'Both Rahul and Modi are the same in the way they run their parties. Modi too wants faceless people and so does Rahul Gandhi.'
'Jan Suraaj Party was the BJP's 'B' team. It is proven now.' 'You have seen their performance and it proves that they only worked to dent Opposition votes by working for the BJP.'
'Many senior Bangladeshis feel Bangladesh will fall into anarchy if the Jamaat becomes an important part of a future government or has disproportionate influence in the government.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf hopes that Nishaanchi will be a blockbuster like its trailer.
Dhurandhar's most dangerous idea is that Director Aditya Dhar envisions an Indian state run by a deep state -- an intelligence machinery not accountable to Parliament, courts, or voters. A future political system where unelected officials decide when Indian democracy is 'fit' to function, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Gustaakh Ishq feels like a cinematic revival of everything we once loved about Urdu story-telling, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'Life in India is better only for those who have reservations.'
'Critics say the political leadership abandoned the army chief or did not back him. I disagree. 'Military leaders are trained to take decisions when given a free hand.' 'This was a clear go-ahead from the prime minister to the army chief.'
'Established filmmakers want to go with the sequels of earlier hit films like Housefull 5 or Mastiii 4. They don't want to come up with fresh ideas. This is pure laziness.'
Avatar: Fire And Ash is visually stunning and emotionally engaging, offering strong performances and thrilling action, notes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'If you want to force the press into blacking out the Opposition's views or colour the news to your own liking, we will not do so.' 'We stand by freedom of expression. It is our Constitutional right. We stand by our Constitutional right.'
'This daylight robbery of elections is happening in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai city, so you can imagine what they will do to win elections in the interiors of India.'
Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon 2 may be a comedy filled with chaos, but in its indirect way, it speaks about a time when the Constitution mattered more than one's religion and when the idea of India was larger than personal hate, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'We are not AI. We are allowed to break, and rebuild.'
'If a common man wants to buy an air purifier for Rs 10,000, then he will have to shell out Rs 11,800 with 18 percent GST.' 'If he is charged GST at 5 percent the same air purifier will cost Rs 10,500.' 'This saves a one time amount of Rs 1,300 -- and that too just to breathe clean air.'
'The worst part is that after the attack on December 9, the Dehradun police refused to register an FIR for the murder.'
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
'Even today illegal foreign immigrants live in Assam and their names might be on the voters list. This we can get rid of only by doing SIR.'
Ministers arrested post-2014 who, if the 130 Constitutional Amendment had been in effect, would have been unseated from office.
As the year draws to a close, Rediff's Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya takes a look at the hits and misses, the highs and lows, the newsmakers and the dealbreakers in alphabetical order.
'I don't want to be called a new Indian voter when I am an old Indian voter.'
'MGNREGA was about a guaranteed right to work.' 'The new law does not guarantee employment at all.' 'It removes everything that made MGNREGA a legal guarantee.'
'There is no substantive basis for Bangladesh-Pakistan relations. The only real link they can have is mischief, with Pakistan's intelligence agency using Bangladesh to create trouble along our eastern borders.'
'Trump had done a deal with the current regime minus Maduro. The current regime is giving Trump entry into Venezuelan oil. They are obeying him and doing whatever he says.' 'They are happy because they have saved their heads by sacrificing only two, Maduro and his wife. Thousands of Venezuelan military leaders would have been jailed or killed in American action had Maduro stayed in power.'
If the Thackerays don't save a Marathi school in their backyard, who will, wonders Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'IndiGo is fooling the country and the government has succumbed to it.'
'The BJP only talks of Kashmiri Pandits when elections are held.'
'The implementation of the judgment has largely been left to the discretion of the very executive authorities it sought to restrain.'
'It makes law-making on the part of the state governments much more difficult and throws up bottlenecks as governors are not acting on bills.'
'The natural barrier that is Aravalli, you are demolishing it, then who will stop the desert?' 'In future, I predict that people will roam around with oxygen cylinders in Delhi because they won't be able to breathe.'
'The BJP's top leadership realised that their cadres are not happy with them, so they changed the ministers and got in new faces.'
'He is a man of action and goes to the ground and solves the problem.' 'Be it the Air India crash of Ahmedabad, Morbi bridge collapse, Deesa blast or Gambhira bridge collapse, he is on the spot.'
'When you compare Bihar's poverty from its earlier times, then there is a huge difference. Things have improved a lot. And migration has played an important role in reducing poverty.'
A seasoned politician and two-term Member of Parliament, Dr Shakeel Ahmad, who has served as a Union minister and senior Congress leader, resigned from the Congress party, marking the end of his decades-long association with an organisation that his family has been part of for three generations. In an interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff he speaks why he quit the party.
'Even as the Supreme Court's anti-punitive demolition judgment nears its first anniversary, no formal contempt proceedings have been initiated either by the Supreme Court or any high court against officers or demolition squads who have acted in violation of it.'
'He is the same man who has won honours for the country across the world.'
'We have 38 Dalits who are MLAs and ministers. But that does not mean the Dalits of Bihar are prospering.'
The trade relationship between India and the United States has been strained by the imposition of 25% tariff by the US on Indian goods.
'Punjab floods are a calamity.' 'Right from Firozpur to Amritsar nearly 1 lakh homes have been completely damaged due to floods.'concern about the state of affairs.
Salakaar is full of heart, and emotionally satisfying, applauds Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
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