A 28-year-old man was injured in an explosion that took place on the terrace of his house near Vatakara while allegedly attempting to make country bombs, the police said in Kozhikode on Thursday.
'...by directing these draconian provisions against political and ideological opponents of the ruling group, minorities, and those who dare to dissent through and selective prosecution and prolonged incarceration as undertrials.'
'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.'
A revealing excerpt from Mani Shankar Aiyar's fascinating new book, The Rajiv I Knew.
The veteran socialist leader, who ended his long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party last year, was responding to queries from journalists about the 'Hindu Rashtra' clamour, which was openly endorsed earlier this week by his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath.
'In the course of my interactions with him, Modi insisted that he does not believe charisma alone can sustain people's trust for long.' 'That is why Modi consistently refers to Mahatma Gandhi to contextualise his politics.' 'He believes in taking his ideas to the masses and getting their acceptance as an index of approval.'
A revealing excerpt from Ajay Singh's The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party.
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.
There are critics who say the Bommai's government was not able to counter the Congress narrative to paint his administration as corrupt, a factor that helped the Congress surge in the May 10 assembly elections.
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.
Police escorted the rally all the way, at one point standing in a row to prevent the rallyists from entering a side road where stood a huge mosque. Across the road, an old Muslim woman asked her Hindu neighbour what the rally was all about. The latter shrugged her ignorance, looking on in bewilderment at the young men with their saffron flags, all of them wearing Bajrang Dal T-shirts.
The verbal duel between the Congress and BJP over the controversial 'love and narcotic jihad' remark by Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt, intensified on Sunday with the former saying it does not want the Sangh parivar to gain foothold here while the latter claimed that both CPI (M) and Congress were cornering the Bishop over the issue.
The BJP state unit is banking on the party's central leadership to shore up its prospects in the May 10 assembly polls as it fights anti-incumbency.
The film falsely claims Hindu women converted, got radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world, according to the ruling CPI-M and opposition Congress in Kerala.
Realpolitik is at work in the Bharatiya Janata Party, says Aditi Phadnis
Respected as a deft politician, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat enjoyed the enviable reputation of 'Ajatshatru' -- for having friends across the political spectrum in his over five decades-long political career. The former vice president, who died in Jaipur on Saturday at the age of 87, was undoubtedly among the top three leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, who brought him to the centre-stage as vice president in August 2002.
Lakhs of people had come for the event held on a 306-acre ground in Kharghar. The nearest weather station to the spot had recorded a maximum temperature of 38 degrees Celsius.
More than two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated, six of its constituents merged on Wednesday to form a new party which will be headed by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
'The merger is undemocratic. Leaders have flouted the party (JD-U) constitution,' says Devendra Prasad Yadav, a JD-U member of Parliament.
"The new sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, is perhaps the most politically inclined head of the RSS since its founder Keshav Baliran Hedgewar some eight decades ago," says American expert Dr Walter Andersen.
The Union home minister also asserted that the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls will lay the foundation for the BJP's victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Legislators are said to be miffed and have complained that they had not been able to get work done in their constituencies, and also transfers (of Government servants) as requested, and have expressed unhappiness regarding Ministers, alleging non-cooperation.
A day after the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) sought a ban on staging of the Malayalam play Kakkukali, its director Job Madathil on Tuesday accused the critics of having an agenda behind their charges and urged them to watch the drama first.
Several loyal party old guards were unhappy and had expressed their displeasure openly about "migrants" scuttling the chances of them becoming ministers.
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.
'It is this fear that is behind all that has happened to Rahul Gandhi.'
Evils like caste discrimination and untouchability have to be done away within society, he said.
The PM is seen as slipping up in confidence levels as aired by his 'exposure' of the BRS on a crucial issue as alliance negotiations, which is not done under normal circumstances, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The nine VCs include that of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, according to a tweet by Kerala Raj Bhavan on behalf of the Governor.
'They have been pursuing their agenda of bulldozing everything and everybody on their way.' 'They suddenly see Rahul Gandhi standing in front of them without fear and fighting against them aggressively.' 'He doesn't show any compromise in his attitude towards fascism.'
'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.
Okay so Varun Gandhi has put an end to speculation about a "Gandhi vs Gandhi" electoral face-off in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The bigger story of the day, however, here is the strange relationship that the Gandhi siblings -- Rahul and Varun -- and their families share. Rediff.com's Anita Katyal reports
A complaint was filed at a court in Muzaffarpur against suspended BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal who were in news for their derogatory statements against Prophet Muhammad.
The killing led to tension and protests at several places in the coastal district on Wednesday with instances of stone-pelting and police lathi-charge.
Police are probing various angles, including the assailants coming from neighbouring Kerala.
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.
The gau rakshak stated that the famine-stricken people were suffering because of their past karma and nothing could be done for them. The reply apparently infuriated Vivekananda, who told the gau rakshak bluntly that he had no sympathy to spare for societies which would not lift a finger to help human beings but wasted piles of food on birds and beasts. A fascinating excerpt from Govind Krishnan V's book, Vivekananda The Philosopher of Freedom.
Much depends on the BJP's electoral performance in next year's assembly elections. If the party fares well in UP and some states like Goa and Gujarat, it will be able to fob off the attempt at a reappraisal of its Hindutva doctrine, observes Amulya Ganguli.
The Kerala Story is among a long list of films that invited bans and censorship.
'Political narrative in our country today is tilted towards Hindutva orientation and so Kejriwal becomes very dangerous to the BJP.' 'For them, he is a leader to watch.'
