'We have finished that fear.'
'If you are in Punjab, Modi is omnipresent as if he is going to be chief minister of Punjab.'
'If he is in Uttarakhand, he presents himself to be the chief minister of Uttarakhand.'
'When he is in UP, he is touted as the chief minister of UP.' 'There is a personality cult which is being built around a person... that he is the panacea of every democratic exercise in India, from panchayat to Parliament.' 'Modi at some point will pay the price for trying to build a very ambitious personality cult.'
Replying to a debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address which was adopted by the House later amid walkout by Congress, he replied point-by-point to the issues raised by the Opposition, including surgical strikes and allocations for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, agriculture sector and for Scheduled Castes. Opposition had moved 190 amendments to the Motion which were negated.
As the island heads for elections, two major factors worry Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. One is the division in the Sinhala vote and the other is the prospect of the Tamils and Muslims voting heavily against him.
References to cow, beef and Pakistan, which dominated political speeches and rallies during the keenly-fought Bihar polls, resurfaced on the media.
Accusing Congress of pursuing vote-bank politics, Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the turmoil over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh was a perfect example of how the ruling party sowed "seeds of poison".
Kickstarting the National Democratic Alliance's poll campaign in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday focussed his attack on former Bharatiya Janata Party ally and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of "back-stabbing" the people of the state and alleging that there is some problem with his "DNA".
A course on 'land acquisition, rehabilitation and environmental clearance of projects' is also being offered by IIT-Kharagpur.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
'The Congress has collapsed and is fighting for survival. Other parties carry no weight in comparison to the BJP. This situation does not augur well for democracy,'
'The strategies outlined in Jaitley's Budget won't create the millions of jobs needed to dispel the despair and cynicism of militant youth in the Red Corridor running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.'
Sinha, a former finance minister, hogged the limelight and started trending high on social media on Wednesday after he criticised his own government for sinking economy in an article.
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the United States Congress.
Amid speculation that he would return to Goa politics, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday kept everyone guessing by describing himself as a "party man" who will work as per the directions of party leaders.
The BJP has already cobbled up 28 seats to counter-bargain with the PDP's 28 seats in future talks. It is up to the Kashmir-based parties like the National Conference and PDP to assess the damage of going with the BJP which is perceived as the 'Hindu' party in the state. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com's takeways from a historic but fractured mandate in Jammu and Kashmir.
'The objective is not to make India into a one religion place, but to ensure that there is harmonious and peaceful co-existence of all faiths with each of them having their cultural personality.'
'Slaughter of cows will be opposed by all parties in UP, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc while it is different in Kerala, Goa and the north east.' 'Every national party adapts and take a view on various issues depending on the local situation and the feelings of the local people.' 'So, the Kerala BJP will look at each issue from the Kerala perspective, and not that of UP.'
The sudden proximity between India and US has, in the eyes of many, sidelined China. This is not the case, argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Let us also not expect that there will be a clean break with the past, much though the new government might like to think about it. In a functional democracy that is neither feasible nor desirable. But basic change it must be,' says Shreekant Sambrani.
'Those who foment trouble in the valley have been told to lie low till a new elected government takes shape in the state.'
'It is obvious within these two months that in many ways Narendra Modi has a great degree of resemblance with Indira Gandhi.' 'The same style of management of power. The same kind of attempt to reduce a large section of the political leadership into, if not spectators, bureaucrats. His leaders are taking orders from him and executing those orders.' 'This is the model that has worked in Gujarat. And he is hoping that it will work in India.'
'I bow to the 125 crore citizens of this great nation and promise to stay true to the trust they have bestowed on me.'
'This uniqueness of Jammu and Kashmir has to be respected by New Delhi. If it is not done, then it puts question-mark on the very basis of the relationship,' Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone tells Pervez Majeed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on range of issues -- from Rafale deal to Ram temple and triple talaq.
'The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, as recent events suggest, are quite content as New Delhi's collaborators rather than trying to be true representatives of the Kashmiri people,' says Athar Parvaiz.
India and Japan have a shared interest in countervailing China's hegemonic ambitions in Asia. Although neither has an interest in forming an overt anti-China alliance, Tokyo and New Delhi feel increasingly obligated to work together to find ways to guard against a muscular Beijing's power sliding into arrogance, says Brahma Chellaney.
'Having learnt her lesson in popular democracy, Jaya would become more populist than the DMK and more so than the imagery that mentor MGR had created in the Tamil voter's mind, both as an individual and as an elected ruler.'
His colleague and Law & IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the court has held that the purpose of issuing Aadhaar to all Indian citizens is legitimate and no surveillance is possible.
'No right thinking student of politics can name one state where the BJP gains in double digits.'
'The minorities are determined to prove Modi wrong in 2019, and the only way he can counter their mobilisation against his government is to get a bigger share of the Hindu vote,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Modi accused the TMC of killing the aspirations of the middle-class people in the state and said the ruling party in West Bengal is known for 'triple T -- Trinamool Tolabaji Tax'.
Stepping up his attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family, Narendra Modi on Friday said Rahul Gandhi was talking of changing the system when it was his father and grandmother who made it and distorted and misused it for their personal gains.
World leaders are reacting with caution to Donald Trump's jaw-dropping victory in the US presidential election, with some of them reminding him of the democratic values and the global responsibility he carries.
'Even if someone other than Trump had become president, the US distancing from Pakistan and coming closer to India was already set in motion.' 'With Trump openly declaring his intent to take on Islamic extremism, the days of US political correctness are over,' says Colonel (Dr) Anil A Athale (retd).
After the Bihar setback, these are the issues the PM must address to maintain the people's faith in him.
'It has also underestimated the striking force of the Opposition. It has been complacent and paralysed. That may be due to the compulsions of coalition politics and the arrogance of a party which looked at itself as entitled to rule,' says political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot.
'Their vote bank has shifted to the BJP; the Congress is yet to realise it.'
While it took the Congress nearly a half century to earn the hatred of other political outfits, the BJP appears set to reach there in around six years, says Arun Bhatnagar, former secretary to the GoI.
'The greatness of Indian democracy is that it never lets any political pundit master the pulse of the electorate. Sometimes people vote for change and sometimes they vote for the status quo.'
Kumaraswamy, who also holds the finance portfolio, said he has limited the loan amount to Rs 2 lakh, as it was 'not right' to waiver higher value crop loan.
