A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
'There is a compulsion to look hard, decisive, and risk-taking; start something; and then conclude it in a way you can claim victory.' 'That is not such an easy option against China,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The handling of the pandemic, under this totally constitutional and legal three-level dictatorship, has begun to show its downside,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
'No country or society ever prospered or remained secure by marginalising more than one-sixth of its own,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
'You can't make the poor rich overnight.' 'Nor can you fly millions in planes.' 'But remember that word: Empathy.' 'Who in the BJP is speaking in that language to these millions?' 'Someone putting an arm of understanding, warmth, comfort around them?', asks Shekhar Gupta.
The loss in Bihar has forced a change in NDA's market positioning, says Shekhar Gupta.
Lakme Fashion Week is around the corner; so it seems apt that we look back at some of the most... how shall we put it... intriguing designs we've seen in the recent past.
Top seeded Grandmaster K Sasikiran warded off some initial resistance from Australian Vladimir Feldman to open with a comfortable win in the 13th Dubai International Open Chess Tournament in Dubai.
Four decades of federal evolution made India more secure, but coronavirus is reversing that. Modi's central government has tasted power again and is unlikely to give it up, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Insignias or not, Dhoni's will remain the deadliest pair of gloves behind the stumps,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP knows the CAA, combined with a fresh nationwide NRC process, is an idea that's dead on arrival. Where it lives on is as a divisive, polarising instrument as its rivals have to take a position against it and thereby be exposed to the charge of 'Muslim appeasement' again, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Our drains are not filled with bodies, our hospitals not run out of beds.' 'That good news, or absence of expected bad news, is the truth that so many in the international community, and also within India, seem unable to handle,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Mahatma Gandhi, even for those on the extreme Hindu Right who believe he founded the politics of Muslim 'appeasement', is suicidal to target,' asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The success story written by Nitish Kumar in Bihar has not gone unnoticed in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where his counterpart chief minister Mayawati appears to be getting serious about governance.
'He has a gift none of his eight predecessors, from Manmohan Singh to Rajiv Gandhi, had: Being able to speak directly and convincingly to a large enough section of Indians who will take his word for gospel,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'A very vast majority of us will catch it at some point, about 8 out of 10 won't feel much worse than a common cold's nuisance, if at all, but some will die.' 'A very, very vast majority, at least about 98 per cent of those infected, if not more, under any circumstances, will live through it,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Casting a wider net, the CBI on Friday conducted searches at the premises of certain Organising Committee (OC) officials in Delhi in connection with the multi-crore CWG overlays scam.
Modi-Shah BJP has resurrected dangers and the enemy from the past and built a scary jingoism. It's a great diversionary tactic but history shows it never ends well, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'The Nagas want a flag of their own, to share the Kohima skyline with the national tricolour.' 'The the government says you can have a flag for cultural and ethnic occasions.' 'The Nagas say that will be a bit like an NGO having its own flag,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vladislav Artemiev of Russia in the eighth and penultimate round, ending the Indian challenge in the Isle of Man International Chess tournament on Sunday.
For the first time in our political history, Pakistan has become centre stage of the incumbent's campaign, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Savarkar was the closest the RSS had to a freedom movement icon, however flawed.' 'Indira Gandhi wasn't going to gift him to them.' 'And a non-career politician like Dr Singh understands it.' 'It is just that his party never listened to him,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'By holding forth on Swadeshi economics, Bhagwat is showing his intent to fight back,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'If you ask India's finest business leaders, they now tell you -- in whispers, of course -- that the mood has never been so glum after 1991,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The Uttar Pradesh Engineers Association on Friday postponed their state-wide strike in protest against the murder of senior engineer M K Gupta allegedly by a Bahujan Samaj Party legislator after Public Works Department Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui assured them of stern action.
'Even if your soldiers are Sunny Deol and Vicky Kaushal, Pakistanis are no Johnny Walkers.' 'The one lot who never takes them lightly is India's professional soldiers.' 'That's why they keep winning the real wars,' says Shekhar Gupta.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Police on Friday decided to invoke the provisions of the National Security Act and the Gangster Act on Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Shekhar Tiwari and others accused in connection with the murder of a senior government engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta in Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh. District Magistrate Shashikant Sharma said the government has directed the district administration to take strict action against all the accused irrespective of their status.
A look at the guests at the opening.
'Pure, uncluttered anti-Modi-ism, however angry, can't be an ideology or an electoral alternative.' 'The best it can do for you is damage Mr Modi enough for him to finish below 200.' 'Can it enable you to cross 100 to begin with?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
'When it comes to national politics, the Modi-Shah BJP has successfully redefined secularism.' 'If a party like the Congress has to have a future, it has to move closer to the secular centre from the far Left where its Left infatuation during the UPA years dragged it,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'At this point, neither the army or the IAF has that immediate, punitive deterrent power against Pakistan.' 'Forget a three-week war; on the LoC, where the action is, Pakistan has until now fielded better infantry weapons, body armour, sniper rifles, and matching artillery' points out Shekhar Gupta.
The Uttar Pradesh police on Monday arrested two gunmen engaged in the personal security of Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Shekhar Tiwari, who is behind bars for allegedly murdering PWD engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta in Auraiya on December 24. "We suspect Tiwari's gunners Pal Singh and Gajraj Singh, so we arrested them today," UP Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Brijlal said on Minday evening.
BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari and his two associates--Manoj Tyagi and another surnamed Bhatia--forcibly entered the house of engineer M K Gupta at Gail Vihar Colony in Diviapur police circle in Auraiya on Tuesday night and started beating him up severely, according to a report lodged with the police by his wife Shashi Gupta.
'Mr Modi may have the aura of an irresistible conquistador now, but he is human. He isn't an 'avatar,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
United States President Barack Obama is impressed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of the big things he wants India to achieve.
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
'If Rahul wants to pick up the sacred thread where his 'daadi' left it, especially when the BJP, which reduced his party to 44 in 2014, claims monopoly over Hinduism, it's smart politics.' 'Why cede your Gods to your rival?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
We tried our best to recover money from Vijay Mallya: Arundhati Bhattacharya
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.