'One one hand, the BJP puts Uniform Civil Code as a goal in its manifesto, and on the other, it pushes massive discrimination against Hindus.' 'This is not sabka saath, sabka vikas. Rather it is "Haj ka saath, church ka vikas",' argues Sankrant Sanu.
'The BRICS anthem has to necessarily be an anthem of Vedic times -- Walk together, Dream together, Achieve together.' 'And who knows it better than Modi?' says Tarun Vijay.
Make in India needs policy support for access to markets.
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If we can come up with ways of sharing property rights on the internet, why not do something similar in urban spaces, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
'For the last 10 years the Congress made the RSS an idea of intolerance, anti-minority, especially anti-Muslim, and an idea of fascism.' 'That has been demolished now by Pranab Mukherjee.'
'Without destroying idol worship, you cannot destroy caste because idol worship keeps religious communities in its religious ideology. The RSS is a big promoter of idol worship.' 'They may have an OBC PM, but neither the RSS or the VHP talk about an OBC becoming a priest. The equation is: Business in Baniya hands. Religion in Brahmin hands. OBC votes for the BJP.'
The top court rejected the Centre's vehement contention that there was no general or fundamental right to privacy under the Constitution.
Find out how well you know these similes.
Why are far right Hindu organisations growing in strength? Why is there a rising subscription to Neo-Wahabism, the Saudi Arabian version of contemporary Islam?
As Bihar decides its fate on Sunday, political leaders from across the spectrum weighed in.
Delegates of a bilateral peace delegation urge the prime ministers of Pakistan and India to resume dialogue for peace and full normalisation of relations.
Fali Nariman, one of India's best-known lawyers, tells Aditi Phadnis that plurality of political opinion is the only way to counter intolerance
'At least 6,000 people attended a meal at Shahabuddin's residence in a feast to celebrate his bail. As if the community has no other priorities of channelising such funds for better purposes!,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
If we value India, we must not only 'Make in India', but defend the idea of India, too.
"This wasn't an attack over meat. He has been killed in the name of religion. This is a pre-planned, cold-blooded killing. It cannot be an accident," said Owaisi.
'At a time like this when the country's politics is set to change, Sonia Gandhi's speech didn't reflect her take on the change for the aam aadmi'. 'Once again, it was clear that Congress has lost the narrative of the aam aadmi, notes Sheela Bhatt.
Taking a jibe at the Narendra Modi government over its 'Clean India Mission', Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that angry people are running the nation.
'The Parivar's ideology and politics was and remains the very opposite of what Dr Ambedkar stood for.'
'The real danger in India right now is that identity politics is being stoked in extremely dangerous ways.' 'The narrative you get about churches in the mainstream Indian media and the narrative you get in the social media is very different.' 'Many Americans today want to appropriate Indian culture. They want yoga, but they say yoga has nothing to do with Hinduism. They want Ayurveda, but they say it's got nothing to do with Hinduism.' 'Hinduism has been failed by political constituencies in India -- seculars and the right-wing.'
'Nobody is killing you in Kerala because you are Hindu unlike in North India where Muslims have been killed only because they are Muslims and were carrying some meat.'
Cautioning against forces which fan communal tension in order to polarise the situation in their favour, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday voiced concern over the Muzaffarnagar riots and said such violence cannot be allowed to spread.
The President talked about demonetisation, electoral reforms and disruptions in Parliament.
Lloyd and Sussane Rudolph -- two University of Chicago professors who started studying Indian politics in the 1950s, have been named the winners of the Padma Bhushan Award.
'India's nationalism has always been an exceptional and great experiment.' 'We said you don't have to give up your language, your lifestyle or your religion in order to be an Indian national.' 'Nowhere in the world could you find on such a large scale such a democratic experiment of nation building based on diversity.' 'That is the greatness of India's nationalism and we are on the verge of losing that greatness.'
'Secularism is associated either with corruption, malgovernance or minority votes.' 'That allows the BJP to construct its own majority vote.' 'It will remain a feature of electoral contests, but it is not the only reason for the BJP's success.'
A reformed Planning Commission should reflect the diversity of Indian debate.
'... A youth movement which could really transform our politics in a way that the existing elites don't understand.' 'The more you suppress free expression, the more people will value it.' 'The State can't suppress a young society like India where there are so many interesting new ideas emerging,' says Sunil Khilnani, whose latest book Incarnations looks at Indian history through 50 lives.
'The government says it is trying to improve the institute, but its latest appointments say otherwise.'
The two countries have decided to expedite trade related issues and signed six pacts to take forward their strategic partnership. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, who is travelling with the prime minister on his visit to Indonesia, reports from Jakarta.
'The BCCI is -- and always has been, across successive dispensations -- allergic to criticism.' 'It has used the 'control' it enshrines in its name to destroy anyone who has dared to point fingers at its functioning,' says Prem Panicker, the distinguished cricket writer.
'The BJP has latched on to the idea of nationalism, but the nationalism they advocate is not nationalism as we have understood it since the time of the freedom movement.' 'This is not secular nationalism, it is Hindu nationalism.' 'It is a form of nationalism that is exclusionary and it tends to conflate national interest with the government.' 'So, if you disagree with the government, for example, on surgical strikes or demonetisation, you are anti-national or holder of black money.'
Here is the complete text of the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's address at the inauguration of the national media centre in New Delhi on Saturday.
Shashi Tharoor speaks to Shobha Warrier on the controversy over his article seen as praising Narendra Modi and what the future holds for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.
104 years after it was first written, and 76 years after the poet's clarification, the controversy surrounding Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana refuses to go away.
'Benares has always encouraged healthy debate where disagreement and dissent was never frowned upon. Today, the people are faced with a situation where a political opponent is not being allowed to give election speeches and is being physically attacked.' 'We are going to hand over power to a person who has a reputation of being dictatorial, who does not brook dissent and is known to be vindictive to his opponents,' author Kashinath Singh tells Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
Bunker Roy, founder of the Barefoot College at Tilonia in Rajasthan, was awarded the Clinton Global Citizen Award at a ceremony in New York on September 25.
'Soft power is the power really to win friends and influence people with the strength of your ideas.' 'India's greatest soft power is being India itself. A nation of varied beliefs, states, creeds, castes, languages and yet embodying that spirit of unity in diversity.'
As we observe Martyrs' Day today, Mahatma Gandhi would have been dismayed by the number of vested interests that are seeking to carve out identities and spaces outside the Republic of India, says Shreekant Sambrani.
