Sending out a clear message to Congress ranks, Sonia said the party will have to change its style of functioning with changing times and urged them to keep the organisation above their personal ambitions.
Setalvad said working on a deeply polarising issue among the public is not an easy one and added that the impact of social media on polarization is also overwhelming.
'Anyone can come and anyone can go.' 'There is no ideology or vision that differentiates one party from another.'
It is to Vajpayee's credit that he told Dilip Kumar to ignore Thackeray and to follow his own conscience. But the episode -- as indeed, the manner in which Dilip Kumar has been made to pay for being a Muslim throughout his life -- shames us all as Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
The issue of the amended Citizenship Act is an internal matter of India, Advisor to Hasina on international affairs, Gauhar Rizvi, said in Kolkata.
Four persons, including a Pakistani terrorist and his accomplice, were killed in a gunfight in Hyderpora locality of Srinagar late Monday evening. The dead also included the house owner and a doctor, whom police dubbed as 'terror associates'.
'When Sachin Tendulkar bats, no one in India cares if he is from Mumbai or if he is a Hindu or a Brahmin or whatever.' 'We just want him to win it for India.' 'The same is with Modi and the people who voted across caste and regional lines for him.' We want him to win it for India,' says Madhu A K.
'When real issues hit everybody, the frenzy of Hindutva will start fading.'
'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?'
The Left rewrote history in Kerala on Sunday by becoming the first government to get a second term in four decades but its fortunes fell to a historic low in West Bengal where it failed to bag even one seat, resulting in its complete decimation in a state it once ruled for over three decades.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday came under opposition attack in Rajya Sabha for demanding that the Bhagwad Gita be declared national scripture, with members saying this was a "sinister" design to alter secular character of the Constitution.
'The Congress has indeed become overly dependent on the RJD.' 'A few Congress leaders have successfully convinced the national leadership about the benefits of maintaining ties with the RJD.'
'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.'
Yechury said reconstitution of various bodies represented an attempt at fulfilling the ambition of creating a Hindu rashtra by "subverting" secular democratic structures.
Political power has now been outsourced fully to the Modi government. Even if the RSS is still, in principle, his guru, nobody would dare to whisper a word of advice to Modi, forget some whiff of criticism. When the shishya grows into such a popular and domineering leader, the guru has to applaud from the sidelines, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan must be deleted once and for all from the vocabulary of Kashmir-related negotiations with a finality that is irrevocable, asserts Vivek Gumaste.
With elections elsewhere in India showing that multi-pronged contests usually work to the BJP's favour, the party can gain if it hangs on stubbornly. In the meantime, any additional support helps. That is why the archbishop's comment attracted political traction in Kerala, observes Shyam G Menon.
Having failed to wear down the protesters, the government has now resorted to a bare-knuckle campaign to discredit them by portraying them as pawns in a wider plot bankrolled by shadowy 'anti-national' and 'Islamist' forces, notes Hasan Suroor.
For the past, blame the Congress. For the present, blame the Congress. For everything, blame the Congress. But for your future, vote BJP.
While corruption destroys the moral fibre of a nation, its society and people, secularism as espoused in this country is cynical secularism, a sham perpetrated during election time and communalism is a spectre, a bogey raised by these great champions of Indian secularism to secure and perpetuate their vote bank, says Maneck Davar.
Rs 6,27,507, the amount of damage assessed by the administration, has been raised by donations within the community, Haji Akram, a local councilor, said.
Adityanath will be the 21st UP chief minister and the fourth from the BJP.
It is this new Muslim who is not burdened by the Pakistan guilt, who is ready to fight it out for the rights enshrined under the Constitution, and who is not defensive about Muslim identity that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are out to crush, argues Mohd Asim.
'If you persist in opposing the government, they set the ED or the NIA on you. And the courts have not given us much hope.'
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
'The idea of Hindu Rashtra is one of the most inclusive concepts.'
At an online book release event, former vice president Hamid Ansari lays to rest the controversies surrounding his tenure.
'That secularism in India is at risk is alarming for someone like me. I'm born secular,' Anjolie Ela Menon, the well-known painter, tells Pavan Lall.
KCR said despite 'bhaashanbaazi', industries are closing down, the nation's GDP is crashing and the rupee is falling drastically compared to the US dollar.
'The political fallout of the verdict on national politics is pregnant with incredible opportunities.' 'Post-judgment politics can change the ground rules of election campaigning in the coming decades,' says Sheela Bhatt
Setting aside their political differences, the ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front and Opposition Congress headed United Democratic Front, once again came together to launch a joint fight against the Centre on the CAA, which has seen unprecedented protests all over the country.
'Elections don't offer easy or ideal choices. Voters may find there is no candidate whom they can fully trust. But here is a litmus test for choosing between competing imperfection: Reject any candidate or party that asks you to put growth above secularism,' says Rajni Bakshi.
From April 1 next year, over 600 state-run Madrassas will be converted into upper primary, high and higher secondary schools with no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
The report, released on June 21, alleged that some senior leaders of the BJP "made inflammatory speeches against minority communities".
'The BJP's constitution promises allegiance to India's secularism and socialism.' 'This is the oath that it makes all its members sign,' observes Aakar Patel.
'Mamata's numbers will reduce this time compared to 2016.'
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of pushing India into a dark age of religious polarisation to "subserve its parochial political agenda in the short term".
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Peeved over reports that quoted his remarks out of context, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked the media not to 'misquote' his tweets.
A u-turn by the BJP will be an apocalyptic occurrence in Indian politics and society, argues Amulya Ganguli.
