'It doesn't look as if any sensible, worldly wise, person is in charge in China.' 'If at all anybody is in charge, it can only be a bunch of bumpkins of whom Xi has become a puppet,' observes B S Raghavan, the veteran civil servant.
This is Modi's first bilateral visit to Myanmar.
No child below the age of 12 years will be permitted to participate in forming human pyramids during the popular Dahi Handi festival, the Supreme Court directed on Thursday while keeping on hold a Bombay high court order, which barred participation of children under 18.
Unlike other countries, the US does not send its election observers to India because of the strong independent credentials of the Election Commission of India.
'With increasing numbers of juveniles committing heinous crimes, we believe such juveniles must go into the adult system and be punished,' Minister Maneka Gandhi tells Rashme Sehgal.
One hopes the higher courts take the extraordinary steps needed to secure justice for the victims. The Gujarat carnage demands nothing less because of its unique nature and sponsorship by the State, argues Praful Bidwai.
There are unprecedented political implications of identification based on 'biological attributes of an individual', such as employed by Aadhaar, warns Gopal Krishna.
'What we have is the bill and the Act passed by Parliament.' 'And then there is a criterion of exclusion as to who will not be covered in EWS.' 'Beyond that, we have no clue where this idea came from.' 'And most importantly, why is it 10% reservation, and say why not 15% or 20%?'
'If Rao had, in fact, given a word to President Clinton in 1994 that India would not test, he would not have encouraged Vajpayee to test. The note, said to have been handed over to Vajpayee by Rao with the words, 'Now is the time to accomplish my unfinished task' may not have been a reference to nuclear tests at all,' says T P Sreenivasan.
Important for India was Xi's meeting with representatives of PLA officers and soldiers stationed in Tibet. The video of the encounter was interesting to watch, especially the large number of lieutenant generals and major generals, observes Claude Arpi.
Support from the committee gives Xi an indefinite extension on the reins of power, which will surely result in hawkish and insular policies. It does not bode well for relations with the USA, or with anyone else who does not bow the knee to Beijing, for that matter.
Of the 27 named, at least four are workers and functionaries of right-wing organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, officials said.
Jamida K is the first Indian Muslim woman to lead the Friday prayer.
Will Indian democracy benefit from the potential that Shashi Tharoor stores in his mind, spirit and intellect? Or will it be the saga of another leader who promised much but delivered too little, asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance were ranged against each other both inside and outside the Parliament on the opening day of the budget session on Monday.
'I rejoice in the fact that Justice Iyer has left a legacy, after all, legacies no not reside in brick and mortar, but in living humans and there are many of us who have followed in his footsteps and continue to do so.' Former additional solicitor general Indira Jaising salutes the legendary Justice V R Krishna Iyer who passed into the ages last week, the judge who restored her faith in the Supreme Court of India.
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.
'We need to be in a perpetual state of aggression, and able to swiftly change the goal posts to keep Pakistan in a state of imbalance,' argues Sanjeev Nayyar.
'This is basically aimed at vilifying Nehruvian ideals.' 'Why?' 'Because, Nehruvian leadership is seen by Hindutva forces as the one which did not let them have their Hindu Raj.' 'The Hindutva proponents have always assumed that had Sardar become the first prime minister, India could never have become a secular State,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
The rally was being planned by UK-based Kashmiri groups to mark the first death anniversary of the commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist outfit killed in a gun battle with Indian armed forces in the Kashmir Valley on July 8 last year.
'Why assail the Tibetan leader at a time when many in China realise that the Buddhist monk is the best bet if Beijing is seriously trying to find a solution to the Tibetan issue?' asks Claude Arpi.
'No one talks about the Mumbai riots anymore, though like Delhi 1984, the guilty have not been punished. In Gujarat, many powerful leaders of the state's ruling party are in jail for their role in the riots... In Mumbai, only one politician of the Shiv Sena, a former MP, was convicted of hate speech, along with two other Shiv Sainiks, one of whom was a corporator and the other a junior functionary... So why the apathy? Could it be because despite these statistics and the widely-publicised findings of the Srikrishna Commission, what remained in public consciousness was the violence by the Muslims, thanks to a highly efficient Sena propaganda machine? There's no demand for it, but would an SIT probe into the closed cases of the Mumbai riots help today?' The fadeout of Mumbai's riots from public debate can be called a triumph of the communal State, argues Jyoti Punwani.
'A robust electoral democracy provides the institutional basis for the generation and regeneration of political hope.'
The SC bench said the report of CFTRI, where the samples of Maggi noodles were tested following earlier orders of the court, will form the basis for the proceedings before the NCDRC.
Amidst reports of Congress' confabulations with the Rashtriya Janata Dal for a secular alliance in Bihar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday took a dig at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the Congress preferring Lalu Prasad over him and said such an 'opportunistic' alliance was not a cause of worry for it.
'Agri reforms need to go beyond the limited concerns of these three laws in improving agriculture productivity in cereal and crop diversification and production patterns.'
'Despite Modi's high-flown rhetoric about good-neighbourly relationships in South Asia, he lacks a road map how to proceed -- be it with Bangladesh or with Sri Lanka and Pakistan... But a deeper question arises here: Did he duck on his own accord or under the diktat from the RSS, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The 3,000-strong force, plus its highly trained dog squad, is responsible solely for the protection of one person: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.
Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam, meanwhile, 'rejected outright' the NCW's recommendation
Opposition parties ask the government to listen to the concern of the intellectuals returning awards.
Sikkim's new chief minister will have to achieve growth without compromising nature.
HRD Minister Javadekar responding to criticism of politicising the event said the UGC communication reflected "patriotism not politics", and it is not compulsory for the academic institutions to organise any such event.
The families of the Muslim youth from Hashimpura who were shot dead 28 years ago had some committed supporters in their long struggle for justice.
The apex court struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code dealing with the offence stating it was archaic and violative of right to equality.
'This society discriminates against a girl from the time she is born, in school, at home, everywhere,' young lawyer Anima Muyarath, who was suspended by the local bar association for a post on her Facebook page, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
'Both reflect prejudice and short-sightedness peculiar to Mr Modi's way of thinking.'
'I do hope the Patel family sues the hell out of the state of Alabama, and I hope the Hindu American Foundation and other community organisations are helping with legal aid and monetary support. For, there is reason to believe that it is religious and racial bias that led to the incident: In other words, a hate crime. There is no reason to suffer that silently.'
'If India does venture across the LoC, it will evoke a strong response.'
'You have to do good work and also do good politics.' 'I think that part was missing, communication was an issue, but we have bridged that gap.'
Vaid, a 1986-batch IPS officer, was unceremoniously removed as police chief late on Thursday night.
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