Little has changed in Digital India. The issue that rocked the nation 100 years ago still creates a furore in Indian society, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Here's a look at Aamir's unique avatars, where he's not playing the usual cop or college-goer, no matter how well (or how often) he's performed. And also where what he plays is as attention grabbing as how he plays it, no matter how lousy the film.
'Hindus are proud of what the Dharmashastras symbolise, but they don't want to do any work to preserve it!,' Sanskrit scholar Donald Davis tells Kanika Dutta.
Despite the headwinds both on the domestic and global fronts, Ramesh S Damani, member, BSE and a prominent investor, says India will weather a global trade war better than a lot of other Asian countries.
'One per cent of wealthy people have been handed over 99 per cent of our nation's resources. The rest are mute, helpless and very frightened spectators to this loot.'
Meet Bengaluru's fondest freedom fighter, HS Doreswamy, who has been a sprightly witness to the country's ups and downs since 1947.
'...because the party is based on the Constitution.'
'The BJP, or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are celebrating their biggest ideological and philosophical victory in some time,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The RSS does not mind playing politics with religion-based census data despite knowing well that it is completely flawed, says Syed Firduas Ashraf.
Single political leaders, Narendra Modi boasted recently at an election rally, can end corruption. He claimed that only those free of filial ties could end decades of corrupt rule, says Rahul Bedi.
A left-leaning centralised socialist model has created a shortage/entitlement economy. In fact one of the reasons for India's limited progress is that post-independent India is at odds with its true nature. It is something that educated right of centre Hindus are trying to correct, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
JP was a People's Hero unmatched in Independent India. Archana Masih goes to Jayaprakash Narayan's village looking for Bihar's greatest son as the claimants of his legacy go to war in what is being called the Election of Elections.
'The Opposition has no option but to make it an 'All versus One' fight to even think about winning.'
'I warn them of such tactics because hundreds of Hardiks will be born if one is killed because our fight for justice has been accepted by the Patidar community.'
One cannot but infer that this brouhaha is a crafty ploy to create an issue out of a non-issue. An overview of post-independent India's history reveals that it is not the BJP or the Sangh Parivar but Marxist historians who have been guilty of debasing history to suit their vested interests, says Vivek Gumaste.
'When you start delving deeper into these disappearances, you have to face the question: Was it a policy at the State level?' 'It surely couldn't have been random officers acting on their own.' 'Was it planned? What does it mean if the State allows its police to become lawless and act with impunity?' 'Perhaps the NHRC, for the 21 years that it has been seized of the matter, avoided these questions.'
A one-man judicial commission headed by former high court judge Vishnu Sahai is understood to have indicted government officials more than politicians for the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and four adjoining districts in 2013.
L N Mishra was the first Cabinet minister to be assassinated in Independent India. After Monday's judgment, almost 40 years after the murder, the minister's son tells Rediff.com why the government must reveal who really killed his father.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday condemned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that Narendra Modi as premier will be disastrous for the nation and said it was unfortunate he was saying this even after the clean chit given to him by the Special Investigation Team and a court.
What is the wider political strategy behind Mr Modi's concerted attack on black money, asks Subir Roy.
'The tax avoidance in India is done as much by the wealthy as the lower class.' 'There is no difference in ethics and culture and morality, and no difference in tax-paying behaviour between various Indian classes, whether educated or not,' says Aakar Patel.
'It would be too sweeping to say that the elites and the middle-class don't care about liberty.' 'It is just that they are always calculating the trade-offs: What's in it for me, what could it cost me?' 'To that extent, we haven't changed in 40 years,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Ever since this election concluded, aspirations have risen... political stability in itself is a big message. By deciding for stability, the people of India have laid the foundation for development.'
Bharatiya Janata Party's Subrmanian Swamy and Congress' Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday came out in unison to assail the criminal defamation law before the Supreme Court which said that lodging of cases for political speech and debates under the controversial provisions should be avoided.
After the public spat over the legacy of Sardar Patel between Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Modi will lay the foundation stone for the statue on Thursday.
'Gujaratis, among all Indians, are supposed to be born businessmen, but if more than 80% of them do not have the ability to do basic arithmetic, the future is grim.' 'The big issues are in society and they cannot be changed by an HRD minister no matter how brilliant she may be or think of herself as being,' says Aakar Patel.
'2 hours and 20 minutes later, I walked out of Sachin: A Billion Dreams learning not one additional thing about Tendulkar: Not one factoid, not one statistic.' 'Maybe it's convenient filmmaking, or maybe just the essence of God,' says Sreehari Nair.
Prasad, who referred to the days when the saffron party had won just two seats in the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, slammed the BJP for shying away from declaring its 'face' for state polls.
'We have never had a policy regarding Pakistani artistes working in India.' 'We welcome them with open arms and that remains the official policy of the Indian government, including the current dispensation.'
The youngest president of the Indian cricket board in India in independent India, Anurag Thakur has taken over the reins of the world's richest cricketing body at a time it is fighting an existential battle against a complete restructuring recommended by the Supreme Court.
Since 55 per cent of Indian trade passes through the South China Sea, and with over $5 billion investments in the energy sector in Vietnam, it is imperative India actively pursues its national interests in the region, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
'Forming cults around Lalus, Nitishes, Mulayams, Mayawatis and Mamatas will do as much harm to the Republic as the bhakti of the Hindus for Modi will do,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'But the country has lost someone who stood even in movie theatres by his own volition,' says Harsh Gokhale.
Despite the indisputable facts demonetisation and its pain is yet to have a quantifiable political backlash. But this is provided the government can limit the damage to the next one week.
'Those days, none of the leaders thought of amassing wealth.' 'All of them wanted to sacrifice their all for the country.' 'There are many who didn't have any money, but sacrificed their lives for the country.' 'There are many who spent their own money and worked for the country.' 'There are many more about whom we do not even know what they had done; they did everything so silently and selflessly.'
In embarking on building the world's tallest statue, Modi is hoping his stature will also rise - if not across India then at least in Gujarat, says Bharat Bhushan.
Nivedita Mookerji finds out how Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma is handling his soaring popularity after the note ban as well as the criticism that comes as a package deal.
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