The deaths of Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi within months of each other neutralises any sympathy factor their parties may hope to gain from. What's more, by removing charismatic leaders from the fray, it also levels the field for others, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
India's bowling coach feels the fast bowler is not doing his job with enough intensity.
'India simply wasn't prepared for the fact that a natural-born American could be organising a major terror plot in their country. And they didn't look for people like him.' 'Headley is one of the most complex and interesting terrorists of the last many years.'
'President Kalam would always say -- this was one of his pet sentences -- that "If you don't do anything, there will be no difficulties but if you do things, there will be difficulties. You have to overcome them. Don't be afraid of difficulties".'
'There is a problem with the rise of a popular view that sees Kashmir through the prism of the larger, chronic Hindu-Muslim tensions.' 'By redefining the Kashmir problem simplistically in Hindu-Muslim terms could end up keeping Kashmir but losing most Kashmiris,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'The previous (Congress) government at least did not veto provisions of the cattle laws.' 'The BJP is actively weakening the provisions.' 'The BJP government tried to export goats from Nagpur for slaughter to the Middle East.' 'The whole country was aghast and offended. We are a country of Ahimsa.' 'The BJP has incentivised the butcher industry so meat export has gone up, live animal export has gone up, leather export is on the rise, smuggling has gone up.'
The removal of the terrorist state tag from official Pakistani entities and allowing Islamabad a free run in negotiations on Afghanistan's future has strained India-US relations, says Nilova Roy Chaudhury
B Raman feels one has to emphasise the importance of balance in the television discussions while the hostage-taking situation continues.
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party held "unbridled use of force" responsible for the present unrest in Jammu and Kashmir which has claimed so many lives saying the crisis had worsened with the guilty troops going unpunished.
The 7th Pay Commission recommendations are a major challenge for the Railways.
Here's how to know if you're on to something huge, or it is just a mirage. Read on...
The first of its kind conference is fully supported by the Communist Party of India-Marxist and also by India Arab Cultural Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia and others.
Our country recorded 24,771 dowry deaths in the last four years, as per the National Crime Records Bureau data.
On Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 91st birth anniversary on September 30, we bring back excerpts from a Rediff interview with the brilliant filmmaker, just after the release of his last film, Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kate.
Many photographers descended on Bhopal after December 3, 1984, but the work of Raghu Rai and Pablo Bartholomew define, for most people in India and the world, the unspeakable horrors of the 'worst industrial disaster ever'. Their photograph of a lifeless infant, nothing but his face visible against the backdrop of a mass grave, has become the definitive image of the disaster.
Israel on Thursday agreed to ease its land blockade on the Gaza Strip in a bid to quell mounting international criticism following a bloody sea raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Hamas-run territory.
'Sasikala definitely has an emotional advantage over the others, but there are very seasoned politicians with a strong support base.' 'For the time being, they may toe her line.'
In the post Jayalalithaa Tamil Nadu, Sasikala is the person to be watched in the coming days, weeks and months, writes R Ramasubramanian.
'Flush with funds, lending became a cash management exercise.' 'Road projects, power generation plants, airports etc were financed left and right with apparently no regard for the projects' ability to repay,' explains S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
'Whether he will apologise or not is not a problem.' 'I want him to make an effort to create a new world, by learning from history.'
'This was a total and complete failure of the State. The rule of law was usurped. It is also the failure of Naga society. The state must be held accountable but simultaneously Naga society must engage and ask where we are going?'
Me: Cow slaughter? Do you know cows have not been slaughtered in Maharashtra? Vegetarian: What are you saying?!! Me: Yes, only bulls, bullocks and oxen were slaughtered, the cow has not been slaughtered in Maharashtra since 1976.
Tying up Parliament's either houses without doing any business but behaving as if it is already a street ill-behoves the nation which calls itself the largest democracy. Here, the maturity is measured, unfortunately, by the number of voters and the size of the Parliament than by the wisdom, reason, reasonableness, persuasion being its backbone, say Maheah Vijapurkar.
Comparing a state like Kerala with a nation like Somalia shows disconnect unbecoming of a prime minister, says Uttaresh Venkateshwaran.
'For a film like Haseena, which is made for Rs 11 crore, the publicity budget was Rs 8 crore. I think it's a waste because that could have gone into the film and I could have done something bigger and better.' Director Apoorva Lakhia looks back at his film Haseena Parker.
'Let me talk about young Indian startups with their hearts in the right place and how they are proving that innovations that represent 'affordable excellence' -- breaking the myth that 'affordability' and 'excellence' cannot go together -- is indeed possible!' says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, in this fascinating feature.
Nehru rejected a British-US proposal which said 'neither India nor Pakistan can entirely give up its claim to the Kashmir Valley,' and thus 'each must have a substantial position in the Valley'.
Hardening its stance on terror safe havens in Pakistan, the United States has made it clear to Islamabad that time is over for hedging its bets on terror groups like Haqqani network, the Afghan Taliban or the LeT against India.
'Since India has to live next to Pakistan, it can't remain under permanent blackmail.' 'A predictable consequence of these fundamental shifts is the fraying of the principle of strategic restraint.' 'It hasn't been junked. But the threshold has been shifted to provide India much greater room for retaliatory action,' says Shekhar Gupta.
General John Allen, United States commander of the International Support Assistance Force in Afghanistan has acknowledged that the level of mistrust with Pakistan is a major challenge that has yet to be overcome but that the resurrection of this military relationship is underway.
'When the United States and India make common cause there's really no challenge that we can't tackle, there's no mission that we can't overcome,' believes senior US official Nisha Desai Biswal
'Nobody in AMU supports Jinnah's two-nation theory.' 'It is shameful we are debating Jinnah and not education or employment.'
In Tamil Nadu politics J Jayalalithaa is the queen of all she surveys today, But there are some ground realities that may still dent her high ambition. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt's fascinating new column where she reveals the ground realities in the Battle for India.
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