The Indian government is fuming. Many serving and retired diplomats are anguished. The public arrest of Indian Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade in New York has triggered an 'unprecedented' chain of events. Sheela Bhatt reports
Asaduddin Owaisi, the member of Parliament from Hyderabad, talks to Sheela Bhatt about his worries over the way Telangana is being created.
'Modi is extremely lucky that in different regions and in different communities, he enjoys different images. His public image evokes all the emotions between hope to fear, but the message that if he comes to power he will do some development is percolating down faster than his other images.' Three months away from the Lok Sabha election, Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt checks out the emerging political trends.
A weak and troubled United Progressive Alliance government has stumbled badly by issuing the ordinance to counter the fine judgment by the Supreme Court that forces the disqualification of lawmakers convicted for a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of over two years.
Arvind Kejriwal, Mr Anti-Establishment, wants to play politics without being branded as the typical Indian politician so that he can make his mark in the 2014 general election. While hiding his political manoeuvring, the Aam Admi Party's maverick leader is seeking fresh intervention in the agenda of the nation by agitating on the footpaths of New Delhi, says Sheela Bhatt.
By choosing not to declare her son Rahul Gandhi as the party's prime ministerial candidate, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has averted a Modi versus Rahul battle and effectively insulated her family against a backlash over a possible defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Only after the final bill for Telangana goes to Parliament will the disturbances in Andhra Pradesh subside. Sheela Bhatt reports
Sheela Bhatt speaks to the popular Gujarati writer Gunvant Shah, who holds some strong and firm views on Narendra Modi.
Today political parties are not in a position to judge easily which castes, communities and groups are on their side due to the fluid situation where every caste wants empowerment. That makes this Rajasthan election interesting, says C P Joshi in a rare and exclusive interview to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
'The Aam Aadmi Party will cut into our votes, but it won't affect our final tally in Uttar Pradesh,' a senior BJP strategist tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in this brilliant report on the coming electoral wars in UP.
The ISI's Indian mole Honey Bee helped plan the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks and there were 10 locals who provided logistical support to David Headley, Adrian Levy tells Sheela Bhatt in an exclusive interview.
There is discontent amongst many strategic analysts against Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid's stand on the fallout of the Snowden's leaks. The news of the US National Security Agency's bugging the Indian embassy in Washington alongwith the embassies of 37 other countries has been taken lightly by India.
With just one act of disowning the ordinance on convicted lawmakers, Rahul Gandhi has exposed the fault-lines in the Congress party. Sheela Bhatt reports.
By nominating Madhusudan Mistry, Digvijaya Singh, Kumari Selja as the party's Rajya Sabha candidates, and roping in Sanjay Singh, the Congress vice-president has failed to walk the talk, argues Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
National security and corruption will be the BJP's poll plank for the coming Lok Sabha election, reveals Sheela Bhatt.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had a talk with Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday about security related, developmental and the political situation on Ground Zero in Chhattisgarh's tribal area.
Sheela Bhatt spends a bleak, rainy, winter day at the Aam Aadmi Party's dharna outside the Union home ministry in New Delhi and speaks exclusively to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about his motivations.
With Saturday's attack on a Congress convoy that killed party members and police personnel along with Salwa Judum founder Mahendra Karma, the Maoists have issued a strong political message.
Though the Samajwadi leader did not give any specific reasons for staying away, he had spoken out strongly against China during the recent border row, reports Sheela Bhatt.
BJP leaders argue that there is a serious argument against Cyriac Joseph's appointment because one of his "acts of omission" in not delivering a sensitive judgment within a reasonable time-frame has helped the first United Progressive Alliance government by bailing out Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family, reports Sheela Bhatt
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt analyses the Congress's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
'This has been the history of these people,' Congress leader Ahmed Patel tells Sheela Bhatt.
Commerce, Connectivity, Consular and Community -- External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has urged Indian ambassadors in Central Asia to find ways to explore the massive potential that the strategically-important region offers. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, who travelled to Tajikistan with the foreign minister, reports.
The Congress vice president made a political speech to the mandarins of corporate India. He charmed them with his good intentions but left them unsure with his ability to get things done. Sheela Bhatt analyses the Congress scion's address at the CII.
'Gujarat has a very long tradition of Panchayati Raj. And many of the social sector things we are talking about are actually implemented by the panchayats. Decentralisation exists here. Now to decentralise I need the capacity in the panchayats.In most Indian states, we don't have the capacity in the panchayats, which is why governance in India is so very bad. But Gujarat has had this since the 1960s,' economist Bibek Debroy tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Jagdish Bhagwati keeps the debate with the Nobel Laureate raging in this interview with Sheela Bhatt.
Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan have successfully managed to blow the lid off the 'crony capitalism' that is flourishing in the country today, and in the process delivered a crushing blow to the UPA government. Sheela Bhatt analyses
Sheela Bhatt reports from Firozabad, the country's centre for glass bangles, on what life is like for its workers in the wake of the national lockdown.
BJP leaders in Gujarat feel that though Narendra Modi and the party will fight the allegations politically, there is no denying that the legal fight will have some political price attached to it. Sheela Bhatt reports
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang signed the border agreement to ensure that both countries do not tail each other's military teams along the LAC. Sheela Bhatt reports from Beijing
The news report that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi helped in the evacuation of 15,000 Gujaratis from Uttarakhand in two days has come under fire from various quarters. Even if one disputes the figures, Modi's detractors can learn how the entire operation was handled meticulously. Sheela Bhatt reports.
The challenge for India and Russia is to make the relationship more broad-based and give it greater economic content, says former ambassador to Russia, Ronen Sen, who spoke exclusively to Sheela Bhatt
'The hanging has made Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's position very vulnerable. The government has created an issue in Kashmir when there was none.'
Sheela Bhatt speaks to BJP insiders and those privy to Modi's thinking to piece together the Gujarat's strongman plan/journey that aims for the biggest prize in Indian politics.
Narendra Modi will be the face of the BJP, the symbol of anti-Congress sentiment and the messiah of the Indian middle class in the general election, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Although popular Dalit writer and thinker Chandrabhan Prasad feels what Ashis Nandy said at the Jaipur Literature Festival was undignified and vulgar, he tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt that matter should have ended once the professor apologised.
With former Congressmen the Radadias in the BJP fold thanks to Narendra Modi's deft coup, the latest bye-election result may create an energetic power balance within Saurashtra, reports Sheela Bhatt
Rakesh Asthana, Superintendent of Police in the Central Bureau of Investigation in 1994 and one of the key investigators in the fodder scam, explains the case and Lalu Yadav's role in it to Sheela Bhatt
Naresh Chandra, bureaucrat, diplomat and administrator, shares an 'insider's view' on the India-Pakistan peace process in an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
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