'With tears in his eyes, he told me in Gujarati, "What have they done to this country? It has so much potential." That feeling for the country -- it was striking.'
'That way you're not hostage just to US sort of exports to India.'
The prime minister had a puja at his residence followed by breakfast with his deputy Advani and his family.
It was good fortune for India to have Atal Bihari Vajpayee lead the government at a crucial moment in our history. He avoided India meeting the fate of Iraq or Ukraine, asserts military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Maharashtra is virtually in a debt trap.'
In an interaction with a group of Indian journalists, the three-time prime minister and president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N described Jaishankar's visit as a "good opening" and said both sides should now engage and move forward.
The long term trends on violence in Kashmir are positive and India must secure these gains further, asserts Aakar Patel.
As the 240-seater prime minister attempts to moderate his image of hardline hero, he has made room for others to elbow in and that is what is happening. And that it what will continue to happen from inside the BJP, notes Aakar Patel.
Chef par excellence Satish Arora recalls his days working as a chef to prime ministers to Chandrima Pal.
In 2017, a retired R&AW officer conveyed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was keen to get monarchy restored in Nepal and suggested that I support these efforts.
The Congress on Thursday objected to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar deleting some portions of Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge's speech from official records, saying he used no unparliamentary words and some of the expressions he employed were earlier used even by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
To consider Pervez Musharraf a real force for peace is an absurdity, declares Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'They are worried that the BJP government is trying to reduce Kashmiris as a minority.'
Presiding over the third Atal Bihari Vajpayee memorial lecture that was delivered by former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan in New Delhi, Jaishankar also hailed Vajpayee's stint as an external affairs minister, and his role in strengthening India's ties with the United States and Russia.
He said Indians will reflect on Vajpayee's many contributions that led to India's rise as a global and economic power.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Over the years, a noticeable unpleasantness began to develop between senior and junior, Sorabjee and Salve. Salve gave credit, for his rise in the profession, to Nani Palkhivala, and not to Sorabjee. This hurt Sorabjee, though he never admitted it.
Every twist and turn in KMC's civil service career is attributed to serendipity, an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. He plays down his capabilities, which took him to the top of the civil service as the Cabinet Secretary or his misfortune in losing a daughter in her prime and suggests that his career was indeed serendipitous, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said Maharashtra was facing a "historic economic crisis" and the state government has no option but to take a loan to help the flood-affected people in the state.
Brajesh Mishra was without doubt an iconic figure. This was due not merely to the enormous influence he wielded with former Prime Minister Vajpayee but also because of his clarity of thought, his intellectual eminence, his can do spirit and his ability to command the loyalty of those who worked with him, notes Satish Chandra.
Thackeray recalled former prime minister Vajpayee as saying, Ab Hindu maat nahi khayega (Hindus will not be defeated now), and added, "Hindus will not sit silent."
'When economic policies were attacked by people on his own side, he went ahead despite all the criticisms in the coalition, within the party and the Sangh Parivar.'
Firing a fresh salvo at senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani, expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh has claimed that the former home minister stopped former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from taking action against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots on the ground that it could trigger uproar in the party.
'I made it known through diplomatic channels that I was unhappy.' 'So, he called me and tried to explain, but I said this is something that doesn't happen between friends.'
'We are convinced a section of the bureaucracy believes we should follow the Western model of economic development including the dictates of the WTO,' says RSS Spokesman Ram Madhav.
Shao Huaze, editor-in-chief and president of the People's Daily, said the visit would be historical.
The government has given up the claim of record economic performance and laid itself open to the charge that rapid economic growth is not benefiting the common man.
'Vajpayee is the tallest leader of the BJP...' Venkaiah Naidu said, adding that the party held him in 'high esteem'.
The team won the ODI series against Pakistan.