'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.
'It would be a folly on our part to believe that the KKK or its Indian version exists only as some dedicated organisation. Rather, the Indian KKK, much like the American counterpart, exists as a fragmented and amorphous collection of independent groups and individuals,' says Shehzad Poonawalla.
'Karpoori Thakur must be remembered by people today who are tired of witnessing fractious politics where corruption, bigotry, hatred and violence seems to have become distressingly recurrent,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
'Why don't they suggest artificial intelligence training for SC/STs?' 'Why can't they be trained in computer programming?'
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 you come to Delhi, you see that there are many Kashmirs here -- the Dalits, Muslims, women, bonded labourers.'
Some of the letters exchanged between the arrested activists spoke of planning 'some big action' which would attract attention, Singh said.
A Dalit girl, who was set ablaze after an attempted rape, died after struggling for survival for twelve days at a hospital in Bhubaneswar, triggering public protests and demands for the resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
'In UP, the CM actually announced that his administration would 'take revenge' against rioters.' 'That must have been music to his police force's ears for it substantiated what the police always do: Take revenge on an entire community for the violence of a few,' points out Jyoti Punwani.
'The Jharkhand government is increasingly intolerant of voices of dissent.' 'Recently 20 persons, including activists, writers and academics, were booked for sedition.' 'Many of them have been critical of the government's apathy towards Adivasis,' notes Siraj Dutta.
Kanhaiya Kumar is India's latest political rockstar. More so in Mumbai, where his address this evening gave Mumbaikars a glimpse of the heydays of the Communist movement in the city of textiles mills and mill workers.
One year later, Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar travels to Ilavarasan's village, and finds out that cast culture still prevails at its worst in Tamil Nadu
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.
Probably the only such school in India, the Satguru Kabir Shiksha Samstha in Luniyakhedi village, Madhya Pradesh, is based on Kabir's philosophy and ideals.
'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
'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).
Sujatha Gidla's scathing observations about Mahatma Gandhi and other highlights from Jaipur Literature Festival 2018.
In the absence of the over-arching 'Jaya charisma', EPS has to convince the AIADMK's traditional constituencies, including those in his western districts, that his leadership would stand up against the BJP-led Centre even in a post-poll scenario, a la Jayalalithaa, and would not yield as much as party founder MGR had done, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tarun Vijay on why the victory in Uttar Pradesh belongs to Narendra Modi and the road ahead.
Mohammad Shahabuddin, in prison for over a decade, still inspires fear, a reminder of the 'jungle raj' when political murders were commonplace in Bihar.
Nitish 'sent his emissary, Prashant Kishor, to me on five different occasions.' 'Kishor seemed to indicate that if I were to assure in writing my party's support to the JD-U, the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan.' A revealing excerpt from Lalu Prasad Yadav's Gopalganj To Raisina: My Political Journey.
'The people of the state can be won over by love, and not by swords.'
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
#Not In My Name, said ordinary citizens, as they took to the streets to reclaim the India they believed in.
'The forces of good are on the run.' 'But dark times also challenge people to fight.' 'I believe Indians will rise against these dark times.'
Reason must triumph over blind faith, says Praful Bidwai in this tribute to murdered rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
'For a long time I didn't know what my mother did -- she kept me in the dark to protect me.' 'But whatever she did, she did it for me.' 'It's been three years since my mother passed away.' 'If she was still alive, I'd respect her choice and stand by her.'
Buried in a Kolkata cemetery is an Englishman who served India well during her struggle for freedom. Charles Freer Andrews was a benevolent force that neither the Indians, nor the British could ignore.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday came out with its manifesto for the December 4 Delhi polls, promising to enact Jan Lokpal Bill in 15 days if voted to power.
Bajirao, an unorthodox leader, faced much opposition during his lifetime from the Brahmins of Pune. In the last hundred years or so, he has been ignored due to caste politics in Maharashtra where he has become a 'non person' for having been born a Brahmin, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Born in poverty and subjected to inhuman abuse, Kalpana Saroj overcame all hurdles to emerge a success story.
