'Priyanka Gandhi, it was obvious to everyone but the inner circle, would have only served as a sacrificial lamb in this high-octane contest, the Modi juggernaut would have simply trundled over her and whatever ill-hatched plans the Congress had in mind,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The Olympic silver-medallist, who out-played Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in a lop-sided final in Basel, Switzerland on Sunday, earlier addressed the frenzied media at the Indira Gandhi InternationalAirport in New Delhi on Monday
'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.
'Today in Uttar Pradesh all big parties like Samajwadi Party, BJP or even Bahujan Samaj Party are out to woo smaller parties as they know the Hindu votes are getting divided.'
Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala explains why he thinks Modi should be at the helm of India.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley revealed that the government wanted to give Hasmukh Adhia a post-retirement role, but Dr Adhia said he would not work for a single day after November 30.
We love a leader who oozes authority and firmness, notes Virendra Kapoor.
'In his 2014 election campaign, Mr Modi had boasted that he would apply the Gujarat model to the rest of India. We just have to ensure he doesn't start with Parliament,' says Shashi Tharoor in this fascinating excerpt from his new book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi And His India.
'By transferring the case to the NIA without the Maharashtra government's consent clearly indicates they want to play mischief.'
'As a seasoned politician I know how to talk and understand the opinion and sentiments (of other political leaders).'
After the outbreak of the pandemic in the country he has ruled with an iron hand in recent years, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist party of China, has mostly stayed put in Beijing.
'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.'
'The BJP's real pain lies in the fact that all their skullduggery and chicanery has failed to cow down the Shiv Sena. They just cannot digest this fact.'
Days after Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi and China's President Xi Jinping expressed their concerns about the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the SCO summit in Samarkhand, the tyrant of the Kremlin has raised the military stakes in the conflict.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
'Modi looks to be an effective, result-oriented, purposeful leader, focused on bringing greatness and glory to the nation.'
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So it is best for his critics to give up their sniping and supplement his efforts,' asserts B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant who served three prime ministers.
The BJP ignored the principle of the Cabinet's joint responsibility and the adage of the buck stopping at the top, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Modi on the global stage always comes across as a statesman, counselling peace and amity to world leaders even as his policies at home hurt certain sections, explains Virendra Kapoor.
French sources say Hollande was motivated to speak out after an Indian media report revealed that the Reliance Group had part-funded a film venture by his domestic partner, French actress Julie Gayet.
'Patriotism won 400+ seats for the Congress party in 1984. How much will nationalism bring in, in 2019, is the question,' asks Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'The conception of Make-in-India, Skill India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Beti Bachao, Beti Padao and so on show a visionary breadth of mind, and Modi is almost the first political leader in India to put them into effect with single-minded zeal,' notes B S Raghavan, the former civil servant.
'Balakot and Pulwama will definitely help the BJP, but it will still not help them to create a 2014 like situation or go beyond that.'
Bommarabettu Laxmijanardhana Santhosh is the only south Indian and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's representative in the BJP's senior decision-making hierarchy.
Crorepatis' income rose by a staggering 40% between 2015-2016 and 2017-2018.
BJP plans to put up strong candidates against these 15 MPs.
'If the NSCN-IM is cold shoulderd, the chances are that it will slip back into insurgency,' caution Sandeep Pandey, Meera Sanghamitra and Babloo Loitongbam.
While the Samajwadi Party largely banks on its Muslim-Yadav support base, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to counter it with the Modi-Yogi combo in the state assembly polls.
The prime minister's insistence that his voice cannot be suppressed left me both puzzled and amused. He has at his call, the government's official news dissemination/publicity channels, the pliant newspapers and television channels that were eager to prostrate themselves before a powerful government and yet, the dominant voice thinks it is in competition with other voices! exclaims Shyam G Menon.
There is a sense of relief in Beijing that Modi will be at the helm of affairs in Delhi at a critical juncture in the geopolitics of the region, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The last three prime ministers who served full terms started out in their early 70s. Mr Modi is younger and fitter than all of them. But he needs to find it in him to change course if he is to beat the odds, notes T N Ninan.
Not only will Arun Govil, Sunil Lahiri and Deepika Chikhalia attend the Pran Pratistha ceremony, Moti Sagar, Ramanand Sagar's son, also received an invitation.
'Is Modi failing is the question which the BJP will begin to ask itself,' says Amulya Ganguli.
What were our political leaders up to on the weekend?
When he speaks of them, it is either in denial or to highlight successes that are only part of a larger story that is worrisome in its totality, observes T N Ninan.
The parade began after President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Ashoka Chakra -- India's highest peacetime gallantry award -- to Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, a militant-turned-soldier who laid down his life fighting a group of terrorists in Shopian in Kashmir in November.
Gujarat legislator Jignesh Mevani, who was arrested by Assam police from the western state for a purported tweet, was on Thursday remanded to three days police custody by a court in Kokrajhar in the north eastern state.
'The suppression is mounting and people may react.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was in element at the Gateway of India.
For the 2019 polls, the BJP chief deployed over 7,000 leaders to oversee the work of polling committees on the over 400 seats the BJP contested. These committees were asked to focus on 120 seats the party had lost in 2014, but believed it could win in 2019.
