Close friend Tarun Vijay pays tribute to the four-time Goa chief minister and former defence minister who passed into the ages on Sunday.
Denouncing the protest march in the Jawaharlal Nehru University against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Friday said that the nation will never tolerate "insult" to mother India.
Cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Wednesday came out in support of Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur, who is in the eye of a storm over free speech, even as Virender Sehwag defended himself after facing a backlash for ridiculing her.
Modi today needs BJP CMs and non-party regional leaders to win votes and build alliances, but he will over-rule them and treat them like dirt once they have served their electoral purpose. Make no mistake: Modi is incurably authoritarian and will brook no dissent -- so long as the RSS is on board, says Praful Bidwai.
'The Elgar Parishad turned out to be the first rallying cry against the BJP and RSS in Maharashtra.' 'The speakers took a vow not to vote for the BJP.'
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the National Democratic Alliance government of "suppressing" students' voice as he visited the JNU campus to express solidarity with them, a day after the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
AISF had for the first time independently contested elections and opened its account in the union polls with Kanhaiya, who was elected for the president's post.
The carving work by artisans had been carried out uninterrupted since 1990 when Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
'So you wonder, couldn't he have combined these two qualities: His love of his own voice, and his acting talents, to voice concern about the Kathua and Unnao rapes?' asks Jyoti Punwani. 'His supporters are siding with the accused in the first case, and are the accused in the second.'
Expelled BJP ideologue Prof Hari Om speaks to Pervez Majeed.
The need of the hour is not a divisive, slanging match of accusations and counter-accusations, but a call for sanity,' says Vivek Gumaste.
In a show of unity, Narendra Modi on Saturday asked party workers to ensure victory of Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L K Advani by a "huge margin" from the constituency and recalled the "illustrious" political career of the party veteran.
'If you are a slave, nobody has any problem. The conflict starts when you question and ask for equal rights.'
Buoyed by the Uttarakhand assembly floor test result, Congress attacked PM Modi demanding his apology in Parliament and sacking of the minister who "advised" him to impose
'What the Hinduisation of Muslim names by the BJP suggests is that the party's anti-Muslim outlook matches the virulence of almost any other far right outfit such as the Ku Klux Klan,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Religious minorities in India have been subjected to "violent attacks, forced conversions" and 'Ghar Wapsi' campaigns by groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh after the Modi government assumed power in 2014, a US Congress-established panel has said.
Buoyed by government retreating on the land ordinance, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has been "reduced to unedifying flip flops" and most of his poll promises were nothing more than "hawabaazi" (empty talk).
Amit Shah's formal leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party might have its days numbered, given the range of resentment now coming forth against him.
Sensing the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's attempts to rekindle Ayodhya sentiments, the Akhilesh Yadav-led government in Uttar Pradesh has banned a meeting to mark the 25th death anniversary of brothers, Ram and Sharad Kothari, who fell to police bullets while performing the symbolic kar sewa on November 2, 1990 -- two years before the Babri Masjid was brought down.
Delhi Police have registered a case in connection with posters announcing a "reward" of Rs 11 lakh for anyone who "shoots down" JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.
'These people want to create fissures among the Hindus and they have been trying to do this for quite sometime.'
Modi and Shah have finalised names for the Rashtrapati's post, which the BJP boss has discussed with the RSS chief.
There is going to be no defence of freedom of thought from this government.
"Please do not call my son a terrorist," says JNUSU President Kanhaiya's mother.
Mukherjee's family and relatives paid their last respects clad in PPE kits while conforming to COVID-19 safeguards.
Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed uproarious scenes with members from the Congress party lodging strong protest against eulogising of Nathuram Godse at a function held in Maharashtra earlier this month.
'Reflex responses to Dalit student Rohith Vemula's suicide are band aids that stem the current hemorrhage but do precious little to the festering wound beneath,' says Vivek Gumaste.
'I am as Bengali as they come in my cultural and personal orientation and I think probably all the BJP candidates who are contesting are pretty non-vegetarian in their food and as Bengali in their cultural orientation.'
BJP-supported students' union, aided by a friendly government, is aggressively settling historical scores with Leftist students' organisations.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
BJP leader Vinay Katiyar said like a Shiva temple, water drips from the ceiling in the Taj Mahal.
'The BJP, or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are celebrating their biggest ideological and philosophical victory in some time,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Muslims and Dalits must erase the way they remember their past, or carry out their their performances in private,' says Jyoti Punwani, as Maharashtra's Censor Board denies permission to a play Jai Bhim, Jai Bharat.
The Congress, which has seen over the years a gradual appropriation of some of its stalwarts by the BJP, launched a counter-drive and projected the saffron party as an unworthy champion of the ideals of the father of the nation.
The attacker said that he was upset with Kumar over his remarks regarding the army.
'Though we will raise our voices repeatedly, though we will not keep silent, this is a clear threat to us. What happened to Gauri Lankesh could happen to any of us,' says friend, and fellow journalist and activist Shashidhar Hemmady.
'The crux of the matter is that our narrative lacks credibility with world capitals,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Addressing his council of ministers in a video conference, Modi asked them to prepare business continuity plans to fight the economic impact of COVID-19 on a war footing, but also asserted that this crisis is an opportunity to boost the 'Make-in-India' initiative and reduce dependence on other countries.
'Why did they attack us? What was our fault?' 'They killed a woman. They burnt down vehicles.' 'They pelted stones at us over a 45 km stretch. There was no police bandobast.'
The former Gujarat chief minister has been at loggerheads with the Congress leadership for quite some time.
