And the only answer one can think of is that this is being done to preserve the image of toughness and 56 inches and all the rest of it, notes Aakar Patel.
'If the National Conference and PDP make handsome electoral gains in the valley and call for the restoration of the former state's lost status, how will the rulers in Delhi respond?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
Voicing displeasure over the Dadri lynching incident and a string of killings of rationalists, he also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's continued silence on these.
Perhaps the BJP will win the UP elections, but that will be a political win and will leave the problems on the ground from the economy to national security to disaffected farmers and minorities intact, asserts Aakar Patel.
Maninder Singh, the talented left-arm spinner, was taken to cleaners with utter disdain, but he never faced public wrath.
'Now, it feels like the darkness has descended again.'
We have our own problems for sure and they are not trivial, but for now, our economy is in not too bad a shape, our politics is as personality-driven and authoritarian as that of most countries in the world. We must make the best of what we have and not be excessively unhappy looking at the grass on the other side of the septic tank which may not be greener after all!, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
The events of the last few years shows that pessimism about where we have arrived and where we are headed is justified, asserts Aakar Patel.
The Army chief said the nation is passing through a challenging period.
Roy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of telling a "lie" at his Ramlila Ground rally in New Delhi on Sunday that his government never said anything about the NRC process and that there are no detention camps in the country.
'The wish is that 2022, if not bring us into happier times, at least sees some easing of the pain,' hopes Aakar Patel.
'I welcome Droupadi Murmu as the first Adivasi woman President of India, but her track record has not been good as a politician and governor of Jharkhand when it came to helping Adivasis,' points out activist Gladson Dungdung.
Sibal said the BJP always tries to gain a foothold in states where its presence is limited and afterwards "dumps" its allies.
The letter was not a challenge to leadership but a parchment of action to strengthen the party, Congress MP Vivek Tankha asserted, while former union minister Mukul Wasnik said those who saw the letter as an "offence" will also soon realise that the issues raised are worth consideration.
'Given this dissonance between India's age-old multicultural tenets and the anti-minority temper of the present times, it cannot be easy for the BJP to maintain its balancing act to convince the world that all is well,' observes Amulya Ganguli.
"Everybody in this country has the responsibility to implement the law which has been passed in Parliament,", the minister, who was in Chennai as part of the BJP's nationwide 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan' campaign in support of the Act, said.
The AMU defended the portrait, saying that Jinnah was a founder of the university and granted life membership of the student union.
'New Delhi's rulers should be alert to lighting a dangerous tinderbox,' warns Sunil Sethi.
'Kashmir is the main issue between the two countries.' 'We have not been able to resolve it bilaterally.' 'As the two major countries in South Asia, we have to go back to the drawing board and start engaging.'
'The Union government does not have much of a governance function other than to send orders.' 'But even the sending down of orders it cannot do properly,' observes Aakar Patel.
'But will there be matching action as far as tribals are concerned on the ground?'
The ineptness of successive American presidents, from Bush the Younger to Joe Biden the Old, combined with the cluelessness that Americans demonstrate in foreign lands, contrasts with the Chinese leadership's seemingly singular focus on the accumulation of wealth and power, asserts T N Ninan.
There should have been a focus on sanitation and not on littering or garbage. Absence of sanitation affects the health of children, explains Aakar Patel.
Behind this never-say-die attitude of the BJP is probably the calculation of the Roman emperors that if bread is scarce, give the people circus, observes Amulya Ganguli.
As India suffers and the ruling party is on the defensive, the truth is that the only way that this wave will pass is if exponential growth of the virus stops on its own, asserts Aakar Patel.
The BJP on Wednesday strongly disapproved of its MP Adityanath's controversial comments comparing Shah Rukh Khan with Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
'The problem with such ill-considered remarks is that they give the BJP an opportunity to push ahead with its nationalist agenda which includes depicting its opponents as seditionists,' observes Amulya Ganguli.
Much depends on the BJP's electoral performance in next year's assembly elections. If the party fares well in UP and some states like Goa and Gujarat, it will be able to fob off the attempt at a reappraisal of its Hindutva doctrine, observes Amulya Ganguli.
'Having fared not too successfully in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the BJP can't afford to disappoint its supporters in Delhi,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'February 11, when the results are announced, will hold the key not only to AAP's and the BJP's future, but also to the way the protests against the citizenship law, NRC and NPR evolve,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
It is hard to tell whether the prime minister is unable to confront the reality or so supremely confident in his abilities that he can convince the rest of us that the reality is different from our perception of it, observes Aakar Patel.
'The north east does not want the solution that the BJP has given and it has become clear that it has not been fully thought through,' says Aakar Patel.
The BJP ignored the principle of the Cabinet's joint responsibility and the adage of the buck stopping at the top, observes Amulya Ganguli.
"People in India are showing their angst, their concerns, their worries about the future of India. Everybody wants development, what has Modi done? He has done his own development rather than development of the country," he added.
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Why did we go into nationwide lockdown when we were adding 100 cases a day and why are we not going into lockdown but allowing cricket stadiums, political rallies and Kumbh Melas when we are adding 40,000 cases a day? asks Aakar Patel.
'If the envoys are satisfied, it will either mean they are naive or that they are not serious about their trip, which they probably regard as some kind of a picnic, a much-needed break from their dreary routine in Delhi,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
'If we accept this, then in a few years we will not see a democratic India that we know'
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'The Jharkhand government is increasingly intolerant of voices of dissent.' 'Recently 20 persons, including activists, writers and academics, were booked for sedition.' 'Many of them have been critical of the government's apathy towards Adivasis,' notes Siraj Dutta.
