Faced with one of the worst showing in Lok Sabha elections in which her party failed to open its account, BSP chief Mayawati on Saturday said the parties which had supported the UPA at the Centre faced the anger of the people towards the Congress-led alliance.
The tragedy is that, at least on social media, the narrative that was being lapped up by many Indian Muslims was that Yakub Memon was being victimised. The purveyors of this poisonous line of thinking of course want this sentiment to grow since communal polarisation is the primary pillar of their political strategy, says Sushant Sareen.
'They must bow their head before the people's might and start their work immediately. Now nothing can help them, but a show of sincerity and a life without cosmetic frills.' 'They don't have any option, but to succeed and prove themselves worthy of this massive victory,' says BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
'Are moving towards a political culture that provides more space for violence and a paranoid political rhetoric,' asks Nitin Desai.
The Congress has kept quiet on the way the Union home ministry has handled innumerable blast cases under its rule. It has not openly condemned the bias that pervades within its government and the security agencies, says Neeta Kolhatkar.
'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.'
The issue of lynchings resonated in the Rajya Sabha; while in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition accused the government of not being sensitive towards farmers' issues.
Nivedita Mookerji finds out how Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma is handling his soaring popularity after the note ban as well as the criticism that comes as a package deal.
'The problem is not lack of evidence, but the unholy alliance between political parties and church authorities.' 'If you are raising a voice against the priest, you and your family will suffer.'
'The participants and organisers have rejected their own political leadership and shown the door to leaders who have tried to claim power at these rallies.' 'Instead, the Maratha masses have reclaimed their power and stakes in the larger scheme of things.'
With the situation improving in violence-hit Saharanpur, the district authorities on Monday relaxed curfew for four hours in the new city area to allow people to buy their daily need items from markets which were directed to remain open.
Vijay Nair, CEO and co-founder of Only Much Louder, released a statement about what exactly went wrong, leading to the show's cancellation.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Amitabh Thakur, who is locked in a tussle with ruling Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and took his fight to the Centre, was on Monday night suspended by the Uttar Pradesh government.
N Sathiya Moorthy goes back in time to dig up three cases that may not have any citation in legal text-books or lawyers' ready-reckoners quoted before courts but which may still have a bearing on the current case against the arrested activists.
The judiciary has often shied away from contesting the speaker's right or that of the legislature, but it has not always avoided taking a close look at the processes employed and arrive at conclusions that are binding on all concerned, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told a special court in Mumbai that Indrani Mukerjea, prime accused in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, and her husband former media baron Peter Mukerjea were unhappy with the relationship between her daughter Sheena and Peter's son Rahul.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday "strongly disapproved" incidents of vandalism of statues in certain parts of the country and spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the matter.
Just to be clear, "love jihad" -- a concept that claims that Muslim men court Hindu women to convert them to Islam purely to take over India -- doesn't exist, says Mitali Saran
The high-voltage campaign for the February 4 assembly elections in Punjab came to an end on Thursday evening following hectic campaigning by various political parties.
'While Kejriwal has lost his credibility due to his failure in Delhi, Captain Amarinder Singh is dancing on the tune of his image managers.'
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Muzzling NGOs is unbecoming of a democracy. Self-confident democracies encourage, indeed applaud, the involvement of citizens' associations, including NGOs, in social and political decision-making and development planning. Instead, our paranoid government bullies and terrorises them, says Praful Bidwai.
'While Television generally tends to Clarity,' says Sreehari Nair, 'Arnab Goswami's The Newshour Debate portrays our confusions. Each episode offers both the potency of an intensely-fought boxing match and the giddy pleasures of an orgy.'
'Extravagant new promises can buy him time, but far from solving the problem, they compound the risk.' 'His main alternative is to stress not aspirations, but resentments.' 'He has already de-emphasised aspirational appeals: Nothing has been heard for over two years of the coming of achhe din,' points out James Manor.
'The American electorate are forced to choose between a shop-soiled spokesperson of crony establishmentarianism and an outlandish boor of a showman, who should never have been where he is now.'
'I believe that in the BJP nobody can make anybody anything... I believe the media should analyse this after the end of my tenure!' 'My work is incomplete till I take the BJP to the four big states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.' BJP President Amit Shah, as never before!
The year 2014 is coming to an end. It was the year of conflict, the year of strife. Year 2014 will be remembered for several reasons -- the rise and threat of the Islamic State, the downing of two Malayasia Airlines aircraft and the sudden and effective way of using hastags on social media to generate a buzz about the event. After all, who can forget #theicebucket challenge and the phenomenon it grew into. Read on as we bring you an overview of international news and events of 2014.
'For years American academia has used the concerns about Hindutva in India to almost completely trash the concept of Hinduism.' 'In the American debate, Wendy Doniger's point of views perpetuated Hinduphobia.' 'Americans were willing to change... Indian intellectuals let us down badly.'
'If Muslims who are 20 percent of UP's population feel the SP has no future they will go with the BSP. Even if 10 percent Muslim vote goes to the BSP every equation will change.'
Even as Akhilesh Yadav has emerged stronger in Uttar Pradesh politics, the Samajwadi Party has become weaker due to family feud, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
Manobi Bandyopadhyay, India's first transgender principal of a college, speaks of her struggles in a moving interview.
'An operation such as the Mumbai attacks, which needed expert technical assessment, money and time to prepare, could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the ISI's leadership.'
Tamil Nadu has time and again proved that it needs a decisive leader even if corrupt, rather than an indecisive leader, however good-hearted, good-natured and honest he may be, writes N Sathiya Moorthy.
While the Chhattisgarh police charged the well-known academic with a tribal man's murder, those who know her say it is vendetta at play.
'While military acts such as the Uri surgical strikes are one option, cultural, economic and diplomatic isolation should also be part of the arsenal,' argues Sankrant Sanu.
Natwar Singh's book is un-illuminating, largely self-justificatory, often contradictory, and at times tendentious. He is too preoccupied with depicting himself as a victim of the Congress party's machinations, says Praful Bidwai.
'There is nothing like the Sangh agenda or the BJP agenda... we believe only in the Nation's Agenda,' says newly appointed BJP Vice-President Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
'The educated, employed, and self-sufficient Dalit is being attracted towards the BJP. The middle-class that has rapidly emerged among Dalits in the last two decades has deviated from its path. It has become a traitor to its own class. It cannot distinguish between a friend and an enemy.'
'He is just a 22 year old who has no knowledge of India's laws or Constitution. How will such a man handle a discussion on reservations in an intelligent, lawful manner?' 'Let me alert everybody that he is using the 1985 formula. Back then they opposed reservations based on caste for OBCs and now they want to be included in the same category. This clearly tells us what their intention is. They don't want reservations; they want reservations to be cancelled altogether.'
'Even if Akhilesh Yadav opens up the entire state treasury for us we will not vote for the Samajwadi Party... ''...I don't want to return to my village, my head will be chopped off. They want me to press the button on the lotus.' Caught between an aggressive BSP cornering Dalit votes and the BJP cornering other Hindu votes, the Muslims of Muzaffarnagar have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt presents the grim situation on the ground in western Uttar Pradesh.
