'There is core BJP support on the Hindutva line. It will continue.' 'Along with that, the BJP is ready to play the OBCs trifurcation card to its benefit.' 'If you see the post-Kairana result, the BJP spokespersons and IT cell have already begun talking about Hindu unity against Muslim unity, Ram vs Allah.'
Modi will need to understand that the formula for success will have to be Local Leaders + Modi and not Modi alone...Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in the running for prime minister... The AAP will have to ally with other parties if it hopes to make any dent in the Lok Sabha election. Dr B Venkatesh Kumar, Professor at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, lists some learnings from the 2013 assembly election results.
Jadavpur University students will settle for nothing less than Vice Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty's exit for letting loose political goons and Rapid Action Troops on peaceful protesters in the campus. Indrani Roy reports
A T M Azharul Islam, a top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, was sentenced to death on Tuesday by a Bangladeshi special court for committing war crimes during the country's independence war against Pakistan.
The panel has also pointed out lapses on part of the university's security unit, saying it did not make any efforts to stop outsiders from shouting provocative slogans and stop them from leaving the campus.
'What the BJP will have to ensure in order to score an ideological victory is to demonstrate not only its commitment to the rule of law -- which is the first prerequisite -- but to introduce a sense of compassion,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Article 370 is a golden cage that keeps Kashmiris trapped in a stifling environment, deters other Indians from investing in the state perpetuating its economic penury and expressly hinders the understanding of India; all under the false premise of preserving a narrow parochial identity, says Vivek Gumaste.
Akhilesh believes his catchment area is the 4.1 million new voters who are 18 to 19 years old.
'There appears to be in the Indian polity a link between being Single and being of prime ministerial timber. It is a trend, a preponderance -- not a statistical verity,' says Dr Shashi K Pande.
When an accused gets attacked on the way to court, and again within the court premises, with no intervention by a judicial officer, which space is safe, asks Jyoti Punwani.
'The forces of good are on the run.' 'But dark times also challenge people to fight.' 'I believe Indians will rise against these dark times.'
Swaraj Samvad has moved on to be a nationwide agenda, says group convenor Professor Anand Kumar.
BJP-supported students' union, aided by a friendly government, is aggressively settling historical scores with Leftist students' organisations.
Bangladesh on Monday banned an Islamist militant outfit that is believed to be behind the gruesome hacking deaths of three secular bloggers.
'I've answered all those people who are tweeting nonsense about Varnika Kundu and trying to shame her.' 'Shame her for what? For being a young girl at a party with friends? For enjoying herself?' 'I think it is ridiculous for somebody to say that she should not be out at night.' 'Why should a girl not step out at night?' 'What does that mean?' 'Does it mean that something happens to the boys at night and they change into monsters?' 'If so, then the problem lies with the boys, not with the girls.' 'Please keep your sons at home at night.' 'Why are you telling girls where to go and what to do?'
'The Centre is using Panneerselvam.' 'He is not known for standing up for his own rights, let alone for the state.' 'He spoke only after he saw huge protests against Sasikala; otherwise, he would have just complied and continued to walk down the aisle.'
Rajiv Malhotra's plagiarism may not be as horrifying as impersonating an exam candidate in Indore -- but they're both forms of cheating.
The RSS realises that with a majority BJP government at the Centre and in several states, now was the best time to undermine and perhaps outdo the Congress-Left 'stranglehold' over campuses and young minds.
'I had to convince myself that I was steely enough to operate on a cold-blooded killer.' 'For all my medical experience, this was something I had never done!' 'If something happened to Charles, I knew my fate was sealed for me.' 'I would be called Doctor Death until I breathed my last.' 'Success was my only hope of escaping that fate.' A fascinating excerpt from heart surgeon Dr Raamesh Koirala's Charles Sobhraj, Inside The Heart Of The Bikini Killer.
'The spread of barbarity in Muzaffarnagar's villages makes administrative complicity so very evident that your government is rightly alleged to be imitating what the Modi-led administration did in Gujarat in 2002,' Mohammad Sajjad tells UP Minister Azam Khan.
The storm over the suicide of a Dalit student in Hyderabad University intensified on Thursday.
GIFT is a financial centre almost entirely devoid of bankers and, indeed, of people.
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest stories from around the world.
'There is a consensus within the Indian security establishment -- at least among those who draw their conclusions from data instead of speaking from nationalist sentiment -- that India lacks the offensive capability to defeat Pakistan in a short war.'
Back in September 2002, Shakti Bhatt/Rediff.com located the former Union Carbide chairman's luxury home in New York, declared unknown by the American and Indian governments. Rediff.com reproduces the feature about his life in hiding.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
'Neither the Congress nor the BJP has the political will to take on the Sanatan Sanstha.'
'A series of arrests have illustrated that IS now has a footprint in India.' 'India has been, for a very long time, a key part of Al Qaeda's global jihadist ambitions.'
'Cultural property crimes have been linked, by the United Nations and others, to terrorism.' 'These links show the perpetrators to be associated with major criminal and terrorist networks like ISIS.
'The attack on the Pathankot base constituted an act of war. Yet Modi's only public comment up until now on that attack has been to blame it on "enemies of humanity".' 'Modi came to power talking tough about Pakistan. But in office, he has pursued a Pakistan policy that has lost both direction and purpose,' argues Brahma Chellaney.
Trepidation made its home firmly on his face on Thursday, announcing its presence with lines of anxiety and the repeated jumpy widening of his eyes.
Most juvenile remand homes are in appalling condition and need a massive overhaul. But whether redrafting the law will bring down juvenile crime is the moot question. What is required better remand homes, more specialised care rather than to expose young people to the trauma and stigma of adult jails, says Rashme Sehgal.
'Let us not say that Modi has not delivered on anything; he has delivered something and in parts substantially, but he has to also deliver on a large number of his electoral promises.'
'The military in Pakistan is capable and self critical, but intelligence is stuffed full of lifers who resist change, which is why career soldiers in Pakistan try with all their might not to be transferred into the ISI.'
His other big achievement -- of avoiding a partition of South Africa against a determined bid by Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi has not received much attention. He was thus a Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one. Preserving a united South Africa against western intrigues was indeed a signal achievement, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale.
'She hasn't done anything wrong; she fought against the bad, she fought for justice.' 'So, I know she will get justice one day.'
India's Muslims need to assert their educational and economic upliftment and political empowerment rather than be provoked by communal remarks, says Mohammad Sajjad, reflecting on the Malda riot.
A Narendra Modi administration would believe more in decentralisation than would a Rahul Gandhi administration, says Arvind Panagariya.
'Arvind Kejriwal displayed crass male chauvinism and gender illiteracy in saying that "rape tendencies arise out of sex, prostitution and drug rackets." This shows a failure to grasp that rape has little to with sex, and even less with drugs. Such remarks are far worse than the deplorable comments of policemen and politicians who attribute rapes to women's "provocative" attire or their outdoor presence at night!' says Praful Bidwai.
'The horrific episode of January 18 in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, is quite different from what happened in Muzaffarnagar, UP, in September 2013. The Akhilesh Yadav-led administration in UP and riot-mongers among our political formations need to learn lessons from the response of the state and society in Bihar's Muzaffarpur,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
