'Had the police firing been responsible for the killing, then that would have been excessive use of force, but somebody killing somebody else in your presence shows that either you are complicit or incompetent, or both.'
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
We bring you some of the best pictures from across the nation in the last one week.
Indian politics, held captive in one way or the other by Ayodhya, may now well seek its emancipation from this issue, and the pursuit of welfare, asserts Congress leader Salman Khurshid in this excerpt from his latest book, Sunrise over Ayodhya.
'If the virulence of COVID-19 has muted the toxicity of the BJP's communalism, it will be an example of good coming out of the pandemic,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
'Criticism that Amnesty is interested in those in favour of independence for Kashmir is unfounded.'
Labour seems to have found employment as maids, cooks, gardeners, security guards and the like -- a transition that could be described as from farms to the kitchen sink, instead of farms to factories, observes Mahesh Vyas.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
Press Council of India chief Markandey Katju on Monday demanded "immediate" action against police personnel for reportedly arresting a woman in Mumbai protesting the shutdown in the city on Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's demise on social networking site Facebook.
'It's a moot point if Kailaasa will ever evolve beyond being a haven for a fugitive from justice,' notes Devangshu Datta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered prayers at a Matua temple in Bangladesh's Orakandi, the birthplace of Hindu mystic figure and Matua community's spiritual guru Harichand Thakur.
'The mobilisation is nothing but a political ploy -- a sort of a fixed match between Hindu and Muslim communal forces, towards polarisation, in a run-up to the next election,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Four Chinese soldiers were killed in the fierce clash with the Indian Army in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in June last year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) acknowledged for the first time on Friday.
Two top Army commanders on Saturday said the fresh ceasefire between India and Pakistan will have no bearing on the counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir and that the force will exercise 'maximum restraint' in the event of any violation by the neighbouring country.
The encounter broke out in Padgampora village after security forces launched a cordon and search operation around 2.30 am following information about presence of terrorists there, a police official said.
As we wave goodbye to 2019, we look back at the highlights of the year, in the numbers that made it memorable.
Exploiting the killings to ratchet up the tension in the region and harden negotiating positions with the central government serves nobody, least of all the people of Nagaland. The peace process must not be stalled because of this incident or distracted by calls to repeal the AFSPA, argues Vivek Gumaste.
The WADA first suspended NDTL in August last year for a period of six months. A fresh round of inspection by the world body, much to the embarrassment of country's sporting establishment, showed that non-conformities still existed.
'If we chose to do the right things, it is possible to avoid job losses at a mass scale,' ABB MD Sanjeev Sharma tells Raghu Krishnan.
Tagging Adityanath, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said, "RESIGN. Instead of protecting the victim and her family, your government became complicit in depriving her of every single human right, even in death. You have no moral right to continue as chief minister."
The Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant attained its full generation capacity and became the first nuclear plant in the country to generate 1,000 MW of power on Saturday, its site director R S Sundar said.
Twitter on Friday temporarily blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's account for alleged violation of the US Copyright Act, a move that the minister slammed as being arbitrary and gross violation of IT rules.
'When a newspaper says that Karnataka leads in corruption, one must also know it means Karnataka leads in patronising corruption.' 'You can't be corrupt without me succumbing to your corruption.'
The two-day event at the ancient shrine, categorised as 'Great Living Chola Temples,' by the UNESCO, faced the ire of pro-Tamil outfits.
Russia on Tuesday said there is no point in keeping its scientists at protest-hit Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant site in Tamil Nadu after its commissioning remained stalled for months.
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
With the Trinamul government and NGOs stalling the Haripur nuclear plant, will the DAE allot the Russians another site elsewhere in India?
The video also showed protests by locals at Garia, a suburb in the southern fringes of the city where the incident had allegedly taken place, who claimed that the bodies were those of novel coronavirus victims. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed concern over the video and sought a report regarding the incident from the state home secretary.
'At a time when the entire India-US relationship needs to be defined by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, a fresh look at the liability issue has become urgent,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, former Governor for India at the IAEA.
This measure has been envisaged by the government against the backdrop of instances where certain social networking sites showed Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as part of Pakistan and China respectively.
Flipkart and Snapdeal take a cue from Amazon even as they differ on who is ahead in the race
'Although Narendra Modi had no direct participation in the Ayodhya agitation, he would not have been in the dominant position he is now had it not been for the Ram Janambhoomi agitation.'
In a significant move coinciding with the visit of a top United States official probing war crimes, the American embassy in Colombo on Thursday posted pictures of places where civilians had died allegedly during Sri Lanka's final war against rebel Tamil Tigers four years ago.
"Amazon, better behave. Desist from being flippant about Indian symbols & icons. Indifference will be at your own peril," Das said in a tweet.
Amazon says it remains steadfastly committed to India, as evident by CEO Jeff Bezos' announcement last year of the company's plans to invest $5 billion in the country.
Sikhs For Justice plans to picket Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters during Narendra Modi's September 27 visit.
Mark Zuckerberg said one of his greatest regrets was that Facebook has been slow in identifying the Russian information operations in 2016.
'If you talk about any kind of equality, you are under attack.'
Eyeing to become India's largest player in 2020 Adani Group plans to invest 70 per cent of its capital expenditure in clean energy and energy efficient systems.
