'He had 6 billion names to choose from and he chose the Pope who is the religious head of the Catholic community in the whole world.'
'If Modi-Shah had not changed the leadership, one section would have parted ways with the BJP for sure.'
'In 2021, assembly elections are going to be held in Assam. The BJP, sitting in Delhi, is thinking everything is hunky-dory in Assam. But that is not the case.' 'People of Assam are no longer with the BJP.'
'It was disappointing on two counts. One is on the leadership issue and second is how the Congress must win elections.'
'Had these three farm laws existed it would have become a huge election issue.'
'It is not happening in the same manner as it was happening during the time of the Peshwas.' 'Whatever happened during the Peshwas cannot happen now.'
'This country is not of one culture. We must live together and we must respect each other.'
'PM Modi is not taking Kashmir's stance as far as the Naga issue is concerned.'
'O P Sharma pulled me down to the ground and started punching and kicking me.' 'The Delhi police, instead of arresting Sharma and the others, detained me for five hours after this incident.'
'Delhi is regretting its decision of electing Arvind Kejriwal.'
'As soon as the violence broke out, they should have stepped in and sent a message that the state is there to stop this violence.' 'Had they done it right there, the situation would not have gone out of control.'
'I don't believe that it beholds democracies like us who claim to be the largest democracy in the world, to have such a thin skin about the possibility of foreign commentary.'
'He was a nobody then.' 'And whatever little his contribution was there, it was restricted to Gujarat.'
Some police encounters that stunned India.
'South movies have the perfect script, the perfect action and the perfect romance.' 'That's why these films are running in theatres.'
'I will try to make sure everything runs smoothly from now on.' Is Gajendra Chauhan having the last laugh?
'Most senior Congress leaders in Assam have a secret understanding with the BJP.' 'They are hobnobbing with the chief minister for their self-interest.'
'Already, the temperature has touched 39 degrees in some parts of Gujarat and now we are in the last week of February.' 'We need to activate the heat action plan from March 1.'
'The test of true secularism in India is when a girl in your family decides to marry someone from another religion. If you accept her decision happily, then you are truly secular. If you don't, it means your secularism is fake,' argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'Releasing dam water for a holy bath is the most unholiest thing. No religion propagates polluting or squandering resources.' Professor Hiralal Desarda explains why he went to court against release of water for the Shahi Snan at the Kumbh Mela in Nashik.
'The most serious issue is that of shooting a lawyer in the chest. That news has been buried.'
'The BJP has been tinkering with the Indian Constitution every now and then.' 'Instead of celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day, the BJP was more interested in (the VHP's) Dharam Sabha which was called that day.' 'This shows they believe more in the Ram mandir than in the Constitution.'
Sudhir Kumar Ojha from Muzaffarpur, an advocate known for his penchant to file cases against the high and mighty, has fired a legal salvo at the irrepressible cricketer-turned-politician.
'We need to have a prosperous J-K, where all communities must prosper including Dogras, Gujjars, Sikhs, Muslims and Pandits.' 'Prosperity is the first signal of peace.'
Amjed Ullah Khan, who carried out investigations of his own and helped rescue 15 women from Hyderabad, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com how the women get trapped in an underground slave market that 'sells' them to employers who force them to work for less or no pay and often under inhuman conditions.
'Valmiki has not written anything about Hanuman's caste.' 'I want to clarify that Hanuman was not a Vanar, but an Adivasi.'
When Amitabh Bachchan bounced back at 60, why can't Shah Rukh Khan at 51? Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost, assures Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
It may be 2017, but the 'uska baap kaun hai, maloom hai kya' still dominates India.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf walks the streets of Mahim, where Yakub Memon grew up and lived till the day before the serial blasts in 1993, on the day Yakub was hanged and discovers an undercurrent of unease and restrained anger.
On November 7, which marks 100 years of the Russian Revolution, Syed Firdaus Ashraf recalls a conversation he once had on Communism.
'Salman Khan should be booked under the National Security Act as he is destroying Indian culture.'
It was Dev Anand's dream to put Indian cinema on the world map and he thought Guide was the perfect film for it.
'These officers should have sat together and sorted things out.' 'And if things were not working out amicably then the other organisations which control the CBI -- be it the CVC or the prime minister's office or even the home ministry -- someone should have gone ahead and solved these problems rather than reducing it to this farcical situation.'
'On the Kashmir and Pakistan question, it is startling that Vajpayee and Advani did more than anybody in Indian history.'
'Nehru wanted to strengthen industries by exploiting agriculture and that policy was continued by successive governments.'
'... as has been happening in the last three weeks, then the foreign exchange reserves will not be comfortable to ensure that the rupee does not fall drastically.'
'The government should immediately enact an Act to make caste discrimination a criminal offence and lay down a procedure similar to that of the Anti-Ragging Act.' 'Ragging has nearly been eliminated because it is treated as a criminal offence.' 'Similar procedure should be used in case of caste discrimination.'
'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president.'
'The Modi government is doing a good job but corrupt officers are siphoning off funds,' says journalist Pawan Kumar Jaiswal against whom an FIR has been filed for his video expose of school children being fed salt and rotis as their mid-day meal.
'One reason given for the failure of the Congress in Assam was due to the alliance with the AIUDF.'
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