Amberish K Diwanji on Indian prime ministers and the seven-year itch.
'Politics is a game of public perception and my father felt that by his long disappearances, Rahul Gandhi was losing the battle of perception.'
'I had no idea I would endure difficult times while making this film.'
A timeline of key events that shaped the RSS' journey, including the various highs and lows, as the organization approaches its 100th anniversary.
A gazette notification issued on Friday by the Union home ministry notes that Emergency was declared on June 25, 1975, following which there was "gross abuse of power by the government of the day and people of India were subjected to excesses and atrocities".
Congress legislators continued their sit-in protest inside the assembly while the party held protests at all district headquarters on Saturday against the suspension of six party MLAs.
The Congress leaders maintained that Indian defence forces had attained complete superiority and dominance over Pakistan before the sudden "ceasefire" was announced by US President Donald Trump.
There were reports that the screening of the movie was disrupted in North-West London, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Slough, Staines and Manchester.
Gandhi urged the prime minister to speak out "clearly, boldly and forthrightly" on behalf of the legacy that India has long represented.
BlueKraft has published The Emergency Diaries -- Years that Forged a Leader to chronicle Modi's role in the underground campaign during that period, after speaking to a number of people associated with him at that time.
'JP opened up about all the betrayals, the betrayal of the Jan Sangh and the RSS, how they ganged up with Sanjay Gandhi and pulled down the Morarji Desai government, how they destroyed the Janata Party.'
After big win in Bihar, the BJP is likely to push harder in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK government and the uneasy BJP-AIADMK alliance are preparing for a tense election filled with seat-sharing fights, changing alliances, and the unpredictable entry of Vijay's TVK party, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
New Delhi looks to be testing Omar's endurance with unconcealed glee, never feeling shy to bite whenever a moment comes its way. After all, ruling the country's only Muslim-majority UT/state has been the BJP's burning desire, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The country's only woman prime minister, who died on October 31, 1984, equally regretted her another controversial decision -- imposition of Emergency -- that had shaken the country, say her close aides.
BJP strategists are missing something somewhere, and they have not acknowledged it, to be able to repair it in good time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
On her 101st birth anniversary, November 19, four letters that reveal a different side to inarguably India's toughest prime minister.
A consumer forum in Lucknow, India, has halted the construction of actress Sunny Leone's restaurant-cum-bar, citing concerns about "unauthorised activity" and potential security threats to the neighboring high court premises and the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan. The commission deemed the allotment of the society's community center to a commercial establishment as inappropriate and raised concerns about the Lucknow Development Authority's approval of the project. The matter has been listed for further hearing on February 19.
From a modest start with baithaks of a handful of swayamsevaks in a small town in Nagpur, the RSS, which completes 100 years of its foundation on Thursday, has come a long way to become the world's biggest voluntary organisation with a pan-India presence, shaping the country's political and social discourse.
The film was scheduled to hit theatres across the country on September 6 but couldn't keep its date as it didn't get clearance certificate from the censor board, which is important for the public exhibition of films in India.
Indira Gandhi valued Rahul Gandhi's 'grit and determination' and often considered him mature enough to be taken into confidence on subjects she avoided discussing even with his parents when he was barely 14, according to a new book.
So-called praise for the former PM was only passing mention of her stand on the Bangladesh war, said RSS.
The BJP is hopeful that the issue will come in handy in its efforts to gain political traction in the Dravidian territory during the Lok Sabha polls, more so as it involves neighbouring Sri Lanka whose treatment of its own Tamilian citizens and Tamil Nadu fishermen has long been a charged political issue in the state.
"She was a great prime minister.. and a greater human being. She gave nationhood for India and she would stand up to the erstwhile USSR or the USA or anybody else," Lord Paul, who had written a book on Gandhi and was considered a close friend of her, said while paying tributes to her at the Nehru Centre in London on Wednesday night as part of the International Women's Festival, 'Sakhi'.
'Is it right and proper for the US authorities to allow people like Subrahmanya Swamy [sic] go round the country preaching murder, violence, overthrow of the duly elected Government of India?' A fascinating excerpt from Sugata Srinivasaraju's The Conscience Network: A Chronicle of Resistance to a Dictatorship.
'Had Sam Bahadur not dictated the timing of India's military intervention, Bangladesh would not have been created without a prolonged battle.' 'Manekshaw's strategy won the war for India in just 13 days,' says Sudhir Bisht.
The Congress wants to reinforce the tax more powerfully now after its four generations reaped benefit of the wealth passed on to them, he said.
'The Election Commission's involvement in the avoidable SIR controversy has carried a message down to the last voter -- who just does not like it,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
India was eager to see "our new relationship" transformed into specific, material forms of cooperation and welcomed the formal establishment this afternoon of a US-India joint commission, the top US official had noted.
Barely two months before the Lok Sabha election, Gandhi will be filing her nomination papers in Jaipur on Wednesday. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are likely to accompany her.
The two leaders shared a warm hug as they met each other.
The Congress' new headquarters located at 9A, Kotla Road in New Delhi was inaugurated on Wednesday, as the grand old party turned a page in its history after operating from its iconic 24, Akbar Road premises for the last 47 years.
President Droupadi Murmu and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto arrived at Kartavya Path for the 76th Republic Day parade in a traditional horse-drawn buggy, a practice that made a comeback after a 40-year gap last year. The gold-plated, horse-drawn buggy is a black carriage with the national emblem embossed on it in gold. It was discontinued after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 but was revived by President Pranab Mukherjee in 2014. The buggy's history dates back to the British era, with India winning ownership through a coin toss after independence.
Replying to a question about women empowerment, Sitharaman insisted that patriarchy is a concept invented by the Left.
Indira was one of the most outstanding political personalities that India ever produced, he says.
Recalling his detention during Hiteshwar Saikia's tenure as Assam Chief Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that during the Congress government in Assam, he was beaten up and had jail food for seven days in the state.
Political parties, cutting across affiliations and ideologies, Friday welcomed the Kashmir rail link inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hoping for a boost in trade and tourism in the valley.
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
Union minister Thawarchand Gehlot on Friday expressed regret in the Lok Sabha over his remarks regarding the circumstances leading to the assassination of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
'An emergency has been imposed on my film too. It's a very hopeless state.'
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