It was left to an incensed Gen Z to show the rest of India that enough was enough, and that the time had come to shatter the fear psychosis generated by the government's authoritarian approach to protests and criticism, points out M R Narayan Swamy.
A look at the wedding album of India's First Family
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP-RSS of carrying out a "well-planned conspiracy" against national heroes and said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's ideology was contrary to the RSS' ideas. He defended the relationship between Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, saying they were "two sides of the same coin". He also criticized the BJP-RSS for their alleged attempts to appropriate the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel.
In a stinging attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, Shiv Sena member of Parliament Sanjay Raut on Sunday said it wouldn't be surprising if the Enforcement Directorate issues summons against former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the National Herald newspaper case and paste the notice on his memorial.
'There were deep discussions within the Sangh Parivar before this decision was made.' 'They were convinced, and only then did the Modi government proceed with the caste census.'
Prasad hit out at the Opposition, alleging that it starts getting upset the moment it hears "Kumbh" or "Sanatan".
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If you post on social media on an issue like power cuts in Tral, the police will come to your home and tell you to remove your social media post.' 'If you don't, then the local police threaten you that they will book you under PSA.' 'This is happening all the time in Kashmir.'
'It is perhaps a sense of intellectual inadequacy, of an ingrained inferiority complex born of the years when the BJP languished in the margins of Indian politics and society that, when faced with the soaring ideas about Indian pluralism, the Hindutva camp turns its face so resolutely against Nehru,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'...still have lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but could have won 140 seats.'
Shivakumar said, "Mahayuti leaders should visit my state to see how Congress' welfare guarantees are benefiting people."
Sitaram Yechury strived to have the country's Left movement shed its doctrinaire approach to India's socio-cultural complexities and stitch electoral and social alliances to fight the Sangh Parivar.
Adding that the two leaders had shared an 'excellent personal rapport'.
'In the first elections, Hindutva forces got only 6% of the votes and won only 10 seats.' 'It was a great defeat for them.' 'They have held that grouse against Nehru since then.'
Several BJP voters say the Ram temple sentiment may give the ruling party a fillip but are also aware of the herculean task at hand and concede that it is a daunting electoral contest for Dinesh Singh, who lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
'In Kerala, if the Left had worked on stopping fascism the BJP would not have become a force today.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he wants the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to win 400 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls to ensure the Congress does not bring back Article 370 in Kashmir and put a 'Babri lock' on the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Saturday dissociated itself from a controversial article published in its Malayalam mouthpiece that Nathuram Godse should have targeted Jawaharlal Nehru instead of Mahatma Gandhi as he was responsible for Partition, a view that came under attack from political parties.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sanjay Jha's importance lies in his connections to senior BJP and RSS leaders to maintain a smooth relationship within the NDA government in Bihar and at the Centre and to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections together under Nitish Kumar's leadership.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In his first trip to the US in 1960, Atal Bihari Vajpayee befriended a young IFS officer posted in the permanent mission of India to the UN and explored New York with him, visiting museums, art galleries and even nightclubs, says a new biography of the former prime minister.
Narendra Modi has proved through execution of this event in Ayodhya that amongst all his contemporaries in politics he knows ordinary Indians like none other, notes Sheela Bhatt.
In the last 9 years, the BJP govt has marked some anniversaries and events with more zeal than Congress-led governments.
'The Bharat Jodo Yatra has done very well in the south, and if they are able to pull voters in the south and rely on their allies in the north like in Bihar, UP and do well in Rajasthan, then there are chances that there might be a formidable opposition or at least a force to fight the BJP.'
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said measures should be taken to strengthen the Constitution and ensure that democracy is not subverted again.
'If the civil code has to be put on hold, what card can the BJP play if it finds the going tough in the run-up to the general election of 2024?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
'They were the leaders of my country and the children of Mother India, but they didn't die as martyrs.' 'They were killed, most unfortunately, by a well planned enemy plot, and they were victims of political violence,' states Sudhir Bisht.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
The committee has also recommended highlighting 'Hindu victories' in various battles in the textbooks.
The event 'Student Youth Assembly Against Discrimination', which was scheduled to be held at the Janata Shikshan Sanstha in Worli, has now been shifted to Tilak Nagar.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is thanks to the policy of liberalisation conceived by Manmohan Singh and enforced by P V Narasimha that the Indian economy has now become the world's 5th largest economy by nominal GDP, asserts Dr Sudhir Bisht.
'It is this fear that is behind all that has happened to Rahul Gandhi.'
Vijayan met Ghosh at Kerala House in New Delhi, expressed solidarity with their protest and also gifted her a book, 'Halla Bol: The Death and Life of Safdar Hashmi' by Sudhanva Deshpande. Ghosh had suffered head injuries during the January 5 attack on JNU students in the campus by a group of masked assailants.
'The government may backpedal for now to stave off bad international press and diplomatic demarches, but that it will go ahead with putting religion at the centre of citizenship rules is certain.' 'For it is convinced that this is the magic bullet that will ensure its return to power in 2024,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'What happened in the Vajpayee era will repeat in the Modi era in 2019.'
Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday expressed serious concern over reports that some Sangh Parivar leaders had allegedly sought to take "revenge" on the minority community for the killing of a VHP leader.
