A Rs 36 billion deal for helicopters to ferry VVIPs that ran into rough weather ... A controversy that now threatens to park itself at the doorsteps of the Congress party... Nitin Gokhale, NDTV's Security & Strategic Affairs Editor, tells us what the controversy is all about.
'What we are today witnessing is the final act of the Pakistani army trying to retain its turf,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Skirting any comments on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (demonstration on the streets of Delhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi chose to train his guns at the Uttar Pradesh government for neglecting Amethi, the Gandhi family's political bastion.
The note ban is Modi's make-or-break gambit for 2019. Opposition leaders see a vulnerability and won't gift pre-eminence to the Congress, says Shekhar Gupta.
With its refusal to accept the modern social values, the Indian Muslim community is going down the slope of progress, says Najid Hussain.
'Much of the Socialism that we attribute to him actually came during Indira Gandhi's time,' says M J Akbar who believes that Nehru's convictions helped shape modern India.
The Congress is banking on minority-oriented schemes like those providing medical aid, skill development and promoting leadership among women to reach out to Muslims ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
"The RSS is trying to change the nature of India. Other parties haven't tried to capture India's institutions," he said.
Cutting across party lines, political leaders welcomed the government's decision to confer Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian honour, on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya.
Just a day after United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi took on the Bharatiya Janata Party and claimed that that the state had progressed under Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi not only ruled out the Congress president's development claim.
'We have to find a way out of this confrontational politics.'
Modi hasn't raised or encouraged the raising of slogans such as 'Jai Sri Ram' at public meetings
Congress on Monday announced a slew of populist measures including sops to farmers, students, unemployed youths, minorities, raising subsidised LPG cylinders from 9 to 12 and constitution of Vidhan Parishad in its manifesto for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.
'Must every believing Hindu automatically be assumed to subscribe to the Hindutva project?' asks Shashi Tharoor.
'Gujaratis, among all Indians, are supposed to be born businessmen, but if more than 80% of them do not have the ability to do basic arithmetic, the future is grim.' 'The big issues are in society and they cannot be changed by an HRD minister no matter how brilliant she may be or think of herself as being,' says Aakar Patel.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday attacked Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for making an emotional pitch to garner votes and claimed he had been compelled to do so as he had nothing to drive home about UPA government's performance.
The prime minister, on his first trip to his Lok Sabha constituency in over eight months, claimed poverty alleviation measures have lacked a proper direction and they are spoken about during election time as a "tradition".
'Did the government learn any lesson from the disasters of 2008, 1987, 1975?' 'Certainly not!' 'They are making people believe that the 2017 flood was unexpected, so no preventive effort towards reducing the loss of human lives was to be expected from the government,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Buoyed by government retreating on the land ordinance, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has been "reduced to unedifying flip flops" and most of his poll promises were nothing more than "hawabaazi" (empty talk).
Asserting that inclusive growth will remain as central plank of the United Progressive Alliance, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said it was in tune with this concept that the government had launched a series of welfare programmes and legislative initiatives, especially for the weaker sections.
'Modi didn't face such belligerence in his home state. Moreover, as the prime minister, he can no longer resort to his earlier ploy of describing every attack on himself as an attack on Gujarat. Instead, he has to rebut the charges with calm logic,' says Amulya Ganguli.
However, Denmark said it is difficult to conclude on the real intention behind this.
'there is absolutely no question that the Hinduism of the mob-lynchers, the people who have actually gone and killed others because of what they are eating or how they are worshipping or the faith they belong to or what they're doing professionally, those are, to my mind, not Hindus at all.' 'Hinduism needs to be reclaimed for the Hindus who are not bigots.'
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top central leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party will address a conclave of the party's spokespersons, panelists and media cell office-bearers in New Delhi on Saturday and guide them on how to handle the propaganda ahead of next Lok Sabha elections.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said "narrow and sectarian ideologies" would weaken democracy and their growth needs to be prevented, in remarks seen as a veiled attack on Narendra Modi's style of politics ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul Gandhi's style of media management is baffling many. He first instructed everyone in the Congress to seek prior clearance from two lowly functionaries R V Ramani and Deepak Amin before speaking to the media.
If Team Rajini expected Kaala to carry the superstar's political message off-screen, it may have proved counter-productive. If the not-so-infrequent presence of Muslim residents of Dharavi, including that of Kaala's ex-love Zarina, in many scenes is expected to convey a political message, it is a no-brainer, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A homoeopathic state of mind pervades our thinking in governance and infrastructure-building. Do it in small, harmless doses, but nothing bitter, sharp, or bloody, says Shekhar Gupta.
The lesson Waghmare sternly received on Monday from CBI Investigating Officer K K Singh and CBI Prosecutor Bharat Badami about the way a witness must answer questions from the defence seemed to have had only a marginal effect on him. On Tuesday the timid former office boy still chose, unpredictably and remarkably, to answer many a question in the manner of his choosing. He told the room categorically that he had asked Indrani's former secretary Kajal Sharma not to forge Sheena Bora's signature on her resignation letter.
'Will Pakistan allow R&AW and Indian armed force officers access to roam around their strategic bases?' 'Is there any precedent anywhere in the world of such permissions being granted?'
The Union home ministry on Tuesday ruled out involvement of the army in anti-Naxal operations but said more paramilitary forces will be deployed for intensified operations in Maoists-hit areas to flush out the extremists.
Chief Minister Raman Singh will get 'Z plus' protection with NSG commandos throwing a security cordon around him in Chhattisgarh which witnessed heightened Naxal threat after the killing of top Congress leaders.
The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. This plurality of our society has come through assimilation of ideas over centuries. Secularism and inclusion are a matter of faith for us. It is our composite culture which makes us into one nation.
Targeting Narendra Modi over the alleged fake encounter of Mumbra resident Ishrat Jahan in 2004, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in Thane that the chief minister and the Gujarat police had killed an innocent college girl by branding her as a terrorist.
Wrestling has introduced drastic changes designed to keep the ancient sport in the Olympic programme, the newly-elected president of the world governing body (FILA) said on Saturday.
Wrestling has introduced drastic changes designed to keep the ancient sport in the Olympic programme, the newly-elected president of the world governing body (FILA) said on Saturday.
'If the RSS should be saluted for choosing such a scholarly statesman to address its highly trained cadre, one must also praise Pranab Da's sagacity for having gracefully accepting the invitation, thus disapproving any ideological apartheid,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
With Lok Sabha elections due next year, newly appointed Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said he would strive to achieve objectives in the run up, including making legal procedures help fuel economic growth and appointment of judges through a transparent process.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is using modern management techniques, which he picked up during his stint as a strategy consultant abroad, to revamp his party. But the moot question is: will they work? Anita Katyal reports
Called the thinking man's constituency, the biggest issue in Malleshwaram is infrastructure, reports Vicky Nanjappa
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