In an Exclusive Interview with CNN-IBN's Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose, one of the greatest contemporary literary voices Salman Rushdie and internationally acclaimed film maker Deepa Mehta talk about the new form of intolerance towards writers, artists and filmmakers in India.
After Amartya Sen, yet another noted intellectual has come out strongly against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Acclaimed author and Padma Shri awardee Amitav Ghosh has said that for him Modi remains someone culpable for the Gujarat riots of 2002 and for someone like him to become prime minister would be deeply destabilising for India. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose, he also said that the politics of Hindu nationalism is destroying Hindu religion.
Bhagwati criticised Amartya Sen for supporting the Food Security Bill, saying it is going to fuel inflation.
The Mahakumbh to me has always evoked memories of what an older era of Hinduism must have been, its strength in its diversity and acceptance, its spirit resting not in priests but in individual bhakti, a faith totally alien to intolerance and bigotry, says Sagarika Ghose.
Opposition parties in the Indian Parliament walked out of the Rajya Sabha after their demand for an immediate discussion on the alleged mismanagement at the Maha Kumbh, where a stampede led to several deaths, was rejected. The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, declined to suspend the scheduled business of the day to take up the issue, citing his previous rulings regarding notices under Rule 267.
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN's Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose, acclaimed playwright Girish Karnad defended his recent public attack on Nobel Laureate V S Naipaul at the Mumbai Literature Festival.
Mridula Koshy's If It is Sweet, a collection of short stories, has bagged the 2009 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. The New Delhi-based author will get Rs 1 lakh and a citation on December 14 at the capital's British Council
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal explains how the Joint entrance exam has led to the decline of school education, why the new format will stay for 2013 and why he is unfazed about the autonomy of IIT-Kanpur.
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
The actor was to play the late prime minister in a Web series to be produced by Vidya's husband Siddharth Roy Kapur.
Opposition members in Rajya Sabha on Thursday accused the government of imposing Hindi by bringing new bills with titles only in that language, a charge the treasury bench contested while alleging they were stuck with a colonial mindset.
Opposition parties in India have demanded the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw after a stampede at New Delhi railway station killed 18 people. They blamed the government for "gross mismanagement" and accused them of "covering up" the death toll. The stampede occurred on Saturday night as passengers rushed to board trains for the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj. The Congress, the Left, Trinamool Congress, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have all criticized the government's handling of the situation, while BJP leaders have defended the government. The incident has highlighted the failure of the Railways and the government to make adequate arrangements for the large number of devotees travelling to Prayagraj.
Asansol is home to a sizeable migrant population, and the BJP had hoped that Singh would be an effective counter to Sinha, the actor-politician who was in the saffron party for decades before walking out in 2019.
Poet, writer and former IPS officer Keki N Daruwalla, whose magic with words gained him national and international repute, has died at a Delhi hospital after prolonged illness and a spell of pneumonia. He was 87.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
Raising slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders ended their 24-hour protest at the Mandir Marg police station in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, a day after they were detained while staging a dharna outside the Election Commission's office.
Senior police officials said they received a complaint and are looking into it.
Kharge alleged that Dhankhar is working as a government spokesperson and acting like a school headmaster, often sermonising experienced opposition leaders and preventing them from speaking in the House.
Opposition parties on Tuesday submitted a notice to move a motion for removing Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar for allegedly conducting the House in a partisan manner.
A 10-member delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) had announced the dharna after meeting a full bench of the Election Commission (EC) to press their demand.
The accident occurred at 3.45 AM near Barabamboo, around 80 km from Jamshedpur, under the Chakradharpur Division of the South Eastern Railway (SER), they said.
The National Testing Agency, under fire over the lapses in the conduct of NEET and UGC-NET, is gearing up to conduct on Sunday a retest for the medical entrance exam for 1,563 candidates who were earlier awarded grace marks to make up for the loss of time at six centres.
On Sunday, the Padma awardee tweeted, "Instead of tying stone pelter on the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy!" His tweet soon became viral with over 4,700 retweets in less than 24 hours.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
'It is from her that present-day political stalwarts continue to draw lessons on testing the limits of Constitutional democracy, and whose slogans even her party's staunchest opponents imitate even after over 30 years of her death,' says Veenu Sandhu.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Taking potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party, some opposition leaders also wondered if Goel resigned to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its ticket like former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
In all the highs and lows that India's most powerful, and only woman, prime minister faced in her life, the death of her younger son Sanjay was probably the most soul-destroying.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned India against too many populist subsidies
Modi's friend, billionaire Gautam Adani, called Sardesai and delivered a personal message from the prime minister.
'It has even been suggested that Modi and Amit Shah, however grudgingly, harbour admiration for her controlling streak and steely resilience,' says Sunil Sethi.
The Press Council of India and News Broadcasters Association, the two regulatory bodies for print and television media respectively, will determine whether the news is fake or not.
'She was once asked what the secret to political leadership was and she said it was the ability to like all kinds of people.' 'I don't think Rahul fundamentally likes people -- that's probably why he can't deal with them and it shows.' 'Sonia is a more talented political mobiliser than her son, but I think the decline of the Congress set in in 1969...'
Richa Chadha to play Shakeela... Vidya Balan turns producer...
'She was the only prime minister who won a decisive military victory.' 'She won a real war; she didn't play video games on prime time TV over surgical strikes!' 'She understood power better than any other politician, saw it as her birthright and used it with inborn expertise.' 'Every politician today who tries to be a "supremo" through populism and absolute control over his or her party is referring to the Indira Gandhi playbook!'
With Mukesh Ambani taking over Network 18, the space for disseminating a diverse range of views could shrink, feels Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
