The appointment of Salman Khurshid as India's new external affairs minister is the best thing that could have happened to the foreign office. Khurshid is articulate, exceedingly bright and comfortably grounded in the liberal school of Nehruvian politics.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday condoled the death of Indian cinema icon Dilip Kumar, saying he can never forget his generosity in helping to raise funds for a trust to set up cancer hospitals in his mother's memory.
'The trick in a democratic battle is to highlight those aspects of one's personality which are the opposite of the 'enemy's',' argues Amulya Ganguli.
'If Modi wants to help the poor and get the credit for it as well, he must do what China does. He must openly adopt pro-capital policies.'
'The ideal thing that should be done in Kashmir is call for an election -- before the end of the year.'
'The biggest danger is that majoritarianism is getting normalised, insidiously and overtly... We are bringing the worst, not the best in us... We are looking for new enemies - Muslims, urban Naxals, tukde tukde gang, some enemy or the other which keeps this majoritarian wheel turning,' says journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
'Mamata wanted the Congress in alliance with the BJP in Bengal against the Left Front government.' 'Pranab Mukherjee opposed it, stating it would amount to compromising on secularism.' 'In 2021, Mamata defeats the BJP and becomes a champion of secularism.'
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'I am as Bengali as they come in my cultural and personal orientation and I think probably all the BJP candidates who are contesting are pretty non-vegetarian in their food and as Bengali in their cultural orientation.'
If the BJP wins by getting Hindu voters to consolidate, its opponents can't beat it by bundling together the Muslims and some of the 'others', observes Shekhar Gupta.
'We have,' says Anvar Alikhan, 'proved right Winston Churchill, when he warned in 1947 that 'Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters... leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw... They will fight amongst themselves for power and will be lost in political squabbles.'
10 per cent for those who earn up to Rs 30 lakh a year and 25 per cent for those who earn more, suggests T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
There are justifiable concerns that, if all financial allocation powers are now shifted to the finance ministry, then the end of the Commission might be counter-productive -- states' needs could, in fact, be addressed less.
The electoral bounty reaped by the Congress was nothing more than an ill-gotten gain of a casteist, divisive campaign; nothing to be proud of and certainly not a moral victory, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President V M Sudheeran on Monday flayed the Narendra Modi government's move to scrap Planning Commission and bring in an alternative body in its place.
'If the Congress party wants to take on the BJP it cannot do it in this fuddy-duddy, grand old party, style.'
Former United Nations diplomat Shashi Tharoor said on Friday that he will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls if he was given a chance and gave indications that his preference was Congress.
While the Congress alleged that the Modi government was indulging in political vendetta, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that it is a legal matter.
'Their idea of unity is uniformity. They disrespect and fear diversity which means they deny our pluralism, our freedom of choice, which are integral to our fundamental rights'
Kapil Mishra had been invited because he was an "anti-corruption crusader", one 'IIT B for Bharat' organiser said. But in his half hour-long speech, Mishra didn't mention corruption. His entire focus was on the long "battle" Hindus had fought for their identity.
It was Dev Anand's dream to put Indian cinema on the world map and he thought Guide was the perfect film for it.
'There is good indication that the economy is bouncing back, but the problem is, we should look at the eight quarters preceding March 2020.' 'The growth had fallen below 3.1% before March 2020.' 'So, the governments must realise that even if you transform the best of green shoots into banyan trees, you see only 3.1% growth.'
'He had a continuing interest in life, people, and the society in which he lived,' remembers Shyam Benegal, who collaborated with the polyglot playwright and actor through the 1970s and remained his friend for more than five decades.
Dilip Kumar remained in demand all through his career because he kept reinventing himself in keeping with the changing times in Indian cinema, argues Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
The creation of Telangana will be essentially because people of different regions are not happy with the Nehruvian era's criteria where amongst the many issues language was the basis of creating internal boundaries within India.
'The government wants foreign companies to capture the insurance market.'
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also issued notice to the Centre's Land and Development Office on the plea of the AJL, publisher of the National Herald.
'Every family in UP has been deeply affected in this second wave.' 'It has only been denial, denial, and denial by the incumbent CM.'
Find out what your favourite cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been up to these days here.
New Delhi must clearly demonstrate to Beijing that China will pay a price for its relentless strategic undermining of India, says Ajai Shukla.
Whether it took the corona crisis to bring about the transformation, or otherwise, the change ought to be welcome, notes Virendra Kapoor.
'Anyone familiar with Modi's track record will know he never forgets a slight, a betrayal,' notes Virendra Kapoor.
'The BJP is the most progressive force within Hinduism today.'
'KRN's journey from a humble cottage in Uzhavoor to Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi was no less spectacular than that of Abraham Lincoln from the log cabin to the White House'.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday stepped into the raging debate on intolerance by condemning the murders of dissenters and some on the basis of what they eat and said the nation is deeply concerned at the "blatant violation" of the right to freedom of thought, belief and speech by some violent extremist groups.
Amid a raging debate over intolerance, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday deplored "blatant violation" of the right to freedom of thought by "some violent extremist groups" and shared the view that it was an "assault on the nation".
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