'The original dream of people like Faiz was that Pakistan would be something different from the old India: Progressive, forward looking, democratic (if not socialist), tolerant, diverse and pluralistic.' 'I don't think anyone foresaw the catastrophe that Partition was to become.'
Even though Mulayam Singh decided which ministers to drop and which ministers to lose their portfolios, the reshuffle is being projected as a reflection of Akhilesh Yadav's assertive self.
He is talking, making sense, and India is listening. Rahul Gandhi needs to listen to him, too, says Shekhar Gupta.
Xi has already been elected as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China at its once-in-five-year congress in October last year.
Joining hands with his arch rival, Lalu Prasad Yadav, paid off for the Bihar chief minister
The BJP also suspended its state executive council member Kheto Semaparty, who had signed the joint declaration.
'Asked which Dilip Kumar films were among her favourites, she said she had seen not a single movie of his until that time. This became a sensational issue. She did not mean to offend Dilip Kumar. There was not a bone of diplomacy in her and she never acquired that calculating attitude even at the cost of some of the roles that she would eventually lose.'
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are over. Another set of state elections is due in 2018. Here's an assessment of the next round of the electoral challenge and how it could change India's political equations.
'Clarifying that modernisation of national defence and armed forces should be completed by 2035, Xi Jinping asserted the goal is to make the People's Liberation Army a "world class force" that "can fight and win" by 2050,' points out former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
'My heart weeps for Vajpayee, the prince among poets, the king among politicians and the emperor among statesmen,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Aseem Chhabra introduces us to the best of Berlinale.
The president said China would never allow "any people, organisation or political party to split any part of Chinese territory out of the country at any time, in any form."
Two namesake contestants from rival parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Opposition Congress, will slug it out in the November 25 Assembly elections from the prestigious north Bhopal constituency.
The Congress kept sheltering Quattrochi, and the BJP was more intent on shielding the Hinduja brothers. The fact is that the two roads crisscrossed, and neither the truth prevailed nor did the law take its course, says Mohan Guruswamy.
President Xi Jinping today defended the one-party rule in China saying the "world will be too boring" if all countries followed the same political system, a day after the world commemorated 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
It would be a huge achievement if the new administration manages a successful transition to some sense of domestic and international normalcy in these frantic times marked by the pandemic and rise of illiberal regimes across the world, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
Demanding the case be handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation, the victim alleged that the administration has done little to ensure the security of women in the state.
The pugnacious 61-year-old conservative, who was deeply unpopular by the end of his five years as president, had made no secret of his ambition to reconquer the top office.
Democrats have coalesced around Clinton's candidacy and has led with endorsements from President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others.
A list of some prominent political families of the BJP.
'Freebies are yet be proven a 'pucca' vote-catcher. But don't say that to KCR because he takes pride in two things: His record of delivery and imagination,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
Bharatiya Janata Party led by its prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on senior Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal after he mocked Modi's credentials for leading the country saying a tea-seller cannot make a good prime minister.
'Is Xi's China stable?'
'No one can say whether the regime will fall all at once or if its leaders are devising a new solid and competitive -- anything but democratic -- model.' A fascinating excerpt from Francois Bougon's Inside The Mind of Xi Jinping.
'One big leader said you might get 3 lakh votes and still lose.' 'I said if I do I will make sure you are sleepless because it will be me and three lakh people.'
'You can never say never in politics.' 'We may still see the return of AAP, but hopefully not of the same abusive politics again,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The idea is to reinforce Mulayam's 'dhartiputra' or son-of-the-soil image, say party sources.
'Both Nehru and Patel were thorough gentlemen and whatever their differences never disrespected each other.' 'Neither Modi nor Rahul Gandhi has much in them to claim such legacies.' 'They are symptomatic of the sad days that have befallen the nation midwifed and contemplated by Nehru and Patel,' says Mohan Guruswamy.
On the occasion of the Narendra Modi government completing one year in office, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com speaks to BJP president Amit Shah who is yin to Modi's yang. Don't miss it!
'Rather than 'consolidate' the Hindu majority votes, as the BJP-RSS combine has been known and wont to try, this time round PM Modi has himself taken the party to the next step, by seeking to create a new divide within the majority community, a la V P Singh in his time.'
'He still has to deal with party norms and traditions and has been careful to follow the order of seniority,' points out Claude Arpi.
A day after Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav said that no minister will be sacked without probe in the murder case of a journalist, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday asserted that his government would ensure no injustice is meted to anyone.
The 75-year-old Samajwadi Party patriarch, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has been publicly rebuking the 42-year-old Uttar Pradesh chief minister of who also happens to be his son. Is the public display of anger real? Or is it just a way of fooling the public? Sudhir Bisht spoke with some keen observers of politics in UP to find out what they feel about Netaji's anger.
"Will anybody want a servant that who is on vacation when needed at home? And nobody knows where he is," he continued.
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
The newly-formed common forum of Northeast insurgent groups based in Myanmar has posed a renewed threat to security and peace in the troubled region.
The Bihar CM may be in the Opposition but his endorsement of Ram Nath Kovind, the NDA's presidential candidate, is among the many recent decisions that puts him apart from the others.
Even as politics engaged him more, he never hid his way of life. On one occasion, Morarji Desai pleaded with him to stop drinking publicly. "You stick to your pissky and I'll stick to my whisky'' he is supposed to have told him.
A chartered accountant by training, Bala understands the nuances of electoral politics.
'Hindu middle class doesn't like anti-Muslim rhetoric'
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