Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
'Omar Abdullah presented Delhi as a villain in front of the people of Jammu Kashmir before elections and now is shaking hands with them.'
A war of words has erupted in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh after the Congress objected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party putting up hoardings taking credit for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
A case has been registered against Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar for allegedly making statements that promote enmity between different groups, police said on Tuesday.
He also alleged that for the Bharatiya Janata Party dispensation and its allies being a Hindu is no different from the team identity loyalty of the 'British football hooligan'.
For all its flaws, Agni is a clutter-breaking film, and its portrayal of the lives of firefighters is a case of better late than never, observes Deepa Gahlot.
'We have unfortunately created that kind of ecosystem in Canada where these people are very vocal, very violent, very aggressive, and they don't let anybody.... come out against them. They will bully, they will threaten, they will use every possible illegal means... to counter any sanity'
The Bharat Ratna for him comes nine years after the honour was bestowed on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The two leaders together spearheaded the journey of the Jana Sangh and then the BJP for over five decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he wants the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to win 400 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls to ensure the Congress does not bring back Article 370 in Kashmir and put a 'Babri lock' on the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Singh targeted the Congress using a 'snakes and ladders' analogy, saying the party will fall to zero from 99 after being bitten by a snake -- referring to the grand old party winning 99 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
'The 2024 election results will lead to much intense targeting of Modi, more intense debates, many more breakdowns in Parliament and many more movements on the streets.' 'The results have hit Modi's standing, and the politics of the Opposition parties will be sharply focused to ensure that Modi doesn't get back his charisma of being 'invincible' with help of State power.' Sheela Bhatt looks at the political situation through the prism of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
Try as hard as the BJP might to whitewash or sugar-coat its Muslim-centric gestures, one cannot deny that they smack of appeasement. There is a real danger in this misguided approach. The BJP may end up looking like a poor B team of the Congress with disastrous results. In the real world people prefer originals not imitations, says Vivek Gumaste.
Modi referred to the Lok Sabha polls as a "Kurukshetra (battle)" in which "there is development on one hand and 'vote jihad' on the other".
Adhikari asserted that 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' was unnecessary and questioned the need for the Minority Morcha within the party.
Modi has repeatedly accused opposition parties of pursuing the politics of corruption, dynasty and appeasement, calling upon people to shun them.
The warmth and respect for India were evident wherever I went and noticed how most Latin Americans have Indian gurus either directly or online and yoga was very much in vogue, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
At this moment it is not possible to say whether any organisation or an individual was involved, the home minister said. There were certain theories during his visit to the cafe on Friday night, expressing suspicion that someone might have done it out of 'heartburn', unable to digest the cafe's success and expansion.
The Bombay high court on Thursday said creative freedom and the freedom of expression cannot be curtailed and the censor board cannot refuse to certify a film just because there is an apprehension of a law and order problem.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
Curbs under Section 163 (power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which were set to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
The Union minister asked Gandhi to "follow the law "and secure acquittal from a higher court.
'Days ago, India witnessed the horror of the brutal rape and murder of a woman doctor on night duty at the R G Kar hospital in Kolkata.' 'The crime was so outrageous that any self-respecting chief minister should have resigned, bearing moral responsibility.' 'But then the terms 'self-respect' and 'moral responsibility' do not exist in the modern Indian political lexicon,' argues Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused the Congress again of planning to redistribute people's property if it is voted to power, but stopped short of saying that the wealth would go to Muslims.
Delhi's appeasement strategy may now translate as more mega arms deals with the US, generating substantial business and job creation in the American economy. Make no mistake, Americans will use it to pressure India, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi government that wanted to do so.
'You can see both being used in our textbooks already and that will continue in new textbooks'
'The reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have attended the President's iftar was not merely to break a fast with the faithful, but more importantly to broker an understanding with India's second largest set of citizens,' says Shehzad Poonawalla.
'If we get 399 seats and you say we have not crossed 400, then it is your wisdom. But the '400 paar' slogan is based on calculation and considered opinion'
How can a film that has a character declare that secularism is an illness be taken seriously, asks Deepa Gahlot.
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
They try to hide behind the smokescreen that these are works of fiction inspired by real events. So, you can pick and choose from facts and fictionalise to push the right triggers with your audience or appease the powers that be, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The bill to amend the law governing Waqf boards proposes far-reaching changes in the Wakf Act, 1995, including ensuring the representation of Muslim women and non-Muslims in such bodies.
' I have seen PM Modi working diligently from 5 am in the morning to 1 am. It is a result of that there is such a large cadre with him'
Setting the tone for his 2024 re-election bid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for waging a war against the 'three evils' of corruption, appeasement and dynastic politics, stepped up the OBC outreach with a mega scheme and exuded confidence he would return to address the nation from the Red Fort next year.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
Asserting that the prime minister's job will remain with BJP leader Narendra Modi even after the general elections slated for next year, Singh claimed the country is scaling new heights under PM Modi's leadership.
'My chants in praise of BJP and RSS stalwarts were a reaction to what MPs like Owaisi did.'
In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.
Hansal Mehta sniffs a political conspiracy; Information and Broadcasting official poohpoohs the charge.
