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Rasheed Kidwai

Rasheed Kidwai

Senior journalistrasheedkidwai@gmail.com
Journalist-author Rasheed Kidwai is a visiting fellow of ORF]

By Rasheed Kidwai

Astrologers, poets and politicians: How key figures saw India's Subh‐e-Azadi dawning on August 15

Some astrologers considered August 15 inauspicious, but for Mountbatten, it was final. His hurrying Partition scarred the subcontinent. Gandhi tried healing but freedom came with a wound.

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What makes Sonia Gandhi tick? And with Rahul Gandhi's alternative ideas for Congress, can she do the trick?

When Indira was AICC chief, Nehru said it wasn’t great to face the Congress chief at the breakfast table every morning. Will family be aid or impediment to Sonia reviving the Congress now?

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When The Hand Shakes: Congress looks incredibly weak and unsure. The Article 370 moment has hit it the hardest

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury appears a joke; Rahul Gandhi tweets when he should be mum. And the CWC fails to mention the Congress' past achievements. Can a new leader even help?

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How to make a Congress President: What Shashi Tharoor should know about the Congress Working Committee

Tharoor apparently asserts that the CWC can't decide the next party president as it's not an elected body. But over the years, the CWC made crucial decisions on the Congress leadership.

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Speak softly, tweet less: A few items Rahul Gandhi should borrow from Sonia's survival kit

Sonia sharpened her attacks on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee govt, while learning to choose her words cautiously. Rahul must learn this too, for his and his party's political survival now.

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When Sheila Dikshit gave up the chance to be India's Home Minister for a role in Delhi

The unsavoury leaking of letters from within the Congress must have caused a lot of pain to the former Delhi chief minister in her last few days.

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45 years after its dissolution, here's what opposition parties must learn from Swatantra Party

'Indira Hatao' made Indira Gandhi stronger. 'Modi Hatao' made Modi look invincible. The opposition can refuse to ignore this at its own peril.

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Where's MP's 'Mama'? Could Shivraj Singh Chouhan's liberal image be barring him from a Yeddyurappa-like role?

The former CM is making attempts to give the Kamal Nath regime a tough time in Madhya Pradesh. But his own party isn't fully backing him. Many wonder why.

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When netas beat us up: Why BJP's Akash Vijayvargiya and other politicians like 'justice', Sanjay Gandhi-style

Akash Vijaywargiya is the latest entrant to this hall of fame. From Biju Patnaik to Imran Hussain, many politicians have shown a tenderness for beating up people.

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Rahul Gandhi quits: But the Congress still has a future with hope in it. It's up to the party to unearth that

With Rahul Gandhi quitting, and Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi apparently choosing to take a back seat for now, the Congress stands at a crossroads in political time.

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Is Congress in a coma? The only person who really seems to care is PM Modi

The grand old party seems adamant to cling to the Nehru-Gandhis and not reinvent. But PM Modi's continuing obsession with the Congress also indicates that perhaps all isn't lost for it.

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When Indira Gandhi declared Emergency: 44 years ago, the build-up to the suspension of our liberties

In June 1975, the political climate around Indira Gandhi was growing stormier by the second. On the 25 of June, Emergency was declared. But the build-up was full of strange stories and characters.

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Will Congress Implode: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been imposed on Congressmen. If they don’t speak up now, they never will

Excessive display of loyalty bordering on sycophancy has become a curse for the Congress. It has even stymied the growth of talented politicians like Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari.

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Because The Emergency ended. Didn't it? Prashant Kanojia and Priyanka Sharma cases have us wondering

From Jawaharlal Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi, powerful assaults on our freedom of speech have been made by famed netas. Narendra Modi criticised this. But how does he explain the Prashant Kanojia event?

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Was there a 'Bofors flavour' in the Agusta deal? Raju Santhanam’s book 'The Untold Story of Christian Michel' makes startling suggestions

Rajiv Gandhi’s alleged proximity to Christian Michel’s father, Wally, is closely discussed in the book. It raises as many questions as it answers.

