'Amethi people will not leave the Gandhi parivar even if they do not meet them.'
'This is a fascinating side to Sonia Gandhi, the way she disarms her opponents.'
Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Party chief L K Advani asked his party MPs to donate Rs 10,000 from their salary for providing relief to victims of flash floods in Leh and suggested that the MPLAD funds be diverted for rehabilitation and rebuilding of the region.
'Yes, I am a rebel, I am the son of Laluji and his blood is in me,' Tej Pratap is reported to have told supporters.
'Does a secular nation not believe in its ancestry? The Constitution has a photo of Ram also.'
Theatre artists, noted film and literary personalities, and members of many progressive groups in Karnataka have decided to go on a dharna on March 17 to protest against the attempts of some local Sangh Parivar leaders in Udupi district to stop the construction work of Charlie Chaplin's 62 foot statue at Baindoor.
'They want to establish the silence of the graveyard in university campuses across India.' 'They cannot bear any questioning or dissent. They want subordination and obedience.' 'And that is not going to happen,' says Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat.
A huge uproar has been created after an article appeared in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh journal Organiser, which states that Hindus in Kerala lack "a collective consciousness of Godliness", and rationalists in the state "often attack everything dear to Hinduism" with their "street activism".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his lieutenants are reaching out across the aisle to get key legislation passed.
Modi said he was shocked that such voices are being raised for political gains in the land of Shivaji Maharaj.
Former India pacer Irfan Pathan on Friday said the Twenty20 format has helped in increasing popularity of cricket as the fans have embraced it wholeheartedly.
'How many Indian parents, still alive, really have documents of, their parents's date and place of birth? Not more than 27% of still alive Indians have got birth certificates,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
As far as people like Kamala Harris are concerned, it's okay to share a culture, but wrong to play domestic Indian politics during American elections,' notes Vir Sanghvi.
Perhaps the calculation is that economic recovery will have been achieved before the next general election comes around, but such assumptions can come unstuck if current directions are not reversed quickly, cautions T N Ninan.
'When the BJP first came to power in the late 1990s we heard of anti- Christian incidents perpetrated by members of the Sangh Parivar, the majority of which proved to be blatant falsehoods.' 'We need to recall those events to give a reality check to a similar campaign of unsubstantiated calumny that is raising its head again to discredit the BJP government.'
The death sentence of Nithari serial killings case convict Surender Koli was on Wednesday commuted to life imprisonment by the Allahabad high court which rapped the Uttar Pradesh government for the "inordinate and unexplained delay" in deciding his mercy petition.
'You had earlier sent a Prime Minister from Assam (referring to Manmohan Singh) whom people do not even remember now'
Swiss drug major Novartis' Indian arm is upbeat about its rural sales initiative, Arogya Parviar and plans to double its reach in the country over the next few years. "Arogya Parivar that started as a novel rural marketing initiative is now a profit-making body.
Rejuvenated by the success of the all-India strike on July 5, the Left and the saffron forces are planning another strike.
The bitter political rivals -- the ruling LDF and the UDF -- close ranks in the state assembly to oppose the ban.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
Claiming that that the law is a rejection of secularism, the Kerala CM said his govt will question its validity on all platforms.
Taking the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena head-on, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Sunday said that it has asked its volunteers to protect north Indians in Maharashtra and prevent the spread of anti-Hindi feelings. "The Sangh Parivar has asked its volunteers in Maharashtra to try and prevent the spread of anti-north Indian and anti-Hindi feelings," said RSS leader Ram Madhav.He said the RSS was opposed to discrimination on the basis of language.
A senior IPS officer, who deposed that BJP leader L K Advani had made a provocative speech in Ayodhya moments before the Babri masjid was demolished by Sangh Parivar activists in 1992, was on Friday cross-examined by the defence in a Rae Bareli special court.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday stepped up efforts to rescue the Bharatiya Janata Party from its current crisis, by possibly discussing a road map ahead, as he held hectic parleys with L K Advani and top leaders including Murli Manohar Joshi.There were indications that the BJP could come out with some statement on Sunday but Sangh Parivar sources said nothing spectacular could be expected.
BJP backed to the hilt Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its leader in the state and rebuffed a rebellious Chirag Paswan, while acknowledging his Lok Janshakti Party as an ally 'at the Centre'. At a press conference which was attended by top leaders of the JD-U headed by Kumar and the BJP, it was made clear that 'only those who accept the chief ministers leadership will be deemed to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar'.
'Mr Kejriwal is almost exactly the package that Mr Modi offers: Personal aggrandisement, the building of a personality cult through full-page newspaper ads day after day, populist schemes involving subsidies (whether affordable or required), abandonment of secular principles, exaggerated claims and no checks on leadership,' points out T N Ninan.
Deputy Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj tore apart the Justice Liberhan Commission report, probing the Babri Masjid demolition, on Tuesday and asked the government to reject it.
Vimal Tomar, Pankaj Mishra, Vimal Rajoria, Shashi Ranjan Akela, Hemant Dubey and Sudhir Yadav -- all activists of the sangh parivar affliated-ABVP -- were charged with murder and rioting by unlawful assembly.
'Tipu Sultan may have had his flaws, but that does not mean he can be axed from textbooks.' 'Besides, if it is Tipu today, who will it be tomorrow?' asks Shuma Raha.
In the late 1990s, the construction cost of the Ram temple, according to unofficial estimates, was pegged at Rs 120 crore. Adjusting for inflation to the current financial year, the edifice would entail an investment of nearly Rs 450 crore, excluding the land cost.
The Congress is searching high and low for a suitable candidate to take on Narendra Modi in the holy city. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
Bhagwat said that as a member of the Sangh Parivar, he is devoted to his organisation and the society.
'The only reason why it has taken him in is to rile the Congress and also to show, yet again, how fleet-footed the saffron camp is when it comes to raiding the pastures of its rivals,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
There is concern in the organisation and the leadership over the unbridled criticism aimed at the Finance Ministry.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh, whose book eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the Sangh parivar, was on Wednesday expelled from the BJP.
Ahead of Bharatiya Janata Party's "Chintan baithak" in Shimla from Wednesday, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha on Tuesday gave clear signals to the party that it should think in terms of younger leadership and ending factionalism.
'As of now, this one move seems to have precariously altered the balance of forces on the volatile ground, between separatists and the mainstream. 'The landscape today presents a fearsome picture of the future of mainstream politics in Kashmir. 'Conversely, the separatist ideology looks to have got an unearned boost,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs
'You may be an MP or an MLA; when we go to Bengal, we go as cadre.'
