'For half a century, Delhi has not seen a truly powerful ruling party president.' 'The Cabinet, chief ministers, and even the heads of the most powerful departments and agencies now acknowledge where power lies, besides the prime minister's office,' says Shekhar Gupta.
India and Russia on Thursday decided to expand cooperation in various sectors as they signed 16 pacts, including on joint manufacture of 226 military helicopters.
'One won't find a lawyer in any court in the country willing to believe that a talented lawyer like Bansuri Swaraj would appear in a case for free, that too in a metropolis like Delhi.' These and other Sheela Bhatt takeways from the August 12 proceedings in the Lok Sabha.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has to deal with 3 powerful enemies: the media, the political establishment, and business houses.
There are several books that Aakar Patel wishes were being written but aren't. Fortunately, there's plenty coming up this year that he's eagerly awaiting.
Donald Trump, Hardik Patel, Kangana Ranuat... The year 2017 wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for these personalities and many more. As we herald in 2018, here's a look at the faces and stories which left an indelible mark on us.
'As demonetisation showed us, the Shah-Modi duo can take big risks.' 'Risking economic damage for political benefit, however, is one thing, stoking old fires in complicated Assam is another', warns Shekhar Gupta.
'The Congress in 2017 stands for nothing positive, not even secularism.'
'It has also underestimated the striking force of the Opposition. It has been complacent and paralysed. That may be due to the compulsions of coalition politics and the arrogance of a party which looked at itself as entitled to rule,' says political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot.
'Civilian casualties are something that could change the mood overnight, and therefore should be avoided by every means.'
'Narendra Modi is one person who came up fighting many injustices. So, he is a fighter all the time, and that makes all the difference.'
'I feel now we have a leader who is non-corruptible.' 'But he needs time as corruption is deep-rooted in our society, and people have no shame about being corrupt.' 'It will take at least 7 years to make some changes.'
For the AIADMK, winning the Srirangam by-election without Jayalalithaa campaigning for it, and having Panneerselvam as chief minister, is saying a lot in its favour. But again, a year and more is a long time in electoral politics in the country, and more so in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A coalition of over 150 US-based academicians back Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Silicon Valley next week and counter refute 130 US-based South Asian academics who oppose the Modi visit and his Digital India initiative.
Will the 2016 assembly election be Stalin's to lead the DMK in?
Colonel Anil Athale (retd) recalls how the Battle of Panipat, 258 years ago, changed the history of India for the next century and half.
Tibetan refugees in India face a bleak future, says Greg C Bruno.
The state visit of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to the US next month has been postponed following the concerns being raised by Brazil with regard to the secretive surveillance programme of NSA as revealed by classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Desperate times need desperate actions, and the BJP's only option is to enforce legislation to build a Ram mandir, says Sunil Sethi.
Mayawati urged the Muslim voters to vote for the party, saying her party has given tickets to 99 candidates from the community.
Subramanian Swamy stole the BJP thunder in Tamil Nadu by meeting DMDK's Vijaykanth in Chennai, and his efforts seem to have paid off, at least in the interim, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Modi said, "The Karnataka government was indifferent...it did not care about the benefits that a farmer can get from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana."
The escalating situation in the Kashmir valley is the vanguard actions of global jihad, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd). And in this battle, he believes, perception management operations will be just important as operations to neutralise the terrorists.
'Feeling claustrophobic and humiliated by the manner in which the Congress vice-president was treating him, he started toying with the idea of floating his own party.'
After weighing all the costs and benefits, the next administration is likely to reduce and restructure assistance to Pakistan but not to end it altogether, says Daniel S Markey.
The opposition has attacked the Modi government over the National Democratic Alliance's last full-fledged budget before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The biggest achievement of the Modi government in the past one year was it could bring positivity in the minds of people and industry, says V P Nandakumar, executive chairman of the Manappuram Finance Ltd, in an interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
New Delhi can strengthen its leverage by having better relations with the two than they have with each other.
'America's withdrawal from Vietnam was an inspiring moment for all of us. We believed that it was a glorious victory of ideology and spirit and as historic as the defeat of the Nazis exactly 30 years ago,' remembers Kumar Ketkar 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
In a rare move that might end the chronic impasse between arch-enemies the United States and Iran, President Barack Obama could meet his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Authorities arrange helicopters to shift Sharif to jail; 300 PML-N workers arrested.
Even as Akhilesh Yadav has emerged stronger in Uttar Pradesh politics, the Samajwadi Party has become weaker due to family feud, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Narendra Modi has a once in a lifetime chance to change and take the RSS-BJP-VHP to a new level. Varanasi is the right place to turn the page on saffron history. By surrendering to the spirit of mystical Varanasi, Modi and his party can change the trajectory of their political journey.
If the Congress can simply go from 110 million to 130 million votes, it will yield a very different kind of NDA.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, hailed as a military hero at home and loathed in the Arab world as a war criminal, was on Monday laid to rest at his family ranch in southern Israel after a state funeral.
Prem Panicker, on the Rediff chat, delves on what went wrong for Team India and what to expect from Sunday's trans-Tasman World Cup final.
'Why can't we make it mandatory for all IAS and IPS officers to serve in the armed forces for a year before joining service? What stops us from making it compulsory for every Member of Parliament to spend three months, immediately after taking oath, in military barracks/maybe a few nights in the bunkers on the borders, to learn and understand the life of a fauji?' wonders Tarun Vijay, MP.
'Whether he will apologise or not is not a problem.' 'I want him to make an effort to create a new world, by learning from history.'
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has launched an ambitious plan to reach out to at least 10,000 key opinion makers -- jurists, bureaucrats, etc -- in the next two years to dispel "misinformation" related to Article 370 of the Constitution.
'Two days notice for the Janata Curfew.' 'Two-and-a-half days notice for lighting candles, but a mere four-hour notice for the lockdown without taking state governments into confidence.'
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