Police had sought an extension of Zubair's custody by five days.
'If the platform is public, then every Indian regardless of his ideology and commitment has got the right to convey his view'
He also asserted that the freedom of press has to be preserved at any cost in a democracy but media should remember that freedom comes with responsibility.
'The protests have forced the government to announce that the NRC is not an immediate priority.' 'Even if they are trying to pursue this policy in a different guise, through the NPR, the fact that they have been forced to pause and backtrack at least temporarily shows the positive impact of the protests.' 'Moreover, various state governments have opposed the NPR which cannot be carried out without their cooperation. That is also a success of the protests.' 'The state governments would not have taken this stance against the central government if their hand had not been forced by the popular mood.'
What these elections prove beyond any doubt (if ever there was one) that Modi's hold over public mind and Shah's mastery of election management are unparalleled. It doesn't seem likely that they will be matched any time soon in the Indian political scene, reaffirms Shreekant Sambrani.
'What needs to be watched is that the border incidents at Dokalam in 2017 and Galwan in 2020 are triggering nascent Chinese nationalism against India,' asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
In Part-I of an exclusive interview to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, Dr Ramachandra Guha, in his own masterly ways, explains the making of Congress party, its historic journey and, deciphers the nuances of its core philosophy.
The survey indicates that the Congress -- one of the main opposition parties to the BJP -- was the top choice among Muslims (30 per cent), Christians (30 per cent) and Sikhs (33 per cent) in 2019, reports Aditi Phadnis.
In his departure statement ahead of his week-long visit, Modi referred to Indo-US relations and said working together, the two nations can contribute to building a more peaceful, stable, secure, sustainable and prosperous world.
'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
'The international community should call upon Pakistan to take sustained, verifiable and irreversible actions against terror outfits operating on the territory under its control'
'India need to look beyond the economic prism.' 'China had no qualms in taking the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council last year -- not once, but thrice -- thus violating Indian sensitivities,' observes China expert Srikanth Kondapalli.
Is there a well-concealed additional vision of an 'arc of democracy'? That is the nagging question in the Chinese mind. It will nag even more after they have read Dr Singh's positive reaction to the idea of closer co-operation among major democracies
On December 15, Mohammed Mustafa, an MBA student and IAS aspirant from Jamia Milia Islamia University, was among the students who were dragged out of the library and lathi-charged by policemen. In a conversation with Rediff.com's Divya Nair, the 26 year old recounts the ordeal he faced for a protest he says he didn't participate in or volunteer for.
The narrative of the ruling BJP regime changed from "development to intolerance, cooperation to confrontation welfare and security of all the people to deep sense of insecurity and fear among large sections of people," he said.
Congress on Sunday expressed surprise over the Modi government's "inability" to rein in affiliates of Sangh Parivar "brewing communal hatred and mistrust" for electoral gains.
'India resembles not just the more turbulent bits of its own past, but other 'managed' democracies, where all institutional strength and independence have been hollowed out to serve political power,' notes Mihir S Sharma.
'As soon as the BJP feels they are going to lose power, they will publish the caste census data of 2011 and conduct the caste census of 2021.'
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar condemned the violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and said that it was a "disturbing and fascist strike" by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'This government has made it compulsory to teach some languages that have died.' 'You can't keep languages alive by making them compulsory.'
'The easy availability of funds has enabled us to not only hire the best faculty, but has also made it possible for us to retain them with the best possible infrastructure -- labs, grants etc,' Ashoka University VC Malabika Sarkar tells Geetanjali Krishna.
Rather than worry about what picture of India is being painted in the foreign media, the focus must be on marshalling all our energies to provide relief and solace to our deeply wounded and dispirited citizens, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Several protests -- some peaceful, some violent -- erupted across India on Monday against the police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia and the controversial citizenship law as students and political leaders took to the streets, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi called these protests "deeply distressing" and appealed for peace.
"The space for dissent and debate is shrinking. People are jailed without trial through arbitrarily imposed charge of sedition," the Nobel laureate alleged.
Pakistan Foreign Office in a statement said the latest legislation by the Indian government was another major step towards the realisation of the concept of "Hindu Rashtra.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In a tweet, the party said Ram Temple was not on the agenda of Shah during his one-day trip to Hyderabad.
Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of India, a top Indian diplomat asserted at the UN Human Rights Council's meeting in Geneva on Wednesday, a day after Pakistan sought the international community's intervention on the Kashmir issue. Speaking at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council which is being held in Geneva in Switzerland from February 24 to March 20, Vikas Swarup, secretary (west), the ministry of external affairs, described Pakistan as the "epicentre of global terrorism".
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's address to the nation on the eve of 72nd Republic Day.
On joining the party, Kumar said, "I am joining Congress because it's not just a party, it's an idea. It's a country's oldest and most democratic party, and I am emphasising on 'democratic'...Not just me many think that country can't survive without the Congress..."
It will not be to India's advantage to create misperceptions that it is bandwagoning with some Anglo-American project for regime change in Myanmar, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Describing America as India's "natural global partner", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the complementary strengths of the two democracies can be used for inclusive and broad-based development to transform lives across the globe.
The beauty of the relationship between the two countries is that they agree to disagree and perhaps that is the strongest bond between the two governments and their relationships, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Here's the full text of address to the nation by President Ram Nath Kovind on the eve of the Republic Day 2022.
'This time, even the professedly secular parties have maintained a conscious distance from being identified with Muslims.' 'This could be interpreted as a success of the BJP campaign of what it has been calling 'minority appeasement', says Mohammad Sajjad.
Will Indian democracy benefit from the potential that Shashi Tharoor stores in his mind, spirit and intellect? Or will it be the saga of another leader who promised much but delivered too little, asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The Supreme Court had last month ruled that any appeal for votes on the ground of 'religion, race, caste, community or language' amounted to 'corrupt practice' under the electoral law.
Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS recruiters are proactive and internet savvy. They know there is angst among Muslims about their helplessness even in a vibrant democracy like India, leave alone other parts of the world where Muslims live. So ISIS feeds them a regular diet of the golden age of the Ummah, creating for these youngsters a live yet make-believe world which is completely disconnected from the reality around them, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
A wise politician would disarm his critics, try to take them along, co-opt them, or, at least, take the criticism in his stride. Developing a thick skin ought to be an essential part of any politician's toolkit, notes Virendra Kapoor.
Gandhi, 47, begins his nearly two-week trip to the US with an address at the University of California, Berkeley, tomorrow on contemporary India and the path forward for the world's largest democracy.
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