'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
Here are the highlights from Day 1 of the convention.
The central agency has re-registered two separate first information reports under the UAPA and IPC sections related to arson, violence and destruction of public property. The case was earlier being probed by the Bengaluru Police, they said.
Twitter chief Elon Musk on Wednesday said the social media platform has no choice but to follow the local laws in any given country or risk being shut down.
Dropping references to the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the killing of Muslims in Gujarat riots and Hindutva, and tweaking the reference to Manipur's merger with India are among the latest set of revisions made public by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in its textbooks.
Speaking at the Congress manifesto launch programme, Gandhi said it is a much closer contest than what is propagated by the media, and expressed confidence in winning the polls.
The senior police officer said the four, after interrogation, revealed their roles and that the police now knows all the participants, conspirators and collaborators involved in the killing of the RSS leader.
Members of the Popular Front of India and its political offshoot Social Democratic Party of India as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were among those involved in the two recent back-to-back murders in Palakkad district, the Kerala police said on Monday.
'Today, the BJP is using power in such a manner that they not only crush the Opposition, but even their own supporters can't rebel.'
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
The TDP and JD-U will have a lot to answer inside Parliament, day after day, session after session, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
'Elections are fought to win.' 'In our party, the leadership takes the final decision, and our leaders are very clear about it.'
Kaleem Pasha, husband of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Nagavara Corporator Irshaad Begum, and is said to have instigated the rioters, official sources said.
Two more persons were arrested in the Bajrang Dal activist murder case in Shivamogga, where district authorities have extended the prohibitory orders till Friday.
'An entire operation was running systematically prior to the revoking of Article 370.'
Congress president implored the party to have a 'concrete agitational agenda' to go directly to the people instead of merely being aggressive on social media.
The notice, sent through Azad's legal counsel Naresh Kumar Gupta, seeks compensation of Rs 2 crore for causing damage to Azad's "unblemished reputation."
Additional infrastructure for dining rooms in each of the school has been recommended.
Shah said the ULFA, the oldest insurgent group of Assam, agreed to abjure violence, disband the organisation and join the democratic process.
'She delivers on promises, especially on security issues which is a core concern for India.'
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma retained the key departments for his National Peoples Party, and gave the lesser politically significant ones to alliance partners Bharatiya Janata Party, Hill State Peoples Democratic Party and United Democratic Party as he allocated portfolios on Thursday.
Veteran Communist leader and former chief minister V S Achuthanandan, one of the most popular and crowd-puller leaders in the history of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist in the state, turned 100 on Friday.
'If the NDA comes to power with 320-330 plus seats, then we could see some correction. We could possibly see a level of 19,500 to 20,000.' 'If the NDA comes to power with a majority of 400-plus, we could see the markets going to about 23,500-24,000 levels.' 'And from there we could see some correction because markets are expensive at this point of time and a correction is overdue.'
A high-level committee on Thursday recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
Three people were killed after police opened fire on the night of August 11 to quell a mob that went on a rampage in a city locality, irked over a social media post allegedly put out by a Congress legislator's relative.
The Central Crime Branch probing the August 11 violence in Bengaluru over an alleged inflammatory social media post, has filed a preliminary chargesheet in a local court, naming former Congress mayor R Sampath Raj as an accused.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to send out the message that the ruling BJP, unlike its predecessors at the helm, is not guided by parochial politics in recognising contributions in the public life, as the party looks to break new ground during the polls.
'BJP loses a democratic election, then buys MLAs from the ruling party's flock and rides to power in these states.' 'Do you think Atalji would have tolerated this?'
'The government wants to ban surrogacy and take away women's fundamental right to do what she wants with her body.'
Was the decision taken by the Centre on August 5, 2019 to abrogate the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, which bestowed a special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, constitutionally valid? The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on Monday on a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday received wholehearted support from a group of women from the troubled Sandeshkhali area who met her after a Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata, party sources said.
The meeting of the 14-member all-important panel of the opposition will take place at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on September 13 evening.
'After a month of working on the new machine, I realised that the black glass on the VVPAT lets the programmer manipulate not just the electronic system, but the paper vote too.' 'And it will not be detected even during the mock poll or the actual voting because of the black glass.'
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The 2017 Doklam stand-off in Bhutan, the 2018 Maldives crisis, and the 2020 Nepal Kalapani border dispute shows how Beijing has shot off these countries' shoulders to target India.'
Restoration of peace and the normal routine of daily life, compared to the past, stands out as its most significant achievement, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs, four years after the abrogation of Article 370.
Without naming Gandhi and referring to the Congress leader's remarks made in London -- that structures of Indian democracy are under 'brutal attack', Modi termed it an insult to 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara, the people of Karnataka, India's great traditions and its citizens.
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
It is in circumstances like this that the Constitution becomes extremely important. It reminds us that we have a commitment towards higher human values to fulfil, a path to get back to, suggests Shyam G Menon.Else, we risk being rudderless in an ocean of money and majoritarianism, suggests Shyam G Menon.
