Vajpayee had said on Tuesday night that if talks were to resume with Pakistan on Kashmir issue, they will have to be on the one-third portion of Kashmir which is under Pakistani occupation.
Pakistan strongly condemns and rejects the announcements made by the Indian Government regarding Jammu and Kashmir, the statement said. "As the party to this international dispute, Pakistan will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps," it said.
All that India must aim for is to match China's military prowess adjusted to equal Beijing's India-specific military capability, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Elections 2024 is not as open and shut as has been presumed. There is some life left in it, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Only on Wednesday, in his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Modi said he wants to resolve the Kashmir issue through Vajpayee's doctrine of "Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat" - a testimony to the former PM's lasting legacy.
By the looks of it, the Congress cannot hope to return to power even in election 2024. What it can do is to start from the bottom, hold organisational elections, which are honest, and co-opt those elected to form teams of office-bearers at all levels, right up to the working committee. By the very nature of the elections that they are going to lose, the party should use the interim to shore up youth power, or whatever remains, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
During Vajpayee's tenure, he was there as an indispensable insider, witness to every action that had an impact on history: Pokhran-II (nuclear tests in 1998), the 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, the Indo-Pak Agra Summit in 2001, intense engagement with the United States on nuclear issues besides the Kandahar hijack.
"Kissing" Pakistani soil "soaked" in Indian blood will prove "costly", Shiv Sena said as it reminded PM Modi that trying to get "too close" to that country led to the BJP's decline.
The Prime Minister's Office has refused to disclose communication exchanged between former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Chief Minister Narendra Modi during the 2002 Gujarat riots even after 11 years.
Chidambaram also hit out at senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, saying his performance as finance minister.
The convoy started from Bhalla college ground and went to Har ki Pauri with a host of party leaders and family members in attendance.
Did Xi deliver a message to Modi at Mamallapuram, which though couched in a velvet glove was time-bound? What was that message? It is clear Indian/Israeli/US spy satellites would not have missed detecting Chinese troop movements towards the Ladakh-Tibet frontier. Then why did some important functionaries in the Government of India choose to only ask the Russians about this in April 2020? Was Russian reassurance of Chinese troop movements being part of a routine exercise the reason that the Leh-based XIV Corps did not mobilise itself for its annual summer exercises near the LAC? A fascinating excerpt from Iqbal Chand Malhotra's new book Red Fear: The China Threat.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the trajectory of Lal Kishan Advani from the highs of the 1990s to the present, when he may have to watch the elections from the sidelines.
Taking a jibe at Yashwant Sinha, the finance minister said that he doesn't have luxury of being former finance minister.
'I will need a few more pictures, sir, can I get some time from you for a more extended photo shoot?' asked Singh. Modi, ever-obliging before the camera, laughed. 'Sure, but let us plan to do it after my swearing-in is over in May!' The Balakot effect was evident. A fascinating excerpt from Rajdeep Sardesai's 2019: How Modi Won India.
Pakistan made a tactical error in not investing enough in L K Advani, former R&AW chief A S Dulat tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
'What the interview with Modi told me was that now he is open to granting interviews.' 'And in this connection let me offer our credentials for being considered in this election season,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Parliamentarians led by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday paid homage to martyrs on the 13th anniversary of the attack on Parliament.
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
President Pranab Mukherjee pays an emotional tribute to APJ Abdul Kalam
'Vajpayee was the first prime minister to visit the battlefield at the height of conflict,' recalls Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Upset over denial of Lok Sabha ticket, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Monday filed his nomination papers from Barmer as an Independent, leaving the central leadership sulking over his decision.
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Economists expect Modi to announce big-bang reforms.
He has the ability to instantly go to the heart of issues and deconstruct them.
India is observing the sixteenth anniversary of the Kargil War this week.
Just for a moment, says Kamaraj Gopalan, consider the possibility: Dawood Ibrahim captured a few days before the next general election. It would be Dr Singh and the Congress's Osama moment. What answer could Narendra Modi possibly have to that?
In his latest book, Fly Me To The Moon, former member of Parliament Prafull Goradia provides interesting insights into the man who is India's prime minister.
After snapping his political alliance with the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, speaks to B Dasarath Reddy on what he now has in mind.
Making it clear that there will be no change in the reservation policy for Dalits, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asserted that nobody can snatch their right even as he accused his opponents of spreading "untruths" on the issue.
After all the drama that preceded the book launch of former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's book launch, the discussion that ensued on the book the same evening turned out to be a fiasco. Here's why
BJP president Rajnath Singh has said that if the party comes to power in the next general election, its foreign policy wouldn't be much different from that of the Congress government. Aziz Haniffa in Washington
India and Japan are natural partners at sea, and Narendra Modi's recent visit underlined the need to keep the association going
An economist from J&K and a popular face from the RSS/BJP sat together to craftily weave an alliance in what is one of the most difficult agenda-setting exercises in recent history.
We reproduce Aditya's letter to Rajdeep Sardesai in its entirety:
'If you destroy the assets in Pathankot, you degrade the combat potential of India; you degrade the war potential of India.'
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