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.
Sheela Bhatt drives from New Delhi to Agra and Firozabad to capture the stories of an India under lockdown.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt analyses the Congress's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
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
National security and corruption will be the BJP's poll plank for the coming Lok Sabha election, reveals Sheela Bhatt.
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
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.
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.
Says a senior BJP leader: "If the AAP had Congress or BJP-type polling agents they would have easily got three-fourth majority in Delhi, there is no question about it. It was not Kejriwal or the AAP that got the vote. People went all out with a resolve to defeat what we call 'the system'." Sheela Bhatt reports on how the AAP's cornering of the anti-establishment vote has forced the BJP to rethink its strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.
The verdict from the assembly elections is not the best possible result for the BJP with two states seeing neck-to-neck fights, but in view of the clear anti-Congress vote the BJP has got an edge, says Sheela Bhatt.
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.
Sheela Bhatt visits a large urban basti a mere 20-minute drive from the prime minister's home to discover a story of grim struggle in the time of lockdown.
'It is the first time since Independence that there is a leader who claims to be completely self-made.... Although he is in the BJP, frankly, it is now Modi who is defining the BJP's persona than the BJP defining him as it were.' Pratap Bhanu Mehta, arguably India's finest political thinker, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in an eloquent interview.
'In the early 2000s, mid-2000s, one of the big changes in India was the sense that India was finally going to make it. With all its flaws and faults, the relatively high growth rate gave you an opportunity to do other things and so forth. Right now, there is nervousness about whether India can actually make it.' The second part of political thinker Pratap Bhanu Mehta's eloquent interview to Rediff.com's 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
Jagdish Bhagwati keeps the debate with the Nobel Laureate raging in this interview with 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
Sheela Bhatt speaks to the popular Gujarati writer Gunvant Shah, who holds some strong and firm views on Narendra Modi.
The Delhi high court had on December 17 convicted Kumar and sentenced him to imprisonment for 'remainder of his natural life' in another 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
'The Congress will get exposed more and more. My case will not stand a judicial trial. I am confident that in any case against me, the charges will not be framed. All cases against me are baseless.' BJP leader Amit Shah, in an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
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
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 mental issues are too complex to be handled.' 'It is hitting us hard for one reason.' 'We have such a high level of fear about this disease.'
After watching Uri: The Surgical Strike, Syed Firdaus Ashraf gets the feeling that Modi has added another tool to help him win the 2019 Lok Sabha election: Hindi cinema...
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.
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.
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
Sheela Bhatt, who attended the dinner to celebrate UPA-II's fourth anniversary, sensed a deep unease in the ruling echelons.
The Congress knew that Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh are lost for a long time as Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's leadership is taking deep roots. It also knew that if the next government is formed by the NDA then Telangana will definitely be created depriving them any credit. This pushed the Congress to finally endorse the new state. But the huge risk behind the decision and the uncertainties that go with it are making Congress nervous, says Sheela Bhatt.
The real assessment of the actual diplomatic gains out of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's three-day India visit can be made only after promised actions are initiated, but surely it has yielded some political dividend for the beleaguered United Progressive Alliance government, notes Sheela Bhatt.
As another murky saga of betting in cricket surfaces, Sheela Bhatt raises some frequently asked questions on the subject and provides answers.
His provocative comments are the first political steps taken by the Congress to handle the coal scam and its fall-out, says Sheela Bhatt
Sheela Bhatt compiles a list of things, both unknown and known, about the latest challenger to the New Delhi throne.
But it's nice to see the CBI telling the truth overtly and exposing the government that it serves covertly, says Sheela Bhatt.
According to the CBI charge-sheet in the encounter case, which leaves out some important questions, five Gujarat cops fired 70 rounds on the four persons they branded as terrorists. Sheela Bhatt presents a summary of the CBI charge-sheet of the "extra-judicial" killings that are haunting the Gujarat government.
After a SWOT analysis of the UPA, Sheela Bhatt examines how its prime challenger squares off. 'In the public space Modi enjoys many advantages the BJP doesn't. At same time, there are many advantages to the BJP which Modi doesn't enjoy.'
'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.'
'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.
K Alan Kronstadt, an expert in South Asian affairs at the US Congressional Research Service, speak to Sheela Bhatt on why India-US bilateral relations are getting cold.
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