'That she drove 20 km in 9 minutes is rubbish.'
'BJP takes Lingayat support and later on they throw them out, ditch them and humiliate them.' After months of speculation Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa resigned from the chief minister's post. A powerful Lingayat community leader, Yediyurappa could not even complete his term, owing to the internal politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party. So how does Lingayat community view his exit? Congress working president, Karnataka state and Lingayat leader Eshwar Khandre speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, said, "The community which voted him and felt that they will lead the government are now disenchanted."
'Piyush Goyal is the chief and it is always the chief who is considered to be responsible.'
'If it is not possible for the Indian Railways to have separate non-vegetarian and vegetarian compartments, then what is the harm in railways serving only vegetarian food?'
'The second Covid wave spread due to the irresponsibility of the Election Commission of India and now they are committing the same mistake.'
The Janata Dal-United, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, opposed the government's move on Article 370 through a fresh Presidential Order ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir. On Monday, opposing the Narendra Modi-led government's decision, they walked out of the Rajya Sabha where the bill to split the state into two Union Territories was passed. Similarly, on Tuesday, the JD-U walked out of Lok Sabha while the bill was being discussed. In Patna, JD-U national spokesperson K C Tyagi said: "We completely differ with the Central government's move on Jammu and Kashmir. There was a need for wider consultations on it, but no consultation was done even within the NDA. We own the legacy of socialist leaders Ram Manohar Lohia and Jai Prakash Narayan, who had opposed attempts to tamper with Article 370 during Congress (government in the past)." Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com on the same, the JD-U leader said that 'walking out of Parliament won't affect their ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party'.
'You haven't heard a peep out of Kashmir so what is going to erupt? What repercussion will be (there) in long term, you will have to (wait) and see'
'If you have only one hit out of 100 movies in a year, it is death for Bollywood.'
'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.'
'This is against the Constitution and we will oppose it tooth and nail.'
Cities, roads, stations rechristened in the time of Modi.
Will he take Modi's 'sab ka saath, sab ka vikas' route? Or will he turn UP into Egypt under Morsi, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'There is a famous saying here that 'the way to Delhi passes through Lucknow'.' 'If the BJP loses UP in 2022, Modi's premiership in 2024 will be in doldrums.'
'They just want to show that the Congress is in disarray.'
'In politics, not everything is spoken and there are a lot of messaging done very discreetly.'
'To all those then who talk about ending Brahminical hegemony, my advice is: Get the Brahmins on your side,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The new government order to review the service record of employees who have completed 30 years in the job to identify inefficient or corrupt staff and retire them prematurely has invited the ire of labour unions, who believe that this is a step towards privatisation.
Facing ire over his alleged inflammatory speech warning Muslims of a 'final battle', Union Minister of State for Human Resource and Development Ram Shankar Katheria claims he did not make any such comments.
'Our movement was not about putting any flag on the Red Fort, but it is to secure our livelihood.'
'On January 22, when the last round of talks took place, the farmer leaders were told by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar that the government is also prepared.' 'And they did this.'
'I welcome Droupadi Murmu as the first Adivasi woman President of India, but her track record has not been good as a politician and governor of Jharkhand when it came to helping Adivasis,' points out activist Gladson Dungdung.
'If the Congress party wants to take on the BJP it cannot do it in this fuddy-duddy, grand old party, style.'
'After the NRC in Assam, things have changed for Muslims in India.'
How the demonetisation drives in India and Venezuela have played out.
'India's treatment to a member of parliament of Afghanistan was not good and I am very upset about this action.'
'Since the RJD came to power, criminals have stopped fearing the law.'
This was the second time D K Shivakumar foiled Amit A Shah's plans.
'One cannot avoid speculating whether there was something else at play that led to the uncovering of this saga.'
'They want to establish the silence of the graveyard in university campuses across India.' 'They cannot bear any questioning or dissent. They want subordination and obedience.' 'And that is not going to happen,' says Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat.
On his first visit to Srinagar post the abrogation of Article 370, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that incidents of terrorism have declined and stone-throwing incidents too have ended in Jammu-Kashmir.
'Maharashtra governor did not do anything that was contrary to the Supreme Court's decision.'
'Many times when Khalistan slogans are raised, it is from those who feel alienated, not because they want a separate state.'
Syed Firdaus Ashraf unravels the chronology of controversy in the Aryan Khan drug bust case.
'I want the Supreme Court to give directions to the government of Kerala that they must give protection to all those women who want to enter Sabarimala.'
''I had no idea that my life would turn into a horror show.' 'I was stuck as the Russians kept bombing Kyiv non-stop.'
'Is the idea of a committed judiciary once again being floated, though surreptitiously, unlike in the past when it was direct?'
'Why did they attack us? What was our fault?' 'They killed a woman. They burnt down vehicles.' 'They pelted stones at us over a 45 km stretch. There was no police bandobast.'
The Bombay high court raised some key points before granting bail to actor Salman Khan.
'Oh god, these workers will now spread the virus! Their only concern was to think about themselves.' 'The middle class was only concerned with flattening the curve of coronavirus and they were not bothered about how these workers live in one room with 10 people or 20 people.'
