Amid raging controversy over the lynching of a man in Uttar Pradesh earlier this week over rumours that his family stored and consumed beef, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Saturday asked people to shun beef for it was not good for health and caused many diseases.
If this election is about Narendra Modi, then it is also about the RSS, notes Mihir S Sharma.
Vasundhara Raje may have had her faults but she is an unconventional and brave leader who deserves better, observes Aditi Phadnis.
'Actually, the RSS is deeply ambivalent and uncomfortable with Gandhi as well as also Ambedkar, but it is not politically wise to oppose these two.' 'So Nehru is the main and only target.'
Brigadier Gagneja (retd) was attacked by bike-borne assailants on August 6 in Jalandhar.
Terming as wrong perception that Sangh is ideological founthead of BJP, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said the essence of its activities is to build a strong India with Hindutva at its core.
'The situation in India is much more grave and serious than all of us think.' 'That's why it's important to defeat the BJP in 2024.'
Even as the race for the Congress president's post is hotting up, its veteran leader and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh on Friday said he is not interested in becoming the party chief.
The most important lesson is that you have to build your political proposition, and sell it yourself. You can't leave it to the courts, media, NGOs and civil society and expect them to play the role of the Opposition. That's precisely what Mr Modi's challengers have been doing and we know the results, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Sharmishtha, who has quit politics, also clarified that she has not tried to tweak her father's views about anyone.
In yet another instance of growing feud within Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar, an article in a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece has criticised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his style of functioning and also indicated that the party has several other prime ministerial candidates.
He was administered the oath of office by Governor Rajendra Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.
A shoe was hurled at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday during his roadshow in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh.
Gadkari recalled the advice once given by late Congress leader Shrikant Jichkar.
Rahul said that if you ask the BJP why a train accident happened, they will say the Congress Party did such and such thing 50 years ago, taking a swipe at the government following the Odisha train accident, one of the worst railway tragedies in the country.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said it was premature to have a debate on the links of those involved in Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad with the organisation.
If the CM can steer the BJP into forming a government for a third term, he will have achieved a unique place in the party's history -- Mewat notwithstanding.
'We have devotion towards Gyanvapi so doing something as per that, it's all right. But why look for a Shivling in every masjid?'
A highly-placed source in the BJP told Rediff.com, "Just as the Sangh dislikes the pseudo-secularism of the Congress, the Sangh also has a distaste for the pseudo Hindutva that the BJP is trying to practise in maddening race for power."
"They (BJP) should announce their leader. They are fighting like cats and dogs. We are having our 'Chintan Shivir' here, they can't even hold a 'Shivir' like this because they are the puppets of RSS what will they think. They are anxious, but they very well twisted the words and said that it's not Congress's 'Chintan Shivir' but the Congress is nervous. This is their thinking. The people have rejected them," Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday sought to link the spate of terror attacks in Sopore area with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's alleged remark about revival of 'Ikhwanis', an outfit of reformed militants in the state.
'What does Bhagwat think his militia will do once it is at the border?' 'What does Bhagwat imagine his Sangh followers will do that will protect Mother India?' asks Aakar Patel.
'A Muslim is lynched somewhere, and you forward the video of the lynching through WhatsApp.' 'So, you participate in that lynching without actually doing it. You endorse it without being a party to it.'
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and discussed "important" issues, but said there was no talk on politics in Maharashtra where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in the process of government formation.
The various meat bans across the country are an attempt to attack civil liberties, says civil rights activist Kavita Srivastava.
If we accept that there is a challenge in Punjab today, any realistic progress can only be made if the rest of the country, especially the government and the ruling party, engage with this sense of grievance, points out Shekhar Gupta
'The only narrative before India is what Modi and the BJP is presenting.' 'Nationalism has been taken as a serious plank by the BJP and RSS.' 'They want to keep the nationalism thing alive to make people forget the economic reality.'
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
This will pave the way for emergence of 24,000 new panchayat-level leaders in Telangana, he said.
'Secularism is the life of Kerala, and the BJP is trying to poison this atmosphere.'
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak leader Indresh Kumar says that Bharatiya Janata Party s' prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and compares them to Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi.
Police escorted the rally all the way, at one point standing in a row to prevent the rallyists from entering a side road where stood a huge mosque. Across the road, an old Muslim woman asked her Hindu neighbour what the rally was all about. The latter shrugged her ignorance, looking on in bewilderment at the young men with their saffron flags, all of them wearing Bajrang Dal T-shirts.
"But I am not talking about any competition -- about more than them, less than them," the RSS chief added quickly.
From an obscure corporator to becoming the youngest Mayor of Nagpur, to the first Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis' climb up the political ladder has been steady.
In switching over, Nitish has sent out a message that if he could not now become the NDA's PM, then he would need to stay on as CM at the very least, which a third term for Modi would not let him have, N Sathiya Moorthy points out.
While most applicants seek positions in the personal staff of ministers, some want to be inducted into one committee of the government or other, G Sreedathan reports
'Revanth Reddy mounted a spirited campaign in Telangana which turned around the fortunes of the Congress in six months.'
From planning Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign trips to playing a key role in the Jammu and Kashmir elections, former RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav is become increasingly important in the BJP
The students have alleged that they were manhandled by the police and university security inside the North Campus premises.
Unsubstantiated and illogical opinions, delivered freely from within or abroad, could not destroy the democratic nature of the country, he added.
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