADMK government will damage his image.'
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
P Chidambaram accused the BJP of making a u-turn on bills like GST after having stalled them during the UPA regime.
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