'The Opposition thinks since the ruling party is following Savarkar's Hindutva philosophy, they want to regain their lost political mileage (by attacking Savarkar).' 'By doing so, they think they will get their power back.'
Over 1,200 Indian students stranded at Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine make a desperate call for help.
'At this moment you cannot give her asylum because if you do, then you are directing public anger against India.'
Billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala explains why he thinks Modi should be at the helm of India.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com on Priyanka Chopra's appointment as a brand ambassador for India, despite her frankness on intolerant India.
'Centres like polling booths can be set up for the area till the last adult is vaccinated -- open on all days from 9-9.' 'People should be able to come as per their convenience.'
'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.'
'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
'People of my constituency told me they will continue loving me, but will not vote for me if I am with the BJP.'
'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
'If you post on social media on an issue like power cuts in Tral, the police will come to your home and tell you to remove your social media post.' 'If you don't, then the local police threaten you that they will book you under PSA.' 'This is happening all the time in Kashmir.'
'There is no law or Article in the Constitution that says the prime minister must inaugurate the new Parliament, but Article 79 of the Constitution says the President of India is the competent person.'
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
'Rahul Gandhi is going to turn 54 and in India political leaders peak when they are around 60.' 'This 'bhai-behen ki jodi' has done a wonderful job for the Congress.' 'Priyanka Gandhi was a very effective campaigner.'
'Government supplied public services are less likely to be found in neighbourhoods with high numbers of Scheduled Castes and Muslims.'
'The Ever Given, which had 200,000 tonnes of cargo, was too long for the Suez Canal.'
'A stable and strong Pakistan with an anti-India mindset and hatred is not good for us.'
'We cannot leave our entire unorganised sector to the vagaries of market forces.'
'We do not want Kashmiri Pandits to migrate from Kashmir.'
'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.
'For free supply of drugs and medicines itself, almost Rs 20,000 crores would be required.'
'This is total fraud. You are showing me the slip of my vote but not counting it so this is fraud.'
'Even if not me, there are other deserving candidates from Maharashtra in the Congress who should have been given the Rajya Sabha ticket.'
'While I am talking to you, I have no idea whether I'm infected or not.' 'I just want to go back home safely.'
'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.'
'The buildings all around had caved in or were damaged. The trees were all uprooted. Things were very scary.'
How many such cases are there against Salman Khan? What is their status?
'I am very grateful to Rajnathji that he confirmed the fact that Savarkar was a habitual mercy-seeker from the British.'
An RTI plea reveals that Rashtrapati Bhavan employs 545 people, and incurs a monthly wage bill of Rs 1,34,68,927.
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.'
'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?'
'As the firing started everything went haywire.'
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.
'Hindus have never been polarised across Maharashtra in any state election.'
'There was a statement by a minister that 30,000 Kashmiri Pandits have come back to the Kashmir Valley after the abrogation of Article 370, it is all b.......t and a white lie.' 'Nobody has come back.'
'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.'
'BJP has achieved its aim by making him a regional leader dependent on them.'
