'This award is funded by American money so I took this decision.'
'They know that if they do not tie up with the Congress, then the minorities will move to the Congress.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com on Priyanka Chopra's appointment as a brand ambassador for India, despite her frankness on intolerant India.
'We will talk to Muslim, Christian organisations and form a broad alliance so that every temple, church and mosque will have freedom to manage their affairs and not to be intervened upon.'
'The Supreme Court has reiterated that marriage is an important institution but it cannot depend on criminal prosecution.' 'It has to rest on certain surer foundations like love, mutual trust etc.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com recounts the history of the Indian flag and how it has evolved over the years.
'I am very grateful to Rajnathji that he confirmed the fact that Savarkar was a habitual mercy-seeker from the British.'
'...to address the serious faultlines that had got exposed during the pandemic.' 'If the economy is looking up this year, we could have been allocated an increase of at least 20%.'
'If the central government does not give rights to the people of Ladakh, then it won't be good for our country.'
'While I am talking to you, I have no idea whether I'm infected or not.' 'I just want to go back home safely.'
'As the firing started everything went haywire.'
'Whenever the Government of India throws the debris, they will not take such care of the mosque's debris and Muslims may object to such a move at that time.'
'I am not sure of the numbers killed, but they were not as high as the use of the word 'genocide' suggests.' 'There is another meaning you could take, 'cultural genocide', in that the Pandit community is extremely small and their forced departure led to a wiping out of their culture.'
'The police wasted nine years of his precious life. Who will compensate him now?' a relative of Abdul Wahid Shaikh, the only person acquitted in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case, ask Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'Badle ki bhavna (revengeful politics) was never seen in Maharashtra and Indian politics, but now we are witnessing all that today.'
'What happens in the real estate market is that once the prices go up it goes on to stay at that level.' 'It might not increase and at the same time the prices will not come down too.'
'We are moving away from the path of democracy and towards Hindu religious dictatorship,' scientist P M Bhargava, who announced his decision to return the Padma Bhushan, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
'People tell us openly that in 2024 we will vote for Modi.'
'Nobody is speaking up for Muslims today.' 'Secular parties too have calmed down because they feel this will hurt the Hindu vote (bank).' 'In this scenario, where does a Muslim go?'
'I wonder what Zaibunissa Kazi would feel if she saw the trailer for Sanju.' 'An effort that proves movies are made about celebrities who get away after committing a crime while poor souls like Zaibunissa rot all their lives in prison only for knowing a star like Sanjay Dutt,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'The Indian government evacuated its citizens from the clutches of the Taliban and Covid-hit Wuhan, so I am not worried.'
'At present there might be at least 500 Indians stuck in Iran for various reasons and we have no idea when they will come back.'
How many such cases are there against Salman Khan? What is their status?
The classic Marathi movie Simhasan would be an interesting watch today as it draws a parallels to the current political turmoil in Maharashtra.
'There was outside intervention which is what led to the initial violence.' 'Once the violence started, there was a brutal lathi-charge by the police.'
'The Muslim community is disappointed with this judgment.'
'They want to win 45 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra in the 2024 general elections and joining hands with Ajit Pawar is in that direction.'
'We cannot believe the police encounter story at all.' 'They were in the hands of the police and they were de-weaponised.' 'They didn't have weapons. How can you kill them?'
'BJP has achieved its aim by making him a regional leader dependent on them.'
Ahead of the elections, a lot had been spoken of the large number of leaders defecting from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena. In fact, a month before the polls, more than two dozen Congress-NCP leaders quit and joined the BJP in hopes of riding high on the Narendra Modi wave. While for some the shift has brought in good fortune, for others it has brought loss. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com analyses how these defectors have fared.
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
Aam Aadmi Party calls Bhagwant Mann its people's choice for CM candidate in Punjab. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com traces what makes Mann so indispensable for his party.
An RTI plea reveals that Rashtrapati Bhavan employs 545 people, and incurs a monthly wage bill of Rs 1,34,68,927.
Journalist Prashant Kanojia was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on August 18 for a retweet and has been in custody ever since.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com traces how the beating up of a man in Ghaziabad went from alleged communal attack to reported regular crime in a matter of days.
'Writers are always nervous.' 'If you go to a party, you will notice that the writers are always in a corner of the party, looking anxious, sweating and tense about something or the other.' 'I am that kind of person.'
'Shinde and Fadnavis have different working styles and certainly there is a crack that has come between them.'
'Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal are the two people who have been marked and punished'
'After the Parliament election results many people are confused and that is why this crisis has erupted
'...by directing these draconian provisions against political and ideological opponents of the ruling group, minorities, and those who dare to dissent through and selective prosecution and prolonged incarceration as undertrials.'
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