Apart from taking stock of the political situation in the country, the CWC discussed the upcoming presidential and vice presidential elections.
The Congress will only survive if it can transform into something more like the BJP used to be: A coalition of strong state leaders held together by shared ideology or personal loyalty, suggests Mihir S Sharma.
After an Intelligence Bureau report warning the PMO against non-profit bodies, the home ministry is likely to order an SIT probe into their functioning, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
She began her career as an aspiring model in the late 1990s. A few decades later, she is one of India's best known politicians.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
A protest over the issue of de-recognition of an Indian Institute of Technology-Madras students' group was on Monday held outside the human resource development ministry's office in New Delhi.
The CM said the alleged sex abuse of girls at the shelter home "has left us with a sense of shame and guilt".
"I like Rahul Gandhi at a personal level, but I do not consider him as a leader because he is not my leader," Patel also said at an event.
Parrikar said he did not take anyone's name. "What is quoted is not what I have said. I never took the name of anyone, nor threatened anyone," the defence minister said.
'You can disagree with Dr Ilaiah's analyses of how the caste-based economy works, or with his prescriptions on how to fix it.' 'But a disagreement that is couched in terms of 'offence' given and received shuts down the debate that is essential to build a more just and modern India,' argues Mihir Sharma.
Jyoti Punwani examines the relevance of the Sairat, the hit Marathi film everyone is talking about, in today's times.
'One hopes the younger generation sees Savarkar him for what he was and does not view him through a distorted prism.' 'This is the least one could do for someone who devoted his whole life to Indian freedom struggle, elimination of caste, succour to Dalits, and instilling of strategic culture in India,' says Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The focus on non-issues like 'love jihad' has dragged radicals like Vijaykant Chauhan from the fringes to the mainstream in Uttar Pradesh
Nowhere else has caste, power politics, and generational change come together to form a combination so potent that it is combustible.
'Emboldened by the BJP victory, the upper castes feel they must assert themselves and regain dominance over the rural power structure.'
"We have taken note of this anger. We should not take upper caste votes for granted believing that they will not vote for any other party as there is no option," a senior BJP leader said.
'The top level will be development and then sab ka saath, sab ka vikas.' 'But at the street level, the tongue will be vicious.'
Janata Dal-United on Wednesday suspended two Lok Sabha MPs, Jai Narayan Nishad and Purnmasi Ram, from the party for six years on charge of engaging in anti-party activities.
Highly critical of Karnataka government's decision to celebrate Tipu Jayanti to "appease" minorities, an article in 'Panchjanya' described him as 'Aurangzeb' of South who "forcibly" converted lakhs of people.
Even as Priyanka is gaining traction among the electorate and the media, her counterpart for the western UP region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has been low key and perceptibly missing from the 'heat and dust' of elections in UP, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
It looked as if the BJP was hoping to use Rajinikanth to press their seat-bargain with the AIADMK. Now with the Rajini bait gone, the question now is not how much the BJP would settle for, but how much the AIADMK would be ready to offer, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Nitish is now a helpless junior ally of Hindutva.' 'He just cannot think of reining in the hoodlums raging, marauding and killing in the mohallas,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Gujarat BJP in-charge Dinesh Sharma and national joint general secretary (organisation) V Satish, are scheduled to arrive in Ahmedabad to hold talks with local leaders
'You can't go on creating division and rhetoric of hate.' 'It comes to roost. We are seeing the first glimpses of that in the state elections.'
Similar flags were also unfurled at about 24 other places across the Vidarbha region.
The BJP assessment -- or at least that of some of its leaders -- is that the Congress in Gujarat has peaked too soon, having already fired all its weapons and has nothing new to say.
Counting of votes is underway in assembly byelection to 58 seats in 11 states including Madhya Pradesh where the results will decide the fate of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.
'When Arnab Goswami's arrest became a talking point, the case of my husband who was arrested much earlier, was totally ignored.' 'When so many people spoke in support of Goswami, they were silent on a journalist named Siddique Kappan'
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh perceives the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to be a fight for its own existence and all that it stands for. Archis Mohan reports
'Fighting Meira Kumar is not a daunting task at all. I hope to give her a very tough fight... Bihar is one state where my Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has challenged Narendra Modi's candidature. As a challenge he should have contested from Bihar and proved Nitish Kumar wrong,' says Dr K P Ramaiah, an IAS officer till a few months ago, now fighting his first election from Sasaram, Bihar.
Rahul described the Rafale deal as a 'systematic robbery' from the Indian defence forces.
The Aam Aadmi Party government on Tuesday informed the Delhi high court that the brother of Hyderabad University Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, who had committed suicide, is not interested in taking up the job offered to him on compassionate grounds.
'Open defecation kills more Indians than any terrorist organisation could, but turning that around will take communicating that all Indians are created equal and that continuing this practice is anti-national,' points out Rahul Jacob.
As per the Cabinet, the decision was taken on a representation received from Rohith's brother seeking support for himself and his family by way of employment.
'This is how Narendra Modi-Amit Shah rule. They are now announcing that these arrested Naxalites want to kill Modi.'
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday accused it of destabilising institutions, polarising society and mistaking its parliamentary majority for a licence to impose its narrow ideology on people
'It's not only holy reverence that drives them to such vigilantism -- there is adventure too.' 'Some of the younger gau rakshaks enjoy the thrill of the chase: Stopping vehicles, wielding weapons, badgering passengers and then gloating.'
'The BJP has failed to protect cows.' Why doesn't the government say it is a government for cows, mandir and the Ganga?' 'Why don't they declare the cow as a national animal?
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's similar remarks about the need for a review of the reservation policy, just ahead of Bihar polls, had cost the BJP dearly as it saw a massive consolidation of the electorate from the backward classes and weaker sections in favour of Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance.
The national scheduled castes panel on Tuesday issued notices to Union human resource development secretary and IIT-Madras Director asking them to appear before it on June 8 amid a political row over de-recognition of a students' body comprising mostly dalits.
