Sonia, Sumitra Mahajan share a laugh at the event
The deteriorating health of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has prompted the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena cadres to seek divine intervention. Since most of the party workers and leaders owed their allegiance to their parent organisation Shiv Sena before they crossed over to the MNS, floated by senior Thackeray's nephew, the failing health of the patriarch has made them worried.
For quite some time, there was speculation that actor-politician Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam and the DMK would sign up with the strategist for the 2021 assembly polls.
College is where the manicured view of the world provided by one's family, encounters new trends. It is the dawn of exploration. Wishing for a sanitised bubble on campus appears hypocritical. The correct strategy, one would assume, is to weed out the violence while retaining the right to political debate, argues Shyam G Menon.
Leaders from across the political spectrum criss-crossed the entire state to woo the voters but Mulayam mostly kept indoors.
The Sikkim government is planning to convert an artificial lake, formed by a massive landslide in the state's northern part in August last year, into a tourist spot.
'How can one bring jihad into a relationship? How can one be restricted on the grounds of religion in marital things?'
'Dangal gives people the impression that Geeta and Babita Phogat's rise to fame as wrestlers is a one-off phenomenon.' 'Many young wrestlers in Haryana are capable of reaching the same heights as the Phogat sisters, but there are few opportunities to train or make a living from wrestling in the village.'
'There are many people languishing in jail under these draconian laws, where it takes them 10 years, 15 years, to finally be acquitted.' 'And, who is going to account for those years?' 'The home ministry's statistics says that between 2016 and 2019, the conviction rate (under UAPA) is only 2 per cent and the use of UAPA has increased by more than 70 per cent.' 'There are many people languishing in jail under these draconian laws, where it takes them 10 years, 15 years, to finally be acquitted.'
'Who is going to account for those years?'
'The home ministry's statistics says that between 2016 and 2019, the conviction rate (under UAPA) is only 2 per cent and the use of UAPA has increased by more than 70 per cent.' 'The government statistics itself is so revealing what the purpose of this law (UAPA) is.'
'You are working with the best of the lot.' 'The best part is that they treat you equally, unlike in India.'
Amar Singh built an extensive network for the party, and was often spotted with celebrities, from the Bachchans to Anil Ambani to Subrata Roy.
The Shimshal Mountaineering School in Pakistan is training students, many of them women, to scale some of the world's highest peaks.
Sukanya Verma looks back at the trend's most memorable incarnations in recent times.
In 2014 too, the Congress had lost all the 26 seats in Gujarat.
Aseem Chhabra lists 10 of his favourite films that played in various sections at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.
MK Stalin's ruling AIDMK rival does not thankfully face such problems as he did, but its problems could be worse if saner counsel does not prevail between now and the assembly polls, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
Opposition parties have expressed solidarity with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
This was the first major election in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, the women of Bihar were not intimidated by the pandemic and came out in large numbers to vote.
The question now is whether BJP patriarch L K Advani will fall in line and contest from Gandhinagar or he would stick to his guns and not contest at all, says Renu Mittal
'This is about reviving this country as a centre of Hindutva at Ayodhya.'
Sreehari Nair reviews Ayyappanum Koshiyum.
It looked as if the BJP was hoping to use Rajinikanth to press their seat-bargain with the AIADMK. Now with the Rajini bait gone, the question now is not how much the BJP would settle for, but how much the AIADMK would be ready to offer, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Football world has been left so shocked by the news of the serious illness to Alex Ferguson
Sreehari Nair lists some movies, documentaries, recorded-performance films, and literature and music suggestions that might help.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Here's a collection of some of the best photos from around the world shot in the last 24 hours
"I did not cross the 'lakshman rekha' by meeting the CM," he said, asking the media not to "dramatise" the meeting.
An adverse judgement could have triggered a political realignment in Tamil Nadu and brought the ruling party perilously close to losing its majority in the state assembly whose effective strength is 232. Two seats are vacant.
'If Baahubali were to be made in Bollywood, I would take Hrithik Roshan as Baahubali and Deepika Padukone for Devsena.' Baahubali writer K V Vijayendra Prasad looks back at the epic blockbuster.
With the presidential elections over, the time has come for Prime Minister Modi to show Tamil Nadu that the state's interests are safe under him, says R Rajagopalan.
India is mushrooming with Deve Gowda wannabes because being a former prime minister is better than being a former chief minister, says Shekhar Gupta.
As many as 69 assembly constituencies in the Yadav heartland, considered crucial for the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state, went to the polls in this phase.
The meeting between the two leaders lasted about 20 minutes.
Sarbjit does indeed deal with a story worth telling, but does so in the most obvious and uninspired fashion, writes Raja Sen
Investigating officials are taking Indian Mujahideen terrorist Tehsin Akhtar's claims with a healthy dose of salt, says Vicky Nanjappa
At the peak of his popularity and charisma, filmmakers considered him a bigger draw than the leading man and often remunerated him with a higher fee than the hero.
Senior BJP leaders had offered the veteran politician the Lok Sabha Speaker's post after he went into a sulk over displeasure to contest from the Gandhinagar seat. However, it is yet to be known whether he has accepted the offer or not, reports Anita Katyal.
Director Shanker Raman, with an appetite for noir and a natural temperament for fast-cutting, takes you so swiftly and so deeply inside Gurgaon's anomie that you may mistake his vision of the city for some dystopian view of the future, feels Sreehari Nair.
Just as unregulated unauthorised hawkers and their shops can kill a city, some space needs to be carved out for distinctive affordable street food, says Shubir Roy.
'It would be a folly on our part to believe that the KKK or its Indian version exists only as some dedicated organisation. Rather, the Indian KKK, much like the American counterpart, exists as a fragmented and amorphous collection of independent groups and individuals,' says Shehzad Poonawalla.
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