The BJP has nothing to lose after a point. For the DMK it is a difficult choice, as it would not want to give too much of space to a 'national party' lest the 'Dravidian duel' of the past decades should be lost forever, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam kindly answered rediff.com's questions for an exclusive interview.
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
'Modi's popularity is a myth.' 'The Modi government has fulfilled zero promises.' 'They have not done anything.'
AG Venugopal asserted that right to privacy could not be bundled as a single right in a developing country like India where a few persons, claiming right to privacy, override the fundamental rights of 60-70 million people, who did not have access to basic amenities like food and shelter.
We're behaving like frogs in warm water. We swim around untroubled, cooled by our faith in Indian liberal democracy. We are blind to the bubbles popping around us, the bubbles warning of fundamental changes, says Mihir S Sharma.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party of talking about terrorism during the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections while diverting attention from the 'central discourse' on unemployment, inflation, empowering women and helping small businesses and farmers.
While noting there needed to be a balance between the two fundamental rights, the Srikrishna panel stated there was an inherent conflict. "However, disclosure of information from public authorities may lead to private harms being caused. It is thus important to recognise that, in this context, there is a conflict of fundamental rights, between transparency and privacy," the report stated.
The ED had arrested Chatterjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress secretary-general, on July 23 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruitment drives by the School Service Commission.
Senator Faisal Javed, who was injured when a bullet grazed his face, said that a party worker was killed during the attack, while another was severely injured.
'As long as we have such partners, Russia cannot be isolated.'
'It is a sad day when social activists, environmental campaigners, anti-corruption workers are singled out as anti-nationals and then criminalised.'
'BJP loses a democratic election, then buys MLAs from the ruling party's flock and rides to power in these states.' 'Do you think Atalji would have tolerated this?'
'In the course of my interactions with him, Modi insisted that he does not believe charisma alone can sustain people's trust for long.' 'That is why Modi consistently refers to Mahatma Gandhi to contextualise his politics.' 'He believes in taking his ideas to the masses and getting their acceptance as an index of approval.'
A revealing excerpt from Ajay Singh's The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party.
'Through this one step, and more steps that follow, log judte jayenge (more people will come together); I'm sure of that.'
'To selectively look at the operation of certain laws -- in a manner that ignores the realities of caste and gender injustice in India -- and conclude that they are being particularly misused, is plain wrong,' says Aakar Patel.
Though dubbed as the "war hero", the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
'In AAP, those who are in charge of a particular state provide information to Arvind Kejriwal. 'In the BJP, several organisations convey what is happening on the ground to the top leadership.' 'There are so many channels through which issues are being understood.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he regrets not being able to learn the world's oldest language Tamil during his long political innings as a chief minister and prime minister.
In their counter-letter, the group of former IFS officers acknowledged that the remarks made at the Haridwar event should be condemned by all right thinking, before adding that when the import of these is "exaggerated out of all proportion and the rantings by fringe elements" are seen as representative of the sentiments prevailing in ruling circles, then the political leanings and moral integrity of the critics can be rightly questioned.
Rallying behind the government, the BJP decided to launch a counter-offensive against the opposition "disinformation campaign" on the controversial land bill with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that his growth model was pro-poor.
On Gandhi Jayanti, she also invoked the Father of the Nation, to assail the government which, she claimed, swears by his name but demolishes his ideals through its actions.
Shah said that the people of the country will decide about the principal opposition party to BJP in the 2024 polls and they have not given this label to any party.
Rahul Gandhi has not erred by not engaging with Muslim conservatives. After all, they had misled his father in 1986 to legislate a misogynistic law after the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case, which helped the BJP rise at the cost of the Congress, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'People on the wait list will be accommodated for vaccination when the scheduled beneficiaries don't turn up.'
Is politics gaining at the expense of civil society?
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday launched a veiled attack on Congress leaders and said he gave sweat and blood for the party unlike those who are spreading 'falsehood' through social media.
'General Secretary Xi Jinping has greenlighted a brutal campaign of repression against Chinese Muslims, a human rights violation on a scale we haven't seen since World War II. Now, the PLA has escalated border tensions with India'
Swadeshi economist, columnist and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy speaks to Shobha Warrier about one year of Modi Sarkar.
In the light of the global scenario on infiltration for economic gain what Modi said in his speeches in Assam and West Bengal recently was perfectly legitimate. Intellectual dishonesty marks this discourse in our country, argues Ram Madhav.
Pakistan was "drowning" in debt and it was the new government's job to "sail this ship ashore," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday.
Unless public health is prioritised over swift re-opening, the chances are that a third wave will hit India sooner than we would like.
'Unless India ups the ante, Beijing will continue to believe its transgressions are cost free and will feel encouraged to do more of the same.'
'We want to make sure that we are certainly targeting the entire Indian American community.'
A look at what the IPL teams and players are doing to support the people of India in this massive battle against the deadly coronavirus.
No untoward incident has been reported from the district over the past three days.
One priority for Delhi (for the new foreign secretary in particular) is to have an in-depth discussion with Dharamsala as soon as possible, suggests Claude Arpi.
Geetanjali Krishna explains why this may slow down India's fight against corruption.
'When an individual becomes authoritarian, you can overthrow the individual easily. 'When the system becomes authoritarian, whoever challenges the system will be called a criminal or an anti-national.'