According to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who spent 19 months in prison during the 1975 Emergency imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, it is not possible for anybody to convert a democratic India into a "dictatorship" in this day and age.
'There was the indisputable fact that Savarkar knew Godse, Apte and Karkare well, he had corresponded with them closely, and funded their extremely provocative newspaper, and they looked up to him as their icon.'
Pressures in the BJP-Akali Dal alliance have created grounds for a rise in extremism.
Terming the Emergency as the worst post-independence chapter of Indian democracy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said it gave him the best political education of his life as it taught him that some compromises are "just not possible".
'1984 is important as it is the beginning of the State making war against its citizens in India.' 'Since then, we had the government of the day organising riots or genocide by attacking certain people.'
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest and funniest stories from around the world.
Sunetra Choudhury hopes the Supreme Court will eventually give a fitting punishment to the Uphaar accused.
Bharati Dutt witnessed life-changing events that shaped India on the threshold of freedom. Her memories are an account of how ordinary Indians saw India change.
On its 25th anniversary, Sukanya Verma lists 10 things she still loves about Mohra.
Oscar Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide on Friday, having escaped the more serious charge of murder for the killing of his girlfriend, and the Olympic and Paralympic track star could face a lengthy prison sentence.
The 'Raj Bhavan/Nakkeeran Gopal case', in which editor S Gopal was arrested in the morning and set free by the court in the afternoon, is not the first one where the Tamil Nadu's once-reputed police force is seen as faltering in the eye of the law, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Despite a few flaws in the film, Yash Chopra distinguishes himself.
Nothing spawns the creation and perpetration of conspiracy theories more effectively than an official obsession with secrecy.
Anil Kapoor on 24: Season 2, intimate scenes and son Harshvardhan.
We mourn the passing of Admiral J G Nadkarni, who passed into the ages on Monday. The admiral -- one of the finest officers to head the Indian Navy and a most remarkable human being -- was one of Rediff.com's earliest columnists. His assessment of why India won the 1971 War is a classic and we republish the column today to celebrate his brilliant mind and salute an office and gentleman, the likes of who we will not see again.
Chhota Rajan, one of India's most wanted gangster, has been arrested in the tourist town of Bali, Indonesia on a Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol after eluding law enforcement agencies for over two decades.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan told the SC that Shahabuddin is a 'class-A history-sheeter who cannot be reformed'.
EyeEm, a global community and marketplace for photography and video, is in the middle of its fourth and largest photography competition yet.
The 2019 election gives the Indian public the same choice: Between growth and oligarchs (or, in our case, dynasts and crony capitalists). If we chose wisely, well and good. If not, well, we have the Nehruvian Rate of Growth and massive corruption to fall back on. In a large sense, it is a choice between the India of the Lutyens elites and the Bharat of the real citizen, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Consistency is a word unknown to Bangladesh.
One of the slain terrorists has been identified as Shahbaz Safi Wani alias Rayees Kachru, who was active in the area since June, 2016.
The 55-year-old gangster was taken straight to the CBI headquarters where he was quizzed on Dawood Ibrahim, India's most-wanted terrorist.
Brigadier M P Bajwa (retd), commander of the troops that captured Tiger Hill, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how a band of young soldiers won the Kargil War's most famous battle with their blood and grit.
Yakub Memon's mercy petition was rejected hours before he is scheduled to hang by a three-member bench amid high drama that saw the Supreme Court throwing its doors open in the middle of the night in an unprecedented move.
A classic case of bad editing and worse dialouge, Beauty and the Beast certainly is not a children's film, says Paloma Sharma.
Australia captain Michael Clarke was left to thank his bowlers and centurion Chris Rogers for the hosts' escape in the fourth Ashes Test on Sunday, having risked his team's winning streak by opting to bowl first after winning the toss.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on Monday a plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to convicted gangster-turned-RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin by Patna High Court in a case pertaining to the killing of a youth in Siwan town of Bihar.
'A new doctrine now needs to be evolved for a new situation, and the army will do it.' 'You won't see more Kashmiris driven in front of army columns.' 'Nor will the army massacre hundreds, Dyer style,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Kanu Behl's Titli is one of the best films from India in recent years, says Aseem Chhabra from the Zurich film festival.
'If a drone can't fly airspace without the DGCA knowing about it, how did such a big plane get airborne?' 'The DGCA knows this aircraft had undergone major repairs. Now, the question is who allowed it.' 'The DGCA cannot come out of this.'
Hemal Trivedi, a Hindu filmmaker originally from India, and Mohammed Ali Naqvi, a Muslim from Pakistan have made one of this year's most talked about films.
Here's your weekly digest of the most weird, true and funny news from the across the world.
As Peter sits outside the court with his sister, Indrani walks in with a request. It has been three months since Peter has started speaking to Indrani again, after a long silence of two years.
'According to me, her finest hour was in 1983-1984 when she neutralised a combined US-Pakistan-British conspiracy to Balkanise India by creating an independent Sikh State of Khalistan,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). A special assessment of Indira Gandhi on her centenary.
A top aide of embattled Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday said a military coup was underway in the country, with a travel ban being slapped on the Islamist leader after he refused to quit following the end of a 48-hour army deadline for him to meet people's demands.
'He can say justice has not been done in accordance with the free will of the MLAs without a secret ballot and also by the issuing of a whip.' 'He can ask for a fresh show of strength.'
Meet the Shah Rukh Khan you never knew.
'Dalits will only suffer in the days to come.'
Take a bow, Shah Rukh Khan, raves Raja Sen.
'The evidence about a plane crash that killed Netaji as stated in the Shahnawaz Committee report, is quite strong.' 'None of the files that I read bear any evidence that it was Nehru who ordered this kind of intrusive surveillance.' 'The government's excuse that declassifying some files may affect India's relations with friendly foreign countries is not a credible one.' Subhas Chandra Bose's grand-nephew and Trinamool Congress MP Sugata Bose on reports that his family was under surveillance for 20 years and the rumours over Nataji's death.
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