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Wooing The Minority: Overlooking India's Hindu majority was only one reason why Congress missed the bus to power

The Congress has been suffering from a steady breakdown in ideological clarity for decades, evident in its confusion over secularism, appeasement politics, even Pakistan. It is now paying the price.

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Lok Sabha Results 2019: The 3 mistakes of Priyanka Gandhi's life

The BJP did not have to do too much as Priyanka Gandhi and the Congress wrote their own doom in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

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So not funny, Mani: What exactly ails Mani Shankar Aiyar?

From calling Narendra Modi ‘neech’ to now screaming cuss words at journalists, the Congress leader has adamantly refused to grow up. He flaunts his undergraduate education but has Mani Shankar Aiyar really learnt much?

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Time for a break: From blue lagoons to national parks, Rajiv Gandhi's vacations shocked 1980s India

It was the first time India had a happily married PM. And one who believed in flamboyant holidays with family and friends.

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Delhi's Political Bazaar: How the non-NDA parties have started working out their post-May 23 equations

If the BJP doesn't get a majority, several players will be in high demand in Delhi's political bazaar. These include Mayawati, KCR and Mamata Banerjee. These also include the Congress vying for key ministries.

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Democracy's 'Dhartipakad' Davids: Far from celebrity politicians, meet candidates who contested elections all their lives, not to win, but to fight

Aside from Arvind Kejriwal, as many as 42 people contested elections against Narendra Modi from Varanasi in 2014, knowing fully well that they would lose. So, why do they fight? What's in it for them?

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'No If, No But, Only Jatt': But will the Jat plus glamour mix of stars Dharmendra and Hema Malini actually help Sunny Deol in politics?

Dharmendra and Hema Malini have each had starry but stormy political innings thus far. As Sunny Deol now enters the raajneetik fray, will he call upon their appeal or go it his way?

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India's Most Famous Saas-Bahu Saga: Why Indira Gandhi's household produced eternal bitterness between her daughters-in-law

As Maneka and Sonia Gandhi hit the headlines for their political moves, a look back at when the two women were just daughters-in-law to PM Indira Gandhi, in whose home a relationship of bickering and an eventual break in embittered ties began.

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Lalu Yadav's thoughts from 'Gopalganj to Raisina': What Lalu Yadav’s memoir reveals about his life and politics

Lalu claims he's inspired by the greatest crusaders of time, including Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He also claims that despite RSS and Sangh Parivaar's oppression, his spirit remains fighting fit.

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Beating the Odds: From boy peon to India's home minister, Sushil Kumar is back in electoral politics from Solapur, Maharashtra

The politician in him is optimistic about another ‘Delhi assignment’ if the Congress and non-NDA regional allies manage to defeat the might of the Narendra Modi-led NDA-BJP on May 23.

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Lok Sabha 2019: Like a phoenix, Jaya Prada returns as a BJP candidate

Jaya Prada believes every politician goes through a lean patch. And we believe her's is over.

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Lok Sabha 2019: How Priyanka Gandhi could turn the tables for the Congress

The Congress clearly has a gameplan. Rahul will corner the Modi govt on issues of national security. Priyanka will charge it over jobs, farmers and other social lacunae.

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The Bullies of Partition: How the Muslim League silenced the majority of Indian Muslims strongly opposed to the creation of Pakistan

The Muslim League unleashed a reign of terror that attacked secular leaders such as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. In their aggression, they often found support from the British, the Hindu right-wing, even sections of the Congress.

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Priyanka, interrupted? How the IAF air strike has blunted the Congress' ‘Brahmastra’

Dazed after surgical strike 2.0 and hamstrung by unwilling allies, the Congress is now staring at the prospect of warming the Opposition benches for another five years.

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When India brought Pakistan to its knees: How the 1971 war was fought and won

As TV studios drum up hysteria today, a look-back at how a decisive victory was executed in saner times by a PM who exemplified calm under fire.

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