As a consequence of prominence given to the brutality during those few days, a very important aspect of that episode got almost glossed over. This was the intervention by a very significant section of people who restored faith in humanity, and conveyed the message that only a small section of Indians, that too politically backed, were consumed by anti-Sikh majoritarianism. The overlooked facet of the events of 1984 was the story of significant sections of the city's populace, public figures and nondescript ones, stepping out hand-in-hand, to first stand with little but bravery in hands, in the way of attackers, and thereafter to provide immediate relief to those who lives were uprooted and who lost family members in the violence, recalls Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with party spokespersons in Mumbai, two days before his estranged cousin Raj's scheduled rally.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
The BSP has not entered into any alliances and has also been keen to shed the tag of being a 'B-team' of the BJP.
When it comes to the Congress and Wayanad, the only way the scepticism in the minds of some in Kerala may be addressed is by the Gandhi family proving that they are more than a passing caravan in town, reports Shyam G Menon.
'BJP and RSS may have differences over minor issues but their hearts long for one common aim -- that of A Hindu Rashtra.' 'And this time to prove this point the RSS has prepared to help BJP win this election with all its might.'
The senior politician's arrest was formally recorded after he was brought to Thiruvananthapuram via road from his residence and thereafter, he was produced before a duty magistrate who granted him bail.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
'They have not mentioned the word minorities. They say scholarships will be given to marginalised communities'
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
Prominent Muslim leader Maulana Mehmood Madani on Tuesday kicked up a controversy by asking "so-called" secular parties not to invoke Narendra Modi bogey to create fear among Muslim voters and woo them in a "negative manner".
'I have had occasion to work with Bill Gates as a young engineer, and am one of the few people in India who has interacted with Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison.' 'I have worked with Andy Grove at Intel, so I know what bright and great people are like, but Modiji is a different level of perfection.'
Modi said that those who call themselves the biggest sympathisers of the backward communities are in reality their biggest enemies.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
70-plus years after Independence, 'Hindu India, metamorphosised as 'Hindutva India', is proving the British right -- and for all the wrong reasons. Mohan Bhagwat should have answers for the why of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Everyone is unhappy with the lieutenant governor's administration, which is ignorant, high-handed, and inaccessible.'
The Opposition's stand on the Ayodhya consecration is puzzling. Their only objection seems to be that the BJP has hijacked a religious event for political benefit. In saying this, the Opposition is either being naive or hypocritical, argues Jyoti Punwani.
India on Thursday abstained from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council on holding a debate on the human rights situation in China's restive Xinjiang region.
'People tell us openly that in 2024 we will vote for Modi.'
'Muslims may turn to the BJP or may not come out to vote in great numbers like they have in the past.' 'Anything can happen.' 'They can feel an increased sense of alienation, but that depends on the BJP -- on how it includes them.'
'There is a huge constituency that upholds this ideology.' 'Hindutva will remain relevant in our public life in the near future as an ideology and in politics as well.'
Despite failing to secure a simple majority in Parliament, we will continue to see him on TV, newspapers, magazines, bill boards, vaccination certificates, railway stations, bus shelters, airports, sea ports, on the highway and on rural roads, sighs A Ganesh Nadar.
Every trick in the trade is being tried unabashedly.
In simple arithmetical terms every possible 'arrangement' is being made to deny a majority to its rivals. A split verdict would hand a vital advantage to the BJP which is adept at extracting the best out of such a situation, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'If we get 399 seats and you say we have not crossed 400, then it is your wisdom. But the '400 paar' slogan is based on calculation and considered opinion'
After a spirited eight-hour debate in which 60 members participated, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, with 454 members voting in favour and two against it.
The incident occurred during the inauguration of a 'madrassa' building in the district, where students were felicitated recently.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
Manoj Tiwari is the only sitting MP whom the BJP has retained.
Reacting to the results, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that in the by-elections held on 13 seats in seven states, the people of the country have given their support to the INDIA bloc.
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
The prime minister needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition's bid to topple him.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's unexpected announcement to resign after two days kicked up a strong buzz on Sunday over the names of his wife Sunita and his ministers Atishi and Gopal Rai as his possible replacement.
Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has said the Ram Janmbhoomi movement, whose primary objective was construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, also became a symbol of 'reclaiming the true meaning of secularism from the onslaught of pseudo-secularism'.
'Is Rahul turning the Congress' covert soft-Hindutva support into overt support now?' 'And if so, following in the BJP's footsteps, is the Congress going to abandon Indian Muslims and Muslim causes altogether?' asks Dr Najid Hussain whose father-in-law former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the Gujarat riots.
Key provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which came into law this year may violate certain provisions of India's Constitution, a report issued by an independent research wing of the United States Congress has claimed.
'Just because the NDA has a majority and the BJP is the single largest party does not mean that this Modi government enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha.' 'It is always possible that some members (of the NDA and even the BJP) may defect, some members may not want him to be the prime minister and they might vote differently (against Modi) in the confidence vote.'
'For the sake of the nation, and the preservation of its polity, it is high time the country's largest political party and the country's largest religious minority make peace between them,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'The Opposition parties will continue to woo Chandrababu Naidu even though he has said he will support the BJP.'
To equate the Hindu propensity not to persecute non-Hindus is a sign of mature self-confidence, not weakness as the rabid insist, asserts T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
