'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
'Vijaya Raje Scindia had assured the prime minister that nothing would happen to the Babri Masjid'
The idea of weaponization got a fillip from an unexpected quarter. In the last week of October 1985, Rajiv met US President Ronald Reagan. Reagan told Rajiv, 'Pakistan has already made a bomb.' When Rajiv started talking about disarmament, the US president cut him short, 'Don't talk theory, think of your own protection.'
'He told senior journalists a few days after the Babri Masjid demolition, 'Jo hua theek hua. Maine isliye hone diya ki BJP ki rajniti hamesha ke liye khatam ho jaye.'
In early 2004, when the Congress had been routed in north Indian states, and even Congressmen were prophesying a two-digit tally for the party in the general elections, Sonia determinedly hit the road and stitched up alliances. Now, once again, she is displaying a similar resoluteness in circumstances that are even more trying, as evidenced by her piloting of the Food Security Bill, says Neerja Chowdhury
Through his exposes, be it on Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, Law Minister Salman Khurshid or Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, Arvind Kejriwal is slowly delineating his political strategy, says Neerja Chowdhury
By resigning, the former deputy CM has struck pre-emptively against Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and used the opportunity to demonstrate that it is he who calls the shots in the state unit of the Nationalist Congress Party, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Sushma Swaraj, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Jayalalithaa, Mulayam Singh or may be even Advani: positioning for prime ministership is the flavour of the current season, notes Neerja Chowdhury.
Hamid Ansari, in his second stint as vice president, is likely to face a more unruly House, with general elections being less than two years away and the Opposition becoming increasingly aggressive, and the Congress's chief troubleshooter having gone to Rashtrapati Bhavan, writes Neerja Chowdhury
The controversial quota in promotions bill's partially passed status suits all political parties at the moment, says Neerja Chowdhury
Neerja Chowdhury remembers a gentleman politician, an unusual prime minister.
The Union government seems to have chosen its timing with care. Parliament begins its winter session on Thursday and the BJP would have used the issue during the Gujarat elections. Hanging Kasab was politically expeditious for the shaky ruling coalition, says Neerja Chowdhury.
By successfully orchestrating the ouster of rival Sanjay Joshi from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed that the Sangh Parivar has fallen in line with his style of functioning and larger-than-the-organisation persona. Neerja Chowdhury reports
Neerja Chowdhury analyses why BSP supremo Mayawati is bargaining hard with the UPA government
Implicit in Sonia Gandhi's clarion call to her partymen to counter the BJP's 'blackmailing' politics aggressively in the contest of Coalgate, is a hint that that there is no leadership vacuum in the Congress and that she will be leading her party into the 2014 elections, says Neerja Chowdhury
There are enough indications that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, with a third term victory behind him, intends to set the pace of events inside the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level, says Neerja Chowdhury.
In all likelihood he is going to rely on senior party leadership for political management, using the Youth Congress and the young brigade to mobilise the 'aam admi', which the Congress redefined in Jaipur as the poor and middle-classes, says Neerja Chowdhury.
As the battle lines are drawn between the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance, the NDA is now beginning to smell power, says Neerja Chowdhury
The decision to make these changes to the Union Cabinet was apparently taken last week, but the timing of its announcement could not have been more unfortunate, writes Neerja Chowdhury
After many months the UPA leadership seemed to exude a sense of confidence that they could get the better of an adverse situation in which they have found themselves for the last two years, writes Neerja Chowdhury
The numbers are loaded against him but the BJP's vice presidential candidate Jaswant Singh has his eyes set on battles beyond. Neerja Chowdhury provides an insight
As with the Women's Bill, so also with the proposed Lok Pal legislation, the exercise is essentially one of grand posturing by all parties, says Neerja Chowdhury.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has become less of a party with a difference and more an aggregate of leaders with their own individual ambitions and agendas, says Neerja Chowdhury
While Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that he will not be joining the government, the Sunday reshuffle will be closely watched for how much influence Rahul Gandhi will have on it, says Neerja Chowdhury
Neerja Chowdhury reports from Phulpur where Rahul Gandhi kicked off Congress campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
As the moves to select the next incumbent of Rashtrapati Bhavan gain momentum, Dravida Munettra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi is believed to have conveyed to Defence Minister A K Antony that he would go along with whoever was Congress President Sonia Gandhi's choice for the next President of the republic, despite his party's unhappiness with the Congress, writes Neerja Chowdhury
After Bengaluru, where the Congress lost out to the Bharatiya Janata Party after five decades of dominance, and Mumbai where it failed to wrest the cash rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation from the Shiv Sena, it is now the turn of New Delhi to show its disenchantment with the Congress, writes Neerja Chowdhury
The government may have plumped for FDI in multi-brand retail at this juncture because this is an issue which has also divided the opposition, believes Neerja Chowdhury
Even as Mukul Roy took the oath of office as railway minister in the presence of a sombre-looking Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whose body language showed the discomfort of the Congress with its ally Trinamool Congress which has given them a run around, the United Progressive Alliance managers were sighing with relief on Tuesday, says Neerja Chowdhury.
The 2012 assembly poll was seen essentially as a battle between the two leading families of Punjab -- the Badals versus the 'Captain' Amarinder Singh -- and their durbars, their contending styles, the rebels they had to reckon with, their grip over the ground realities. Neerja Chowdhury reports.
The 2012 assembly poll was seen essentially as a battle between the two leading families of Punjab -- the Badals versus the 'Captain' Amarinder Singh -- and their durbars, their contending styles, the rebels they had to reckon with, their grip over the ground realities. Neerja Chowdhury reports.
The change of media advisor may be about the changing power equation in the PMO. The Congress party's view may once again get greater weightage in the government's decision-making processes than had been the case so far in UPA-II, says Neerja Chowdhury.
There is no one who can step into Mukherjee's shoes and multiple leaders may be needed to fulfill his roles in the Congress and the government led by it, says Neerja Chowdhury
One of the problems that besieged the Lokpal Bill was that it was being considered against the backdrop of the forthcoming assembly elections, which dictated the stand of several parties, reveals Neerja Chowdhury
A prolonged political stalemate does not also augur well for the government. It is caught between the devil and the deep sea -- unless its managers can somehow bring a rabbit out of the hat, in terms of the right numbers in a vote on FDI, says Neerja Chowdhury.
Contrary to Anna Hazare's view -- that Rahul Gandhi was behind the Standing Committee's decision to exclude the lower bureaucracy from the purview of Lokpal -- there are indications now that it may be Gandhi who may want their inclusion, says Neerja Chowdhury
The upshot of the government's 'formal' climbdown on FDI in retail is that it will not be able to take up the issue again in the near future, certainly not till after the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states, says Neerja Chowdhury
The upshot of the government's 'formal' climbdown on FDI in retail is that it will not be able to take up the issue again in the near future, certainly not till after the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and four other states, says Neerja Chowdhury
Political parties may be backing P A Sangma to mount pressure on the Congress high command to pick Pranab Mukherjee for the top post, says Neeraja Chowdhury
When was the last time you saw the majority of the non-Congress political parties rooting for a Congressman as President? So why is the Congress hesitating to name him for the post? Neerja Chowdhury analyses the party's dilemma
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