The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has upped the ante by demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation in "Coal-gate" scam, is now in a mood for a fight to the finish, in the words of one of its senior leaders, and to take it "into the next election", writes Neerja Chowdhury.
Nitin Gadkari had raised expectations as a no-nonsense man who meant business. Even as he has tried to synchronise the pulls and pressures that any head of a political organisation would have to, the composition of his new team, his first real test as party chief, has been disappointing. What is more, he has failed to come across as his own man.
I have no doubt that in 2014 there will be objective conditions for the Left to take initiatives and have a voice, says former general secretary of the Communist Party of India A B Bardhan.
Will the padyatra and mahapanchayat be stand-alone events or will they become part of a sustained and ongoing movement? That was the question on the minds of many in Uttar Pradesh. Neerja Chowdhury analyses the events and its effect on the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is pulling in different directions on the kind of role Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should play in the future, even before the issue has come up for discussion in the party fora. Neerja Chowdhury analyses
Akhilesh Yadav is acutely conscious of the fact that he has to take along the senior leaders in the party even as he tries to infuse the new blood, new technology and new ways into the state government, says Neerja Chowdhury
A new crop of politicians is redefining the dynamics of politics in Uttar Pradesh. Neerja Chowdhury analyses the mood change in the poll-bound state.
Neerja Chowdhury on why Uttar Pradesh has a significance all its own when it comes to politics.
L K Advani had a greater chance of being accepted as a consensus choice for PM had he given up his claim for the post, feels Neerja Chowdhury
Politics is going to get even more sharply polarised in the weeks and months to come. And the 2G scam is not going to die down so easily, says Neerja Chowdhury
Though the stakes of both the Dravidian parties are high in these elections, Jayalalithaa has a little more to lose or gain than the state's First Family, says Neerja Chowdhury
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
The idea of weaponization got a fillip from an unexpected quarter. In the last week of October 1985, Rajiv met US President Ronald Reagan. Reagan told Rajiv, 'Pakistan has already made a bomb.' When Rajiv started talking about disarmament, the US president cut him short, 'Don't talk theory, think of your own protection.'
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
They demanded the immediate release of Kanojia, Anuj Shukla, who is the editor of Noida-based TV channel Nation Live, and its head Ishika Singh
A tally of less than 45 seats in the Lok Sabha reduces Congress to a regional party, just a shade better than the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's 33 seats, making it vulnerable to a split if the party leadership does not get its act together, warns Neerja Chowdhury.
Shahnaz Anklesaria Aiyar was a formidable journalist. More importantly, she was an incredible human being, says Sanjoy Hazarika.
Rahul Gandhi's press conference showed how cocooned he may be, that he does not brainstorm with a large enough group of party colleagues and senior leaders. But it also showed how difficult it is going to be to reform an entrenched organisation like the Congress from within, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Could the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP become the rallying point of new energies that are getting unleashed all over urban India, in quest for a different kind of politics, to such an extent that he can rein in Narendra Modi? It all depends on how it pans out its politics in the coming weeks, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Aseem Chhabra lists the elements that he loved and was pleasantly surprised by in the movies.
Another important early decision of Birla was to get into the wireless telephony business in association with AT&T and another revered Indian business house, the Tatas.
