'It would be too sweeping to say that the elites and the middle-class don't care about liberty.' 'It is just that they are always calculating the trade-offs: What's in it for me, what could it cost me?' 'To that extent, we haven't changed in 40 years,' says Shekhar Gupta.
In the crazily complex cauldron that is India, where caste, community, class and cash are just the primary ingredients, no one has yet come up with a fool-proof method to ascertain how voters make up their minds, on which button to press, in the privacy of their 'confessional' booths, notes Krishna Prasad.
Everyone has his/her own views on TV actor Prayusha's suicide but none as ridiculous as Rakhi Sawant.
Justifying the ban on cow slaughter, the Union minister of state for minority affairs said on Thursday, "Those who cannot survive without eating beef should go to Pakistan."
'In this season of inspired mean-spirited campaigning, it still seemed remarkable that we are more likely to learn civics lessons from school children than our leaders,' says Rahul Jacob.
Durba Dhyani gets lessons in patriotism from a retired general.
'Since the bilateral deficit is a reality -- and a worry -- we need to find a way to deal with it,' says Ravi Bhoothalingam.
The shooting was the deadliest day for US journalism since 9/11 terror attacks.
Hate is far easier to package. And that is perhaps why politicians do not see the We Care feeling as a currency worth cultivating. It is high time we showed them the currency of this transaction too exists. And that we make this We Care currency precious enough to hoard and bank upon, says Shameem Akthar.
The horrific terrorist attack in Paris has been described as the copycat version of the 2008 Mumbai assault by security experts who believe that the incident will be a game changer for how the West looks at the threat terrorism presents to all.
The Congress, which described the note ban decision as the "biggest scam" and "the largest government-abetted money laundering scheme", has asked all its state units to organise protests, processions and marches to mark the day.
The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting on Saturday chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at the Secretariat, state's Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey said.
Despite the Congress having nearly four times as many members in the Rajya Sabha as the TMC (48 to 13), Derek O'Brien has been informally leading the coordination of Opposition parties, rallying other parties to demand a discussion on electoral reforms and to protest the government's disinvestment plans, report Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan.
Padmarajan's Thoovanathumbikal has become a part of Malayali mythology, just as its maker himself now possesses mythological status.
Sandhya Ravishankar describes the thorny relationship between the two political titans of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, both now part of the ages.
The second leg of the budget session is of 23 days and all 14 days so far have been wasted.
What initially appeared to be an innocuous visit by the state Director General of Police V Dinesh Reddy to the residence of a controversial Muslim religious figure, has now turned into a full-blown confrontation between the cops and the media
Navjot Sidhu has been given power and new and renewable energy sources, and his tourism and cultural affairs portfolio has been given to Charanjit Singh Channi.
'If anyone crimps on the media, it automatically begins to impact the freedom of the citizen.'
If things work out, it will be a great leap forward in the Indian-Iranian economic ties in the new phase of Iran's reintegration with the world market following the lifting of sanctions, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The ongoing daily spat between Narendra Modi and the Congress party serves to cover up the real problems being faced by the people, says A Ganesh Nadar
Narendra Modi and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani are among the ten members of Parliament elected from Gujarat, who are facing criminal charges.
Stalin said the DMK was a movement that protected women's rights and Radharavi's comments were not acceptable to it.
'Seems more than half of the 'desh' remained untouched by his 'samajik ekta ka andolan',' points out Jyoti Punwani.
In Madhya Pradesh, the C-Voter poll projections gave the BJP 107 seats with a vote share of 41.5 per cent, against Congress' vote share of 42.3 per cent and a simple majority of 116 seats.
Show your kids smarter animated films, advises Raja Sen.
Indeed, if you look at this hypothesis with sufficiently jaundiced eyes, you will find plenty in common in the way 'Team India' conducts its affairs and the way 'Team Modi' does, argues Krishna Prasad.
'The economy is in a free fall.'
'And it's been declining for so long, so consistently, that the promise of growth and better days now looks a fantasy.' 'A mid-1970s kind of pessimism, even hopelessness, is growing among the young.' 'This isn't what Mr Modi promised them.' 'Their aspirations and needs are clear and present, and not being fulfilled,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
While other parliamentarians were locked into heated debates over the Gujarat Dalits' protests, Rahul could be seen taking a power nap.
The BJP's chief ministerial candidate's pitch has an amateurish feel
Sending out a strong message to party office bearers, the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday sacked two leaders from Uttar Pradesh for demanding money in exchange of party tickets.
A TV news channel on Tuesday claimed that a sting operation conducted by it had shown that some of the agencies which conduct opinion polls before elections are willing to tweak their findings for money.
If reports are to be believed, it is a video posted online that has got the Portuguese's goat. According to the European press, Canal Plus, a French TV channel put up a video where Mourinho has questioned the quality of strikers in his Chelsea squad.
Pakistan on Thursday called Kashmiri separatists "freedom fighters", a day after Defence Minister Arun Jaitley asked the country to draw a red line and decide whether it wants to talk to government or those who want to break India.
Favourite movie homes, comparing Amitabh-Shashi's beds in Kabhi Kabhie and discovering the truth about Salman Khan's 1990s chartbuster... All in Sukanya Verma's Super Filmi Week.
'Jaitley was one of the earliest politicians to sense the changing political scenario in Delhi. He had closely watched the rise of the BJP and declining fortunes of the Congress party during the L K Advani era. But it was between 2009 and 2014 as the Leader of the Opposition that he began to read the tea leaves. 'And thus it was that he introduced Modi-Amit Shah duo to Lutyens Delhi,' says senior journalist R Rajagopalan who had known Jaitley since 1975.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has graduated from being a stalwart of the CPM to a 'strong' mass leader and arguably the 'most able administrator' that the state has seen in over three decades, reports Shine Jacob.
A third suspect has been arrested in connection with the terror bombing of a gurdwara by suspected Islamist militants in Germany's western city of Essen.
Khan, who is believed to have the backing of the powerful military, has vowed to make a 'Naya Pakistan' which would be an Islamic welfare state.
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