'Our biggest problem has been keeping this country together.' 'Nation building is never easy. It is a very difficult task.' 'Even 70 years is not too long a time.'
Atique Ahmed is one of the most feared dons of Uttar Pradesh today. There was another don who preceded Atique and had he survived, Atique wouldn't have been around today, recalls Sudhir Bisht.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com recounts the history of the Indian flag and how it has evolved over the years.
'...as much as in India, it's only because she sang for mankind, not the details on the passport.'
'She should stick to giving her opinion on cinema.'
With things looking bright for the crisis-hit Commonwealth Games, a song was released in New Delhi on Wednesday encouraging the youth of India to create a positive atmosphere around the Games.
Sonia Gandhi hit out at the BJP for being determined to destroy constitutional values.
He's not a cakes-and-candles kind of person, the legendary superstar confesses to Subhash K Jha.
China is acutely conscious of the need for the next Dalai Lama to be under its control. It was for this reason that China recently stressed their claim on Arunachal Pradesh. There were rumours that the next Dalai Lama may be found in Tawang. If that happens, India-China relations will become tense and there may be demands for the child to be handed over to the Chinese, points out Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's sage advice remains as relevant today as it was during his lifetime, says Vivek Gumaste.
A day ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls for four seats from Karnataka, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday wrote an open letter to Janata Dal-Secular MLAs requesting them to cast their 'conscience vote' in favour of his party's second candidate Mansoor Ali Khan, stating that his win will be a victory of 'secular ideology' followed by both parties.
Asked about the clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley in Ladakh last month, Pawar said, "When I say there should be no politics over the issue, it is because we can attack them. But the entire country will have to pay a heavy price when there is retaliation to the attack."
'Chinese troops are not geared to fight Indian troops who are battle hardened and acclimatised and are far more hardy.'
Student bodies protested outside the Jamia Millia Islamia against what transpired at JNU and to demand that food choices cannot be imposed on people in the name of Ram Navami.
Has New Delhi internalised the truth that it does not matter, asks Saeed Naqvi. Such deafening silence from the government, principal opposition, even the pundits!
The second half saw Persepolis create a number of chances yet again, but were thwarted on each occasion thanks to some excellent rear-guard action from the FC Goa defence.
The description of his career by Ambassador Nazareth in his elegant language, judicious choice of details, without ego or malice to anyone, shows that it had its ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies and lucky and unlucky accidents. Ambassador T P Sreenivasan reviews A Ringside Seat to History.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday hailed the victory of Maoists in Nepal, calling it a 'positive development'. "The Maoists have successfully taken part in the democratic process in Nepal," Mukherjee said. According to Mukherjee, India would be better off with democratically elected governments in place in the neighbouring countries.
Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also said all Indians should ask the government this Independence Day what it was doing to protect the country and push China back.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation of the occasion of India's 66th Independence Day.
There were Vedic mantras engraved along with prayer songs for Lord Shiva, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. Neither the government nor the people of Faisalabad demanded that the carvings be removed. I felt very happy to see Sanskrit shloka
'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'.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has expressed happiness about featuring on the cover page of the latest issue of Time magazine that will hit the stands very soon.
Claiming that there was a bid to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said the megapolis was not for sale.
Gowri Ramnarayan explores the world of Kalki Krishnamurthy whose magnificent novel Ponniyin Selvan has inspired Mani Ratnam's latest film PS I.
'The coronavirus has provided each one of us a chance to press the 'reset' button. I take this National Medical Emergency to announce a process of national healing.' 'As of midnight tonight, my government will drop all talk of NRC and NPR, and my Muslim brethren should sleep peacefully that this is as much their country as mine.'
A combative Rahul Gandhi on Saturday signalled an aggressive campaign against the RSS soon and declared that a reinvigorated Congress alone can "smash" the BJP and its ideological mentor.
The title 'Navratna' was given originally to nine Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), identified by the Government of India in 1997, which allowed them greater autonomy to compete in the global market.
Government gives 60 institutes freedom to fix courses, collaborate with foreign peers.
Modi took on the opposition parties, especially the Congress, saying it is the corrupt who are sleepless now.
'We all know that when the Babri Masjid was demolished, P V Narasimha Rao was prime minister.' 'He did not do anything to stop the demolition.'
Lata Mangeshkar was my introduction, the beginning, the basic, the identity of film music. Sukanya Verma salutes The Legend.
'Even today, Emergency excesses are being benchmarked and have become reference points for gross violation of human rights by fascist-minded "leaders". Corruption and criminality are the outcome and India has been drifting towards "State kleptocracy", feels M G Devasahayam.
'She was once asked what the secret to political leadership was and she said it was the ability to like all kinds of people.' 'I don't think Rahul fundamentally likes people -- that's probably why he can't deal with them and it shows.' 'Sonia is a more talented political mobiliser than her son, but I think the decline of the Congress set in in 1969...'
The Congress on Wednesday suggested that Jaswant Singh has been handed out poetic justice by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which expelled him today in the wake of his controversial book, projecting Mohammad Ali Jinnah as greater than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. "We had rejected the contents of the book. The BJP has rejected the author himself," All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.
'His negotiations with Idi Amin and his men for compensation for the Indians, who left Uganda, were particularly tough. Apparently, Amin warned him that the body of the British negotiator, who came earlier, was found in a roadside gutter... As Jagat Mehta's special assistant during the last two years of his tenure as foreign secretary, I saw for myself how his conviction, courage and patriotism enabled him to fight against heavy odds, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
At a function to commemorate the 125th Foundation Day of the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi paid glowing tributes to former premiers Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, but made no reference to P V Narasimha Rao, who was prime minister between 1991 and 1996.Gandhi sought to give credit to Rajiv Gandhi for the economic liberalisation in the Narsimha Rao regime when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister.
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad during his retirement speech in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday summed up his more than four-decade-old political career in few Urdu couplets and a brief speech.
On the occasion of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's 125th birth anniversary, Maharashtra Chief Minister joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.
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