One would not think that a Facebook status or a tweet could land you in jail, at least not in India -- the world's largest democracy. However, the reality is a lot more brutal in India, which has a shameful history of locking up its citizens for dissenting viewpoints. According to Mint, at least 50 people have been arrested through 2017 and 2018 for posts on social media. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com presents some of the most prominent cases.
'The country has moved beyond the likes of Yogi Adityanath and his medieval thinking. The results of the by-elections are early warning signals by impatient Indians. It's up to the BJP to learn its lesson or face the consequences,' says Ashutosh.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea of residents of illegal flats in Mumbai's Campa Cola Housing Society against the earlier order asking them to vacate their premises by May 31.
In a letter to the North Korean dictator, the US president says talks are 'inappropriate' based on the open hostility displayed in the recent statement.
All is not well with Telengana and its Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao
However, many historians, conservationists and artists have slam move to 'entrust' Red Fort to cement company.
The new Ministers of State sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan include Virendra Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, former IAS officers Alphons Kannanthanam and R K Singh, former diplomat Hardeep Puri and ex-Mumbai police chief Satyapal Singh. Two other new faces are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, a member of the Lok Sabha from Bihar, and Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh.
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on Friday ordered immediate rehabilitation of over 900 families after their houses were razed by the Railways in Mansarovar Park Metro line in northeast Delhi leaving them homeless in the shivering cold.
It has been a half-century since Neil Armstrong stepped out of a lunar module and onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969 and declared, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." The moment heralded a golden age of space exploration that was set in motion just eight years earlier in 1961, when United States President John F Kennedy promised before Congress to put a man on the moon before the decade was out. Here are some lesser-known facts about the historic first mission:
Javadekar, along with Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, is among the few ministers who have party as well as ministerial responsibilities.
In a forceful statement in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj rejected allegations that she misled the country.
Increasingly seen as the 'bellwether' for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the assembly election results will not only decide as to who will rule UP but show which way the wind is blowing ahead of the Lok Sabha elections two years hence.
The regularisation of our homes may take time but at least restore water, electricity and gas pipeline connection, say the harrowed residents of Campa Cola Compound Residents' Association after the Supreme Court ruled January 30 that they can make a fresh representation to the new government in Maharashtra and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to regularise their homes. Prasanna D Zore reports.
The 'Chhota don' may be down but certainly not out. And the same can be said of the Ganesh pandal once patronised by him, reports Anil Singh.
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
One accused was acquitted by the court.
magistrate that he had assembled the explosives and had "guided" the members of the terror outfit while planting bombs at Hyderabad's Dilsukhnagar area in February last year.
'Modi has shown political courage by instituting several economic reforms which include demonetisation, ushering in GST, eradication of benami transactions...'
Mahendra Raj is a towering figure of 20th century Indian architecture.
The world must hang its head in shame for being a mute spectator to the 'cultural holocaust' in Tibet, says Major General Mrinal Suman (retd).
The real Kathmandu is different from the Kathmandu of the news stories, writes Patrick Ward.
'There is too much news about film stars. There is too much fawning over wealth and power. There is a grey area between seriousness and triviality in news reporting now.' 'Mumbai is still a magnet. All the politicians have property in Mumbai. Politicians are the biggest racketeers here.' Olga Tellis, the legendary reporter who completed 50 years in journalism, tells A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com about her life and experiences.
'The innate fascism of the RSS is overshadowing Modi's development programme,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'This is an emotional issue and cannot be resolved by law alone.' 'This can be resolved only by creating trust again.' 'So much bloodletting has taken place, there is no point in going on and on.' 'Let us sit together and negotiate'
The rift between Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party colleague Azam Khan, who also happens to be a prominent minister in the state cabinet, appears to be widening.
More noticeable than the hue of his shirt was his mast style in the witness box. He seemed to be reinventing the truth every few minutes. He yarned on and on, navigating his testimony further and further away from the facts, but he never lost his aplomb.
When Subir Roy met Ruchira Gupta at The Telegraph 35 years ago she was not quite 20 and not a graduate. Today she is the indomitable founder of Apne Aap, which has touched the lives of over 21,000 women who were victims of sex trafficking.
More than 25 years after the Babri Masjid was destroyed, another generation proclaims its commitment to building a Ram temple.
2015 was characterised by some interesting events and trends.
N Suresh pays tribute to a consummate politician who passed into the ages on Monday.
During a war, there are just four possibilities a soldier faces. One: Victorious and safe. Two: Wounded. Three: Killed in action. Four: Prisoner of War. It was my fate to face the fourth, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) on the year spent as a prisoner of war in Pakistan during the 1971 War.
The Hindutva brigade's silence on the rape may possibly be explained that this incident is an intra-Hindu affair for them. What is even more intriguing is that vocal gender activists have preferred to almost ignore the incident. Why? Is it because homosexual rape does not involve the woman either as victim or as aggressor, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav fired barbs at each other at an event to celebrate the SP's silver jubilee, barely two days after putting up a united show.
For generations to come it will be difficult for any other Urdu poet to attain such high standards as Nida Fazli, who passed into the ages on Monday, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.
'If I am not there, the RSS would do that job. They are obviously in power, they can do anything.'
The test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be to convince not just friends in the media with crisp sound bytes but the very people most affected by the politics of hate through concerted action, says Shehzad Poonawala.
The retrospective tax decision reversing the January 2012 Supreme Court verdict in the Vodafone case has often been cited as the reason for foreign investors losing confidence in India as an investment destination.
'What I remember best is the vigour with which she threw herself into the job, the passion she had for issues, particularly those that affected the poor.'
Almost everyone in Gorakhpur has a story about an Adityanath intervention that helped push through a piece of work that would've been otherwise impossible.
Sharad Yadav says that reports about disquiet among the factions are 'sponsored'.
