The Kochi-Muziris Biennale has put Kerala on the art tourism circuit, says Kishore Singh.
'There will be a broad coalition of non-BJP parties in at least 25 states'
The Bombay high court on Wednesday sought to know from the Central Bureau of Investigation if sanction was required to prosecute former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on corruption charges in the Adarsh Housing scam case.
It's not as easy to know how the funds were deployed and gauge the impact.
The government's negligence towards this 'treasure house of knowledge' can be seen from the fact that monkeys roam about freely in the reading rooms, disturbing the calm of the library, as well as putting the lives of the readers in danger, writes Sajad Ahmad Dar.
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
'Growing up in Karnataka, in middle-class and forward-caste background, Ambedkar did not enter our consciousness at all, I realised.' 'The 'exclusion' of sections of our society was not only physical; it was comprehensive in the sense that all aspects of their lives including the life of an exceptional intellectual and stalwart had been under-understood by people of my class, I thought,' says B S Prakash.
Akash Banerjee is posing tough questions to the establishment -- and getting away with them.
India would have responded differently to "Pakistan-sponsored" Mumbai terror attacks had there been a different "mix of people" at the helm, according to former foreign secretary and national security advisor Shivshankar Menon.
'With his stature as a playwright and actor, Girish Karnad was one of the voices of modernity for not just Karnataka but the entire country.'
'Political parties can play up different ideological aspects to fit individual voters.' 'For example, a party may present itself as business-friendly to one individual while it could target another voter by harping on communal fears.'
'The writers fear that the fringe is threatening to become the mainstream and the liberal space -- a must for any creative expression -- is fast shrinking,' says Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that the Aam Aadmi Party government went ahead with the odd-even plan despite apprehensions that the move may have an adverse impact on the party's vote bank.
The hounding of former AMU students by some alumni over their 'wining and dining' during Ramzan is deeply disturbing, says AMU Professor Mohammad Sajjad. 'Intolerance, irrationality, bigotry, religious/sectarian hatred, and all such pernicious tendencies must be fought and resisted, more particularly by university campuses, in order to build a better society.' 'Have we, as academics, failed, and that too, quite miserably?' he asks. 'I feel like confessing and saying yes, we have indeed failed.'
'Surprised by the absence of any sloganeering or even mild protest in an ambience so free and self-regulated, I asked a friend from Delhi whether he too, with sharp political antenna, was surprised at how smooth and easy going everything was,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
A former Maoist speaks to Shobha Warrier
'Communal tension and violent mobs have been part of our country, whichever government is in power. What has happened since the BJP came into power is that individuals or group activities asserting Hindutva have become louder, more aggressive.' 'Now we are finding ourselves in a country where reasoning and thinking have no place, the power lies with the goons.' 'I find any ban, whether on what we write, what we eat, how we dress etc, absolutely abominable. They have no place in a democracy.' Shashi Deshpande on why she joined the writers' protest against the growing intolerance in India.
Hindu women devotees are not relieved but distressed by this judgment. If so, who exactly did the Supreme Court provide relief to? Who is celebrating this judgment, asks Sankrant Sanu.
'For women, it's about, 'See idiot, this is what we go through.' For that, they will get their men.' 'When he comes, he will understand women's problems and say, "You are special" and she will get that 10 minutes ka bhaav. But it's very important.'
'People were apprehensive when I cast Nawaz. Especially after Sacred Games, people told me you are diminishing Manto.' 'But he is an actor and actors don't diminish.'
In the past decade-and-a-half, sections of urban India have become much more liberal about accepting gay men and women than our colonial-era laws might have suggested, says Rahul Jacob.
Rajdeep Sardesai's 2014: The Election That Changed India, will make him a ton of money, says Shreekant Sambrani, but admits he is more interested in knowing whether the book lives up to its title.
'I am very sure that Rajnikanth, a patriot and a spiritual person, will not do this movie which is about a tyrant, killer and murderer,' BJP leader H Raja tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'It would have been much more appropriate if a law such as this, which all of the civilised world has given up, was struck down through democratic politics rather than five individuals sitting in judgement,' says Aakar Patel.
'Indian democracy has become an oxymoron.I am hopeful that more people will boycott this politics of perversion and hatred and realise that this isn't sustainable for our great nation to prosper.
In the light of the efforts being made to forge electoral unity between scheduled castes and Muslims, Mohammad Sajjad examines what the architect of our Constitution, B R Ambedkar, had to say about the Muslim community.
The Delhi Police had closed this case in 1994 for want of evidence.
Bestselling author of self-help books Shiv Khera has these words of advice for young Indians!
Nikita Puri lists the best shows and films to watch online as you ace social distancing.
'I don't think there is a need to order a fresh investigation into the complaint against Modi & Co. As the amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran said in his report to the Supreme Court, the existing material is more than sufficient to prosecute Modi and other high-ups of his regime,' Manoj Mitta, author of the book The Fiction Of Fact-Finding: Modi and Godhra tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
'Most likely scenario is Modi comes back with either a much smaller majority and no majority at all and a coalition.' 'Very hard to imagine him doing better than he did last time.' 'He will then be a weaker prime minister,' the author of The Billionaire Raj tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Business consultant by profession and an endurance runner by passion, Sumedha Mahajan, author of just-released book Miles to Run Before I Sleep, created history when she ran as the only woman in a team of five from Delhi to Mumbai in 2012. In a conversation with Rediff.com, Sumedha truns the spotlight on the big takeaway from the event that changed her life.
'Normally, the system is geared towards counting notes -- it is equipped to do x amount of work and one day you are asking them to do 20 x.' 'The processes involved are very complex.'
Gaurav Mehta, one of 100 'Young Global Leaders', is tapping entrepreneurs inside rural Indians.
A special episode of the Prime Minister's radio broadcast Mann ki Baat featuring US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was aired on Tuesday night. The 35-minute special broadcast of 'Mann Ki Baat', which marked the rapport between Modi and Obama, touched on issues ranging from public health and personal inspirations of the two leaders, both of whom have come up from simple beginnings to assume to top positions of the respective countries. What follows is a transcript of the Mann ki Baat episode.
Articulate segments of Muzaffarpur have been at the the forefront of all anti-establishment mobilisation, which makes their silence over the atrocities in a shelter home in the town puzzling. Could it be that if those accused of horrific crimes belong to dominant castes and if the victims belong to the vulnerable groups, then the middle classes become mute, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
'Mrinalini Sarabhai was gracious, well-read, liberal, very secular, and very well informed,' recalls film historian S Theodore Baskaran of the celebrated dancer who passed into the ages last week.
'If Ruttie had been alive, Jinnah would never have turned communal.'
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
'I do feel it's a question of your own upbringing, the way your father treats your mother, how the daughters are treated in the house.' 'You learn so much by osmosis. I suppose it's getting better, but it's not gone.' 'It's still a patriarchal society.'