Should Bhagavad Gita be the national book?
Srikanth Kondapalli, professor in Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University and rediff.com columnist, will appear on the Rediff Chat to discuss the import of Xi's visit and what it bodes for the two nations, for Asia, and for the world at large.
'These three commodities have been chosen very well.' 'It is up to the state governments and central government to see how it is implemented.' 'The government has to do some hand-holding.'
Last week, Gandhi claimed that he had evidence of "personal corruption" of the prime minister but he was being prevented from speaking in the Lok Sabha because it would cause an earthquake.
Congress accused the BJP and RSS of being behind the 'murderous attack' on Gandhi.
'Will Modi succeed with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan? He will not, because cultural change does not come purely from legislation and never overnight. It comes internally and this is something Gandhi understood,' says Aakar Patel.
Attacking the Election Commission, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said that people have started doubting the credibility of the EVMs in a "big way".
Many in party believe that Advani will be left out as the group of veterans supporting him will not stick together for long.
'The strange thing about the Karnataka election is that the BJP looks more like the Congress of the past and vice versa.' 'Siddaramaiah has been able to out think the BJP almost every single day on every single issue.'
The Opposition is putting up a symbolic fight for the presidential polls as it knows that the BJP has the numbers to get its candidate elected to the top post.
Questioning the role of the Centre and Delhi government, the parents of December 16 gangrape victim asked why no action was taken earlier to stop the release of the juvenile.
'Modi's abject capitulation will play out badly in his core constituency.' 'The bulk of our strategic community is under the impression that India under Modi has already become a superpower.' 'They don't even want to look at the country's emaciated limbs or its asthmatic problems,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Will Modi at least visit the victims of the Gujarat genocide, apologise for the massacre, wipe their tears which may never dry, extend State help to rehabilitate them, and give them the dignity they deserve?' asks Najid Hussain.
While office and mall properties enjoyed revival and saw some big PE deals, residential real estate was hit by double whammy - stagnating prices and demonetisation
M R Venkatesh, chartered accountant turned political commentator tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com that Modi's war is not against the opposition parties or the Congress but against the bureaucracy and the establishment.
Prime Minister Modi has said it is their small units that drive the Indian economy.
'Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi be able to continue political engagement with Pakistan against the inevitable upsurge of negative and hostile public sentiment?'
There could be significant announcements about India's purchase of Kamov-226T helicopters, S-400 air defence missile systems, and the long-delayed contract for joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to President Pranab Mukherjee's address in Parliament, saying that his government will fulfill the promises made in the speech. Rediff.com brings you some of the highlights of the speech.
'Modi is nobody's fool. He recognises that China has a sort of quality that attracts and repels. It attracts in terms of its performance and it shows in a sense a mirror image to India of what it could be if everything went right in terms of economic performance,' says Ashley Tellis, senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and head of its South Asia programme.
Mukhar Abbas Naqvi, senior vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is convinced that Narendra Modi will become the next prime minister of India.
Kishen Reddy, chief of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP says that there is a lot that the party will gain from Modi's visit. In this interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Reddy says that the people do not look at Modi as a BJP leader, but as the next prime minister.
'We have the political will to take this to the very end.' 'But what eventually happens depends on the effectiveness, honesty and missionary zeal of the officialdom in the frontline of the battle against corruption,' says S Muralidharan.
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said if the people of Varanasi defeat Narendra Modi in the elections then no one will make him the next prime minister.
Narendra Modi "does not deserve" to be BJP's PM candidate if the Cobrapost claim on illegal spying on a woman architect in Gujarat in 2009 are found to be correct, Congress women leaders said today demanding an inquiry into the issue by a Supreme Court judge.
'2017-2018 will be one of the best years for the country.' 'The wheel has finally started moving in the right direction. It should pick up momentum in the next 8 to 9 months to have a positive impact on the economy'
The prime minister was aggressive during his interaction with the media, but no one came away enlightened on issues of governance of this complex country after hearing him for 75 minutes, says Sheela Bhatt, who attended the press conference on Friday, January 3.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's real test will be whether he can bring a longer-term vision to India's foreign policy planning, says Ravi Agrawal.
Modi's tweets talk about the celebration of democracy and also puts emphasis on the education of girls, says Mayank Mishra
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's belated attempt to project himself as a statesman and a man of reason in his interviews to ANI and TV9 is being viewed with dollops of scepticism by his critics and political opponents. Anita Katyal reports.
'The lack of zeal to serve the country in the mammoth government machinery will be the biggest challenge for Narendra Modi and his government as he tries to change things; there will be not just resistance, but a lack of response to begin with.' If Narendra Modi becomes prime minister, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com says the issue of human resources, lack of talent and value system in governance will be his biggest challenge.
Today when we see the man behaving in a controlled, almost genteel fashion, creating a government with Prussian efficiency, colonising Delhi with a strange silence of expectation, one must ask is this Modi? Or is Modi all the trails he has left behind?'
"Who will be his men?" a distinguished official close to the prime minister asked. Frankly, nobody has an idea. Hardly seven weeks are left for a regime change, but the idea of Narendra Modi on Raisina Hill looks abnormal, if not unreal. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt captures the uncertain mood in the capital's bureaucracy ahead of the largest democratic transfer of power in the world.
The Varanasi versus Azamgarh story is about the fears and insecurities of two of our strongest leaders, Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav, says Sheela Bhatt.
'We are certainly disappointed by our inability to win a single seat in the valley... We will analyse what led to this kind of dismal -- in terms of seats -- non-performance by the BJP.' 'I certainly don't want to attribute any religious or so-called communal reasons for it; for the simple reason, that even in Ladakh, a Buddhist majority area, we failed to win seats.' BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav, the man in charge of the party's election campaign in J&K, discusses the verdict with Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
In the final part of his interview with Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai says the Congress lost the election in 2011, the year of Anna Hazare.
'India should think big: About how in a multi-polar world, India can indeed be one of the poles, rather than being a secondary power that has to worry about 'alignment' with one of the poles. A G3 in other words, India should look to getting others to align with itself rather than the US or China,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Amit Shah is the man of the moment. The architect of the BJP's stunning transformation in the Hindi heartland during the Lok Sabha elections is all set to emerge as the CEO of Modi's political dreams and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's cultural passion, says Sheela Bhatt.
'After the 2002 riots when the media and other political parties started blaming Modiji, thousands of people like us -- now, it must be crores of us -- started becoming staunch supporters of Modiji. The more you blamed him the more of our support he gained.' Pramod Singh of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh is one of Narendra Modi's biggest fans and a member of Modi's India272 Web initiative, spreading the leader's message on social media and the Internet.
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