Renu Mittal reports on how the United Progressive Alliance government is walking the tight-rope over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
False and acrimonious debates such as Modi versus Manmohan might allow for victories that are political and partisan. But the real loser is the nation, India and Bharat, notes Arvind Subramanian, former chief economic advisor to the Modi government in its first term.
While Narendra Modi spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor -- 275 days versus Dr Singh's 306 - he has travelled more widely than any other Indian PM.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday challenged Home Minister Amit Shah to debate with him on his three press conferences in which the Congress leader alleged 'vote chori' by the Bharatiya Janata Party in collusion with the Election Commission.
Former Comptroller Auditor General Vinod Rai has come out with a stinging criticism of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying integrity is not just financial but intellectual and professional too and claimed that Congress leaders had sought to apply pressure on him to keep the PM's name out of audit reports.
Congress leader Udit Raj criticized party colleague Shashi Tharoor for his reported remarks that India breached the Line of Control (LoC) for the first time during the 2016 surgical strike on a terror base, saying he should be declared a "super spokesperson of the BJP". Raj argued that India had crossed the LoC in 1965 and 1971, and that the UPA government had also conducted surgical strikes. Tharoor had reportedly said that India breaching the LoC to conduct a surgical strike was "something we had not done before". This is not the first time Raj has criticized Tharoor for his comments on India-Pakistan relations. Last month, Raj had hit out at Tharoor for his reported "no country has 100-per cent foolproof intelligence" remarks, questioning how Tharoor could be giving the BJP a "clean chit" on the Pahalgam terror attack. Tharoor had hit back at Raj, saying the latter is a former BJP MP and "is better qualified to understand who speaks for the BJP".
Reform in economic governance and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's unimpeachable integrity could be the answer.
School students in Rajasthan will no longer study two-part supplementary textbooks with state Education Minister Madan Dilawar arguing that these reading materials are not required because they glorify the Nehru-Gandhi family and carry no marks for students.
From this point it really doesn't matter whether Sheila Dixit or Suresh Kalmadi retain their jobs or M S Gill and Jaipal Reddy must also bear equal responsibility. The damage has been done, says M K Bhadrakumar.
'If the period between 1991 and 2014 was about laying the foundations and building the runway, the period from 2014 to 2024 has been about the aircraft taking off.'
Former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh passed away on Saturday night after a prolonged illness, family sources said. He was 93.
Foreign Secretaries of the two countries on Wednesday discussed a whole range of issues including the detention and release of Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Mohammed Hafeez Saeed, believed to be the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks.
'Shashi Tharoor is destroying the history of India.' 'He is distorting facts about the Congress party.'
'We are at the fag end of the government's tenure. There is more curiosity when there are chances of a mid-term poll than now. Here, the only curiosity is whether Dr Singh will be able to garner those votes,' says former BJP MP Ram Naik.
T Nanda Kumar, former food and agriculture secretary, shared his memories of working with former prime minister Manmohan Singh during some of India's most challenging times, highlighting Singh's compassionate leadership and commitment to ensuring food security for all Indians. Kumar recalled Singh's steadfast support during the 2008 global food crisis, where he championed a ban on non-basmati rice exports to secure domestic supplies. Singh's leadership, characterized by intellect and humility, left a lasting impression on Kumar, who considered him a mentor and guiding light.
Congress leader Virbhadra Singh recently resigned as the Union minister for micro, small and medium enterprises following allegations of corruption. He tells Kavita Chowdhury how he intends to fight both his detractors and his opponents in the upcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly polls
'A man who brought about the greatest set of economic reforms in the country, who changed the course of Indian history, cannot be considered weak.' 'A man who fought for nuclear reforms even though his majority in Parliament was threatened, he cannot be considered weak.'
The Supreme Court's opinion on the presidential reference can impact on any number of cases if and when governors, if not the President, take a literary view of the Supreme Court's 'ppinion' on their 'discretionary powers' without reference to the rider on 'reasonable time', points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
New British Prime Minister David Cameron will meet his Indian counterpart in Toronto on Sunday on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit, his first after assuming office last month. Cameron, who heads the Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition government, will meet Singh to take forward his administration's commitment made in the Queen's Speech to 'work to establish a new special relationship with India.'
'The United States loves working with dictators' 'Because then you don't have to worry about public opinion and you don't have to worry about the media anymore'
Dharmendra remained one of the most loved stars of all time, even when his movies tapered off, and age caught up with him.
'I kept urging Salman to see Pokiri, and one day, past midnight, he finally turned up at a Mumbai preview theatre to see it. Nervously, I waited for Salman's reaction to Pokiri. After watching it, he walked past me without a word. I followed anxiously, and before sitting in his car, he just signalled thumbs up.'
In seniority in the BJP leadership team, V K Malhotra, who passed into the ages this week, was next only to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Nanaji Deshmukh, notes Sudhir Bisht.
'The BJP only talks of Kashmiri Pandits when elections are held.'
In 2021, the Centre renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. But many wonder, why despite the public sentiment the country's highest civilian honour continues to elude the man who put Indian hockey on the world map.
UPA-2 seems to have completely lost direction in almost every single way be it in governance, national security, internal security, development initiatives, poverty alleviation and corruption eradication, says Pramod Kumar Buravalli.
'They want us to talk to Shivraj Patil. Vajpayee had appointed Advani for holding talks with us. Advani had a certain standing,' says Hurriyat leader Moulvi Abbas Ansari.
As a leader, he was ambitious, not for himself but for India and its people. His was not the short-term election cycle calculation of individual political gain. His was a practical vision of how to better the lives of his fellow citizens, asserts Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, who served as foreign secretary and national security advisor when Dr Singh was prime minister.
Voting for the presidential election in which NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu is pitted against joint Opposition pick Yashwant Sinha began at 10 am and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to cast his vote followed by BJP President JP Nadda.
Dharmendra's oeuvre was so phenomenal that there was never a phase in his professional life when he was in danger of falling into a rut, in terms of either the kind of films he starred in or the sort of co-actors he worked with.
The party is slated to organise yoga events in 403 madrasas of UP on International Yoga Day (June 21).
'I wanted to do something different, so I turned Dharamji into Hardy, making him waddle with Naseer's stick-like Laurel.' 'People enjoyed seeing him in these avatars. When you work with an evergreen superstar like Dharamji, you can make such 'items'.'
Tehran's dull treatment of a dry premise never makes us feel the complexity of the ongoing Middle East crisis nor the patriotic fervour in John Abraham's voice, notes Sukanya Verma.
Dr Manmohan Singh first embossed himself on the national consciousness when as India's finance minister he flagged off economic reforms which changed this nation forever.
The original big boys (Tata, Birla, Ambani) were not the stars of the decade.
Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said the G7 Summit of the presidents of the US and France; the prime ministers of the UK, Japan, Italy and Canada; and the Chancellor of Germany is taking place in Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, from June 15.
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
When elections are held, the composition of the UPA may change, yet the UPA could well emerge as a winner. With such a remarkable electoral success it means that a person who has won three consecutive terms will have to be necessarily be our PM, writes M R Venkatesh
