The AAP has adopted policies in an ad hoc manner, without thinking them through or deriving them from a broader framework. This must change if the AAP is to become a credible alternative, says Praful Bidwai.
'As PDP chief, Mehbooba has every right to raise issues in her party's interest.'
After Narendra Modi's exit from state politics, the BJP and Hindutva forces are falling back on communal politics, says Vinay Umarji
'Farmers' issues will rule the narrative in the 2019 elections.'
'Lord Ram's history has reached Indonesia, but not Owaisi's home.'
'Like 2014, 2017 was also Modi's election.' 'Every voter you met, apart from those who are BJP cadres, everybody said they would vote for Modi, not the BJP.' 'The one and only factor is the Modi juggernaut. He is the one who turned the tide.' 'The wave which he created in 2014, and to maintain it for three years, is a huge task in itself.'
We must repeal AFSPA to begin to heal Kashmir, and to enhance India's moral stature and that of the army, says Ajai Shukla
The eight-phase DDC polls, which began on November 28, is also the first election after Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 was revoked last year and it was reorganised into a Union Territory.
'The SP-BSP have almost come to an understanding that the BSP will take the larger share of parliamentary seats and take care of national politics.' 'The SP in future assembly elections will take larger seats and take care of state politics.'
'Is Rahul turning the Congress' covert soft-Hindutva support into overt support now?' 'And if so, following in the BJP's footsteps, is the Congress going to abandon Indian Muslims and Muslim causes altogether?' asks Dr Najid Hussain whose father-in-law former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
Congress on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "break his silence" over the alleged "provocative" statements by the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in connection with the Dadri lynching, saying that not doing so would suggest that they had his "approval".
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday condemned the elements who cause communal and sectarian divide and said these 'elements expand their activities as elections draw near'.
The AAP won in 62 with a total vote share of 53.58 per cent. The BJP recorded victory in eight seats, receiving 38.49 per cent of the total votes. The Congress could not even manage a single seat and ended with 4.27 per cent vote share.
'Potent nationalism doesn't just distract from the economic task at hand; it actively undermines it.'
After an apparent truce between AAP and the BJP following the Delhi polls, sparks are flying once again. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Anti-conversion laws are needed since thrusting the idea of a competitive battlefield of religion onto India's pluralistic traditions can only lead to greater communal conflict, says Sankrant Sanu
However, it fell nine seats short of a majority.
'China was a relationship from which Mr Modi had expected the most it seems.' 'It showed in a string of summits, and somewhat breathless celebration of Xi Jinping.' 'It was hasty and simplistic,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The combined Left parties drew a blank in the polls to the assembly which they had run with an overwhelming majority for 34 long years, with their vote share dwindling to a mere 5.47 per cent in 2021.
The 700-page report tabled in the state assembly on Sunday said the riots, following the murder of two persons by a youth from a minority community in Kawal town on August 27, 2013, took place as the then inspector of intelligence unit Prabal Pratap Singh failed to give an exact number of people going to attend a mahapanchayat at Mandaur.
'I have tried to draw the UN's attention to the very obvious attempt of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convert a secular India into a theocratic Hindu State.'
73 constituencies will vote on Saturday.
Mohammad Sajjad profiles Professor Riazur Rahman Sherwani, 94, versatile mind, intrepid intellectual.
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
Making a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday warned that the country faced the biggest threat from communal forces and their ideology even as the AICC resolution called upon "like-minded political and social forces to come together at this critical juncture".
Rampant corruption by Congress ministers must be counted as the single biggest factor to prompt the electorate to hand over a thumping mandate to the Communist parties, says M K Bhadrakumar.
'The Communist rule in Tripura was exceptional while it lasted for a quarter century in giving good governance.' 'The chief minister himself was the paragon of virtues in his dedication in public life.' 'But all that still didn't add up when the BJP's dream merchants came up with their famous 'development agenda'.' 'One thing that emerges indisputably in the Tripura election results is that needs and aspirations more or less narrow down to one little word -- jobs,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
Taking note of the "revenge" remark made by Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah while campaigning in riot-affected areas of Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission on Monday issued notice to him for prima facie violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Mauled in the Lok Sabha elections and facing dissidence within, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Saturday but interestingly did not seek dissolution of the assembly injecting a dramatic turn in the state politics.
'We had never imagined that the prime minister could use such language to win votes.' 'I was under the impression that the prime minister is a very knowledgeable man, but I was amazed to find that he doesn't know that India's Constitution.'
In a scathing attack on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader and Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday accused him of being "masterly inactive" over Muzaffarnagar riots and adopting a "cynical strategy" of believing that it would divide voters.
In a veiled attack on the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said political forces were behind the recent Muzaffarnagar communal riots as they feel they cannot achieve electoral victory without creating such conflicts.
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
'Both the CPM and the BJP have one agenda, and that is to keep the Congress out.' 'That's why they are coming together.'
'Gujarat poll results have boosted the morale of Congress workers, not only in Gujarat but all over India'
Shattered by the party's worst debacle in the elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday offered to resign accepting responsibility but the party unanimously rejected it.
Here's what leaders have been saying about AAP's stunning election victory in Delhi
'2020 will show whether India's troubled domestic economic and political house reveals a mismatch in their strategic association or whether closer strategic ties are yet possible,' says Anita Inder Singh.
'How better can we depict the Mughal heritage?'
'His secularism merely declared the equality of all religions in India under fundamental rights.'
