Leader of the opposition in the assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha of the Bharatiya Janaat Party, sat next to Choudhary and he was seen exchanging pleasantries with Kumar.
For India to view the new Sri Lankan leadership only through the prism of the past or through their narrow view on China, is fraught with possibilities that should be avoided, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
In its response, the Ministry of Defence issued a statement saying tableaux proposals from states and Union territories and central ministries or departments are evaluated by an 'expert committee' comprising eminent persons in the fields of art, culture, painting, sculpture, music, architecture and choreography among others.
Modi's remarks came in response to a congratulatory message from Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on his election victory.
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
The scaling up of the India-US strategic partnership to the level of non-NATO ally with defence deals, sharing and transfer of defence technology, interoperability, joint collaboration and joint production of defence equipment has exacerbated Moscow's anxiety, notes Rup Narayan Das.
'My mother feels it will be tough and emotional for her to enter an assembly which has essentially been reduced to a municipality now.' 'My opinion is that even if it is a municipality one cannot cede that space to the BJP.'
They said there was "genuine concern" that if the present ruling dispensation loses people's mandate, the transition of power may not be smooth and there could be a constitutional crisis.
Thousands of workers of every description -- from journalists to steel workers, from painters to New York cops, from auto to engineering workers -- marched for two hours down 5th Avenue one of Manhattan's most iconic thoroughfares, reports Jyoti Punwani.
Will BJP campaigners start using the term 'Ram Rajya' to refer to the nation under Modi's rule, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met up with legendary actress Vyjayanthimala in Chennai, and shared pictures of their meeting.
Those who continue to think that the 2024 election will see the BJP pursuing a more militant line are being alarmist, argues Rajeev Mantri. The BJP, Mantri believes, is not about to shoot itself in the foot. If anything, he says, the BJP may be more inclined to push a harder secularism.
A revealing excerpt from Rahul Shivshankar and Siddhartha Talya's book, Modi & India: 2024 and the Battle for Bharat.
Nasreen, who served as the director of the Indian Cultural Centre at the high commission of India in Male, Republic of Maldives, from 2019 to 2023, shared insights into the growing influence of China and Pakistan in countering India's soft power.
'It will be difficult to challenge Hindutva anymore as the police will have the power to charge you as anti-national.'
The Congress now knows that it is the only force -- however weakened it might be -- that stands between the BJP and India's evolution into a single-party Republic. Because, once it is out of the way, the BJP could sort out the other regional powers: Co-opting some, demolishing others, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
In days of smart, networked technology and no shame over collateral damage, what will blow up next -- cars, mobile phones, TV sets, refrigerators? And where?, asks Shyam G Menon.
The Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India on Tuesday said they will skip the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building even as the war of words over the prime minister and not the President scheduled to do the honours on May 28 continued between the government and the Congress.
No limit exists on the number of electoral bonds that a person (including corporate entities) can purchase.
Amid deepening fissures in Kumar's ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, BJP leaders have indicated that they are open to tying up with him again.
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
There is a deep-seated sense of rejection that the new generation Tamil youth have felt for a decade and more now, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
With the assembly election results throwing up surprises, most exit polls got the outcome in Chhattisgarh and the scale of the Bharatiya Janata Party's win in Madhya Pradesh wrong.
Modi, in his rally just days ahead of the last phase of the Lok Sabha election, also said that "well-wishers of Naveen babu are worried over his deteriorating health condition."
Without mentioning the boundary dispute, the spokesperson said that China-India relations have been stable on the whole and "our two sides have maintained dialogue and communication at various levels".
Key provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which came into law this year may violate certain provisions of India's Constitution, a report issued by an independent research wing of the United States Congress has claimed.
People's Democratic Party patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed on Monday called India a "banana republic" over Afzal Guru's family not being allowed to meet the Parliament attack convict before he was hanged, a day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said this was a "tragedy".
The big surprise is that Narendra Modi, the greatest conjurer in our national politics, has not yet presented a theme to this election, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Without disclosing other shareholders, Republic Media Network said the statement was being issued to "clarify the details of its promoter shareholding" in view of "misleading" media reports making "false and mala fide claims about the exact ownership of the consolidated network." It said Goswami through his personal investment and family owned around 84 per cent shareholding in ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd at the time of launch of the English news channel Republic TV in 2017.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
'In the short term the relationship will get worse.'
As we observe Martyrs' Day today, Mahatma Gandhi would have been dismayed by the number of vested interests that are seeking to carve out identities and spaces outside the Republic of India, says Shreekant Sambrani.
Sources in both the BJP and the Janata Dal-United suggested such a possibility but it remained unclear if Kumar, the unquestioned leader of his party, has finalised a deal with the BJP top brass.
Opposition leaders urged Modi to use the opportunity for the country's benefit.
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist party of China and the People's Republic of China's president, was received at Moscow airport by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko and not Russian President Vladmir Putin as expected.
French president Emmanuel Macron arrived on Thursday in a decked-up Jaipur city, where he will spend several hours savouring the sites -- and perhaps some roadside chai -- before engaging in talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on strengthening India France ties.
In Telangana, the K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi has been in power since 10 years and in Mizoram, the MNF is in government.
Although the Bihar CM is mum over his next move, speculations of a rift between Mahagathbandhan and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar joining the NDA, have been soaring high.
By changing the nation's name from India to Bharat, would this landmass overnight lose the emotional and cultural linkage that had been built over generations, centuries and millennia, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday attacked Robert Vadra saying his "inappropriate" behaviour towards a journalist was a result of frustration and he must realise that the country is no longer ruled by the Gandhi family, even as the Congress downplayed the incident.
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