Tuesday was the 12th day in a row that Parliament did not functioned and the current stalemate has entered the third week.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn't hold back on Wednesday when he launched a scathing attack on the Gandhi family and the Congress in Parliament during a debate on the motion of thanks for the president's address.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who will demit office as the Chief Justice of India in a week's time, has etched his name in the annals of history by giving finality to one of the most politically and religiously sensitive cases, the Ayodhya land dispute, which dates back to even before the Supreme Court came into existence in 1950.
'In old India, there was no hatred, anger or lynching. New India is one where humans are enemies of each other'
Have Muslim women taken to the BJP under Modi even while their menfolk cling to 'secular' politics, asks Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'No country or society ever prospered or remained secure by marginalising more than one-sixth of its own,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
Dr Vasudevan Maitreyan, was virtually the face of the AIADMK in New Delhi since February 2002, finds himself ignored by the current leadership.
When the highest court gave a decision on the Navtej Singh Johar case, it held that LGBT citizens have a right to not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. It was keeping this in mind that this same sex couple approached the Delhi high court.
'When it comes to national politics, the Modi-Shah BJP has successfully redefined secularism.' 'If a party like the Congress has to have a future, it has to move closer to the secular centre from the far Left where its Left infatuation during the UPA years dragged it,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Savarkar was the closest the RSS had to a freedom movement icon, however flawed.' 'Indira Gandhi wasn't going to gift him to them.' 'And a non-career politician like Dr Singh understands it.' 'It is just that his party never listened to him,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
'Pure, uncluttered anti-Modi-ism, however angry, can't be an ideology or an electoral alternative.' 'The best it can do for you is damage Mr Modi enough for him to finish below 200.' 'Can it enable you to cross 100 to begin with?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
It is this new Muslim who is not burdened by the Pakistan guilt, who is ready to fight it out for the rights enshrined under the Constitution, and who is not defensive about Muslim identity that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are out to crush, argues Mohd Asim.
Modi also reminded Congress of the Emergency, saying it's a blot on the democracy that will never fade.
'Modi wants to go down in history not necessarily as India's first overtly Hindu RSS pracharak prime minister, but as a world statesman who built the idea of India as a great nation.'
'Tension is being created in society because of this green flag, which is not even an Islamic flag.' 'There is no history of such a green flag being used in the Muslim world.'
'We will do it either by removing all the Constitutional hurdles or by mutual consent.'
'The one thing India has over these two States, whose toughness awes us, is our ability to embrace diversity with ease. 'The way ahead lies in learning from Vajpayee's method, not in Xi Jinping's,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Nationalism, Hindutva, and war on corruption, not growth, will define Modi's politics until 2019.
On Friday, the Bombay high court reversing the ban imposed on women entering the inner sanctum of the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai said, "The ban is contrary to articles 14, 15, 19 and 25 of the Constitution of India. Women should be permitted to enter the dargah on par with men." The news brought much cheer and joy to petitioner Zakia Soman who is also the founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan. Zakia spoke to Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf on what made this verdict historic and how it will bring about a change in the future.
'They must take the bull of conservatism within their own ranks by its horns as much as they need to speak out against the fallacies of the non-Hindutva (or 'Muslim-friendly') political forces as well,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Addressing the nation on the 71st Independence Day from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort, he asserted that his government is committed to restoring the lost glory of Kashmir and its status as 'heaven on earth'.
"What is the hurry," Modi said, while referring to Gandhi's hand gestures when he came across to PM's chair.
'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Will the AIADMK acknowledge the role of CAA and the anti-CAA protests, both inside the state and outside, as among the causes for the current electoral reversal, as many in the party now want? It is unlikely to be so, but then the pressure will increase on the leadership to reassess the BJP alliance at one level and the 'blind support' for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial policies on the other, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is mischievous to imply that the proposed bill to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists from other nations implies that Muslims and Christians are not Indians, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'The middle class you can hurt anytime. For revenues, politics, pleasure, anything,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The timing is a little suspect.' 'Could it be, just be, a convenient tool to wield months ahead of a hyper-crucial state election, judge if its efficacy in sending out its subliminal message is intact, and accordingly decide the future course of action on the long but quick road to 2019?'
'From chaiwala he has now become Rafalewala. He speaks a bunch of lies,' the West Bengal CM said.
'The mobilisation is nothing but a political ploy -- a sort of a fixed match between Hindu and Muslim communal forces, towards polarisation, in a run-up to the next election,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Has Owaisi's MIM become an albatross for Imtiaz Jaleel, former journalist and the party's candidate in Aurangabad?
Here's the full text of President's address with a word cloud.
'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.' 'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.' 'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'
Muslims need to get out of their Isolation Syndrome, argues Mohammad Sajjad.
'I don't think the state administration has shown the resolve to enter Muslim neighbourhoods and arrest offenders in the last decade.'
'The sadhus and sanyasis of UP are not for any economics.' 'They only know the religious agenda and the RSS will support them.' 'Modi does not have full control of the party at the ground level like Indira Gandhi had.'
'When Sachin Tendulkar bats, no one in India cares if he is from Mumbai or if he is a Hindu or a Brahmin or whatever.' 'We just want him to win it for India.' 'The same is with Modi and the people who voted across caste and regional lines for him.' We want him to win it for India,' says Madhu A K.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
'There are many people like me who were kept away from Jayalalithaa.' 'There is a coterie who did not allow her to meet people.'
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