'Whatever the result on December 18, Rahul has succeeded.' 'He has taken the battle to the rival's territory, and forced him to take him more seriously than he has done so far, or would have wished to.' 'A party, dominating and powerful as the BJP today, is spending all its time attacking the leader of one with just 46 seats in the Lok Sabha, and in the woods in Gujarat for 22 years.' 'This isn't the script the BJP had written,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'India will keep trying to avoid conflict.' 'This is the moment when we draw a line in the sand.'
Dear Reader, what do you think of Narendra Modi and his government's performance?
2015 will be a real test for Modi govt.
The 49-year-old jeweller, who has been lodged at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March last year, appeared via videolink for the remand hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.
If Mr Modi is not in favour of privatisation, he should outline what alternative strategies he has in mind to revive PSUs whose deteriorating finances have become a drag on central resources.
'Look at the number of billionaires, the number of new billionaires in India.' 'Adani and Ambani are not the only ones.' 'What's wrong with people making money as long as it benefits us?'
'There is a sense of realism in the Pakistan army that if they needled India during the Ladakh standoff, they would have seen a strong retaliation.' 'Pakistan was hoping that India would come out looking weaker in the region and get embarrassed, but that obviously has not happened.'
For any government, achieving those goals would be a tall task, given the current resource constraint the government faces.
The price for pushing the envelope beyond the comfort zone that the land of storytelling is used to is a hefty one, observes Meghna Chadha.
Recent data suggest that the economy isn't out of the woods, and the PM-designate must live up to high expectations.
Kriti Kharbanda spills the beans on what she thinks of PM Modi style.
Columnist T N Ninan wonders when there is real progress to talk about, why our ministers make exaggerated claims.
'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.
'On a new kidney, her immune system still getting used to it, she took on the Pakistanis at the UN, held meetings with her counterparts from across the world, and presented a picture of incredible poise and dignity,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Mr Modi has the necessary initiative, necessary motivation, necessary national thinking to push things forward. Here's a man with proven ability... India can become a superpower provided we shed a lot of things that have plagued us for the past 60 years. One of them -- a major one -- is how the country has been divided for vote banks. We need to sort that out, it will take time, but I am sure once that is done a lot of things will happen which will make this country good and powerful,' says General Vijay Kumar Singh as he battles for the people's vote in Ghaziabad, only the second army chief to contest an election.
The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
We Indians simply cherry-pick those aspects of other cultures we like and reject what we consider unsuitable. Most of us recognise it as globalisation, says Kanika Datta.
'While Modi is undoubtedly the star of the show, the online sphere has found in Modi the champion to re-engineer what it means to support the right.'
#MainBhiChowkidar was trending world wide on Twitter.
We might not have been seeking out baubles, says Kishore Singh, but there's nothing Nirav Modi liked more than surprising you with them.
The Congress leaders agreed that demonising Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "wrong" and he should be praised for doing the right things.
Labour sector needs bigger reform than the PM revealed.
An occasional quiz to improve Narendrabhai's grasp of Indian history...
'The deeper problem is big government -- a giant monster with a giant appetite, which requires it to put more and more pressure on tax officials to extort. 'And the monster is getting bigger by the day. But then, Mr Modi too knows this,' says Debashis Basu.
Growing foreign travel is one sign of the radical change in rising India's vacation dynamic.
The data shows that the state has reduced poverty and malnutrition, sex ratio has improved and the quality of education is improving.
Congress as the opposition party has become increasingly aggressive against the Narendra Modi government over its handling of the border standoff with China.
'A close relationship between India Inc and the government cannot help the BJP win elections.' 'While Opposition parties may feel good about Mr Bajaj criticising the Modi regime, the BJP should be seeing the indictment as a political boon,' says A K Bhattacharya.
'All that Mr Modi needed to do was to call Urjit Patel over for a cup of tea and ask him nicely, and this fuss would never have happened.'
That's why he is now finally focusing on the two things that alone can help: Fiscal expansion -- from December onwards -- and supply management via amended laws and rules that affect business, notes T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan
'The biggest danger is that majoritarianism is getting normalised, insidiously and overtly... We are bringing the worst, not the best in us... We are looking for new enemies - Muslims, urban Naxals, tukde tukde gang, some enemy or the other which keeps this majoritarian wheel turning,' says journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
'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...'
"Troubled" and "dismayed" at Wharton University withdrawing its invitation to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the varsity's decision to change its mind "under pressure" was "very wrong". Addressing the Wharton India Economic Forum via video-conferencing, Kejriwal, who began his indefinite fast against "inflated" power and water bills today, said he was "dismayed" at the decision.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday rejected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's demand for a 'white paper' on internal security and said the government was following a two-pronged strategy of development and offensive action to tackle Naxalism.
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'I was told that Agra has never been cleaned, spruced and scrubbed like it has been for Trump!' A tourist who visited the Taj Mahal over the the weekend gives an account of how the city is gearing up to welcome the Trump Parivar.
The purposeful Narendra Modi who won the election has been replaced by a prime minister who looks quite lost, says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan
Mr Modi should welcome the rupee's fall as overdue, not criticise it.
Hitting back at Gujarat Chief Minister for his comments on Sir Creek, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said Narendra Modi should not 'compromise on national interests' for electoral gains.
