Journalist-turned-activist Teesta Setalvad in her new book 'Foot Soldier of the Constitution: A Memoir' has spoken of the rise of communalism and the aftermath of the '02 Godhra riots. In this interview with Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf, she discusses her book, the cases against her and the state of secularism in the country.
'Gandhi was ambivalent about the RSS; the Sangh, for their part, actively distrusted him.'
Congress leadership would take a call on who would be its deputy chief minister on Tuesday.
'The locals want a permanent solution to the perennial Mandir-Masjid issue. They have realised political parties will lose relevance if a temple is built.'
'Which path should Muslims take politically as they have been completely marginalised?'
'My wife has done everything... She has had to give up a lot,' HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tells Sahil Makkar.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government has no other option but to extend President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir as the Election Commission wants to hold assembly elections in the state by the end of 2019.
'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.
'The reopening of the petition shows that there was something that was flawed in (the earlier) Supreme Court judgment, and this means another step forward.'
'It is a travesty that I have to prove my commitment to Gandhi and to this country.'
'The prime minister has merely paid lip service condemning these crimes instead of launching a massive crackdown against such brutalities,' argues Professor Mohammad Sajjad.
Shashwata Chatterjee on watching the football World Cup, spending days in the MP's Delhi home and the day his Dadu came to visit him in his college in Los Angeles.
'The judge said that anybody who does not believe in the RSS ideology is not acceptable to you. You have terminated his contract because he thought differently.' 'The Modi government has no accomplishment to show. Therefore, they are using the tool of nationalism to divert the country's attention from very serious things like farmers suicides and the water crisis.' 'You cannot simply dismiss anyone because they are not willing to raise a slogan and not think like you.'
'Gandhi turned his life into a counter-intuitive experiment in old ideas like non-violence and swadeshi.' 'He offered numerous universal ideas that talk to the human condition.' 'His ability to take risks was outstanding,' says Sopan Joshi, explaining why the Mahatma's ideas are as relevant as ever.
'Most Hindus believe in living in peace with their Muslim neighbours and vice versa.' 'It is this India we have to preserve.'
Everything you need to know about the three properties belonging to Dawood Ibrahim, which were auctioned on Tuesday.
'There are many able, good, police officers in Bengal who are capable of handling this situation, but without Mamata Banerjee nothing moves.'
'I want to know, how can any God become impure if woman enters the temple?'
Mohammad Sajjad salutes the memory of Mushirul Hasan -- historian, thinker, academic, institution builder, -- who passed into the ages this week.
'The Congress has collapsed and is fighting for survival. Other parties carry no weight in comparison to the BJP. This situation does not augur well for democracy,'
Empowered in the Modi government, junior ministers have enough on their plate.
After all the drama that preceded the book launch of former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's book launch, the discussion that ensued on the book the same evening turned out to be a fiasco. Here's why
'When Hindus converted through inducements there was no hue and cry, but when reconversions took place, everyone cried foul. If re-conversions are bad, so are conversions.' 'Our government is not getting involved either in conversions or re-conversions. The BJP has nothing to do with it.' Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in a candid interview.
When Narendra Modi called for a debate on 370, he was simply reiterating a demand made long back, it was not a dilution of any stated position, nor was it a display of opportunism, it was rather a demand for the assertion of India's unity, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
India's Muslims need to assert their educational and economic upliftment and political empowerment rather than be provoked by communal remarks, says Mohammad Sajjad, reflecting on the Malda riot.
'Godse is no more, but the mindset which gave birth to such distorted philosophy is unfortunately still with us.'
Noted writer Nayantara Sahgal, who recently returned her 'Sahitya Akademi' Award over the Dadri lynching case, has said secularism is under threat like never before and that individual freedom and rights have to be protected even these are guaranteed in the Constitution.
'Nobody is killing you in Kerala because you are Hindu unlike in North India where Muslims have been killed only because they are Muslims and were carrying some meat.'
'We are passing through a very historical moment. The UP election next year and the Lok Sabha election of 2019 will decide the course of India.' 'Maybe the unlettered will save India again because they have inherited a different India and a different idea of India,' says eminent social scientist Achyut Yagnik.
As the Hindu Mahasabha shockingly threatens to celebrate the death anniversary of the man who murdered the Mahatma, we need to remember Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the ideals he stood for. In this exclusive excerpt from Shobha Warrier's new book, His Days With Bapu: Mahatma Gandhi's Personal Secretary Recalls, V Kalyanam, the Mahatma's personal secretary from 1944 until January 30, 1948, recalls his murder in cold blood.
'If the BJP wants to build a minimally inclusive and secure society, in which vulnerable groups and religious minorities don't feel persecuted, then the Sangh Parivar, the party and its government must change their ways. Or else, they risk dividing India further -- violently and irreparably -- for narrow political ends,' argues Praful Bidwai.
'I don't think I will have a release in 2015.' Aamir Khan talks business, and PK.
'Compared to other social groups, managing the Muslim constituency has always been easier for the secularists.' 'Just some symbolic measures and window-dressing would keep the Muslim flock together.' 'Having been betrayed by all the supposedly 'secular' political parties, Muslims should turn into citizens without any ascriptive identity marks,'says Mohammad Sajjad.
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