'If Ruttie had been alive, Jinnah would never have turned communal.'
In provocative remarks, Pakistan said it is dedicating its Independence Day to Kashmir's "freedom" and will continue to extend full diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of the state.
The festering dispute over the accession of Jammu and Kashmir stands out as one of the world's most volatile fault lines that divides regions, countries, societies, communities and ethnic groups, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs, on Sheikh Abdullah's 39th death anniversary.
His ministers's conduct may lead to a distancing between the army leadership and Prime Minister Imran Khan reveals Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
The fatwa was issued against the Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief by Mufti Mohammed Saleem Barelvi, an Islamic seminary in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.
What does a Muslim in politics do? Where does he go?
'By annoying the Arabs and cozying up to Iran, Pakistan may end up losing Arab economic support, annoying the Americans and increase Shia-Sunni tensions domestically,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) points out.
In a clear indication that the tussle between senior leader L K Advani and Narendra Modi is far from over, the patriarch's close aide Sudheendra Kulkarni has written an article dubbing the Gujarat chief Minister as an "autocrat" who cares "two hoots" for the party.
'This bill is for the children of Partition who are still subject to inhuman barbarism because they profess a faith rooted in India.' 'If India fails them, we shall be no better than a Pakistan which brutalises its minorities and has turned into a factory of intolerant bigots,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
'It was unfair to expect him to continue to keep on supplying vaccines without being given a firm commitment or a financial grant of any sort.'
Pakistan wants to unsettle those living in hamlets along the International Border in Jammu and Punjab, say security personnel.
Attlee said Great Britain had concluded that the Indian element of the army was no longer reliable and that Netaji's Indian National Army had demonstrated that. That had shaken the foundation on which Britain's Indian empire rested, argues Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd).
'As we reach 2022 we are creating a very new, different India where the Citizenship Amendment Act will be passed, NRC will be pushed through, Article 370 scrapped...'
Let India rise on the prowess of development, honest money and a non-religionist political discourse. That will secure our future and also make an impact on the theologically run sham democracies in our neighbourhood, says Tarun Vijay.
'Politicians insist on focusing on the North even though the rest of India offers a better way of engaging with our Muslims namely, live and let live.'
The newly-elected National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, is meeting to elect the prime minister.
Khan's government will be the third consecutive democratic government in Pakistan since 2008.
'We are not a dictatorship. If the people do not desire some law, it is impossible for any government to implement it,' says BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose.
What connection does Qaumi Tarana -- Pakistan's national anthem, which millions of Indians heard at the Eden Gardens on Saturday -- have to Bombay?
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'She really doesn't care if she is called heartless.' 'For her, the job needs to be done. That's all that matters.'
'He will be constrained if and when he tries to set the foreign policy agenda that is not to the liking of the army.'
The magnitude of atrocities inflicted by the Pakistani establishment on the Baloch people is unimaginable, says Dr Abhay Jere.
'At the end of the interview, as he walked with us to the elevator, he looked at me and said, "Do you think it was my karma that I should have made this film?"' Arthur J Pais/Rediff.com recalls his encounter with Richard Attenborough.
Narendra Modi had to be emotional. Fighting the media, sailing against trends where only the rich and powerful are able to navigate in state and national politics, Modi brewed his own cocktail of ideas and formulae. He has reached here on his own strengths, intellect, cunning and merit, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
Historian Stanley Wolpert, author of several books on India, passed into the ages recently. We remember Professor Wolpert with Rajeev Srinivasan's March 1997 interview published on the occasion of his controversial book on Jawaharlal Nehru.
As India celebrates its 70th Independence day, Rediff.com pays homage to millions who laid their lives for the country's freedom.
'Modi is the first BJP leader to try to include Dalits in its fold.' 'But the rank and file of his party is backward and want to bash up Muslims and Dalits whenever they have a chance.'
'There are three issues related to beef consumption and cow slaughter. One is the British origin of cow slaughter. Two, if slaughter of cows is sanctioned by Islamic scriptures and three, the environmental impact of beef consumption.'
'A collapsing Pakistan may well unleash its nuclear weapons as the last throw of the dice. With a nuclear arsenal of over 50 bombs, even a regional nuclear exchange can devastate the world.'
'Our biggest problem has been keeping this country together.' 'Nation building is never easy. It is a very difficult task.' 'Even 70 years is not too long a time.'
Two suicide bombers rammed into the All Saints Church in the Kohati Gate area of Peshawar, Pakistan, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on his way to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly session.
The 1965 war teaches us that war by escalation is a real possibility. Despite clear threats, Pakistan never believed that India will ever cross the international border. In the age of nuclear deterrence, this failure to deter Pakistan is the central lesson of 1965, says Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
The man behind Aligarh Muslim University 200 years on.
'This book is really the story of the woman whose destiny takes her onto the path of an inordinately iconic man whom the world reveres as God!' 'It is the day-to-day demolition of her dreams that are at stark variance with those who view him as a trail blazer on the holy path to redemption, while he wrecks the peace of those whom he loves the most; his family.'
Honorary Captain Bana Singh won the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest ranking gallantry award, for recapturing a Pakistani post on the Siachen Glacier. Living a retired life in a quiet village in Jammu and Kashmir, he makes you feel that his act of phenomenal courage was part of a soldier's day at work.
'Modi has said he has been made the PM of India not to do small things but big things. What bigger thing can there be than to have peace with Pakistan and in the neighbourhood?'
'The creation of Pakistan was integral to Britain's grand strategy.' 'If they were to ever leave India, Britain's military planners had made it clear that they needed to retain a foothold in the NWFP and Baluchistan because that would provide the means to retain control of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.'
'I want to be murdered at your hands, so I can live on in history. The verdict of who is or is not a traitor cannot be pronounced by a secret agency, but by history.' Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who survived an assassination attempt on April 19, challenges his enemies to dub him a traitor and says nothing will stop him from exposing them.
'Patel was more in tune with the popular mood than Jawaharlal Nehru. While the principle that Hindus and Muslims should be able to live together remained central to Nehru's vision for India, the Sardar was less sentimental.' 'Nehru would angrily face down mobs himself, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot. A veritable tent city, filled with Muslim refugees, sprouted on the lawns of his bungalow... Mountbatten feared Nehru's impulsiveness would get him killed, and assigned soldiers to watch over him.' Nisid Hajari's Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition casts fresh light on the events and personalities behind the horrific division of the subcontinent which haunts the India and Pakistan to this day.
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