Pulwama must become the defining moment in our fight against terror, effecting a sea change in our mindset. The erratic, blow hot blow cold approach, the hallmark of our anti-terror-Pak-Kashmir policy must end. In its place is required a pragmatic, comprehensive, robust hard line course that is relentlessly pursued even in times of relative calm until the final objective is met, namely the eradication of separatism and the total annihilation of terror, says Vivek Gumaste.
One must be extremely cautious while shopping with a credit card.
The protesters marched from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar carrying the flag, depicting 110 years of their struggle for separate state.
'Besides electoral opportunism, a sustained vilification of AMU on one or the other pretext helps them sustain their 'everyday communalism', the new strategy of the BJP of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah era,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
On a visit to India in 2013, writer Ved Mehta -- who passed into the ages on Sunday January 10, 2021 - gave Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel a rare glimpse into his state of mind and what he thinks of the changes he encounters in his motherland.
'The current BJP leadership believes the party's expansion across India, and thus their own survival at the top, depends on injecting communal tension into areas where it has so far been largely controlled,' argues Mihir S Sharma.
Three Indian Air Force officers held as Prisoners of War in a jail in Rawalipindi made a heroic escape. They reached as far as the Pak-Afghan border in Pakistan's Wild West -- within sniffing distance of freedom -- only to realise that they had finally met their match. Or so it seemed. The three escapees were never feted for their audacious attempt 41 years and truly deserve official recognition. Why not honour them at least now, says MP Anil Kumar.
20 years ago this week, India and Australia played one of the greatest Test matches in cricket history. Sreehari Nair relives the sound and the fury of that unforgettable game at the Eden Gardens.
Taking suo motu note of a letter on posting of two rape videos on WhatsApp, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to launch a probe "forthwith" to nab the culprits and sought responses from the Centre and governments of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Delhi and Telangana.
'The current government must act sooner rather than later,' asserts Vivek Gumaste.
'The police are busy arresting people from Delhi, but not those we saw burning our home!'
'The BJP and RSS may realise it is much easier for the ICHR to rewrite textbooks and for the ICSSR to float its bizarre interpretations on social themes than to keep people away from their favourite dishes.'
'The significance and timing of the PM's start of the campaign journey from Silchar is a clear message that the Barak valley is a priority in his scheme of things,' notes Subimal Bhattacharjee.
'If everybody knows your name, that's success. Isn't that what society tells us? I experienced all that at a very young age. So how come I wasn't happy?' Lisa Ray wonders.
Bodo tribals influence as many as 30 seats. No wonder, national parties are keen to forge alliances with Bodo groups.
The BJP doesn't want to focus entirely on an anti-Mamata campaign.
'There is no audience anymore for my graphic novels. Few people seem interested in what I find interesting,' Sarnath Banerjee tells Uttaran Das Gupta.
The BJP, on the other hand, learnt from past mistakes to clinch power.
Had the slain Indian-American engineer stayed in India, he would have earned less but his life might have been spared, Sunanda K Datta-Ray says, pondering the question of where one belongs.
Articulate segments of Muzaffarpur have been at the the forefront of all anti-establishment mobilisation, which makes their silence over the atrocities in a shelter home in the town puzzling. Could it be that if those accused of horrific crimes belong to dominant castes and if the victims belong to the vulnerable groups, then the middle classes become mute, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
'Our priority cannot be better cities. Since real change is not possible, we must satisfy ourselves with a change in name,' says Aakar Patel.
In the light of the efforts being made to forge electoral unity between scheduled castes and Muslims, Mohammad Sajjad examines what the architect of our Constitution, B R Ambedkar, had to say about the Muslim community.
A top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party and Bangladeshi media doyen Mir Quasem Ali was sentenced to death on Sunday by a special tribunal for war crimes he committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971, days after the party's chief was given capital punishment on identical charges.
If Kishore Kumar were alive today, he would have turned 90 on August 4.
'Kumbalangi Nights is a movie that respects women, but most importantly, it's a movie that loves them,' says Sreehari Nair.
'We have given the authorities our bank details; hope they give us something since we won't be able to work for some time.' A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com speaks to passengers injured in the terrors blasts on the Bangalore-Guwahati Express.
Why not agree that, yes, India is a Hindu country though not all Indians are Hindus? And that for those who are not, our Constitution is sturdily secular and always will be, says Karti Sandilya.
Manobi Bandyopadhyay, India's first transgender principal of a college, speaks of her struggles in a moving interview.
If the government seriously keeps out of business, the business world will know about it at a lightning speed; there would be no need for rock show-like events.
'It is the regional parties and their leaders who are the ones we have to watch.'
'Modi's campaign has been strikingly devoid of anti-Muslim rhetoric. After the kutta pilla incident, it has been several months since he said something horrible about the Muslims of India. It is the result of democratic constraints. He has to make compromises... He's trying to reinvent himself. He will politically hurt himself if 2002 becomes the definition of Mr Modi again', says political scientist Ashutosh Varshney.
What does Pakistan mean for a young Indian? Devanik Saha attempts an answer.
'I don't have a family member in the industry and haven't been launched opposite a superstar. I don't have multiple film deals with any studio. It's difficult because I have to prove myself with every film.' Yet, Taapsee Pannu is one of the the busiest actresses in Bollywood.
'We have to find a way out of this confrontational politics.'
Happy with her latest move, Indrani departed from Courtroom 51 with a spring in her step. The woman who hopped up into the jail truck was a cheerful one.
'Societies like the Nagas have gone through so many decades of armed conflict. Conditions which are not 'normal' for others are 'normal' for them!' 'In such societies, there is always bound to be so much pent-up feeling waiting to just come out. It just requires a little spark! And once the mob takes over, reason flies out the window.'
Kota, Rajasthan, is both a beacon for the educationally deprived and a cynical place in which 16-year-olds live in Dickensian boarding houses, while teachers drive Audis.
'Reality shows don't teach contestants how to deal with the reality of being a singer.'
BJP's Member of Parliament Tarun Vijay on why he chose to demand national status for Tamil
