Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday claimed that contrary to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's "false propaganda" that the population of Muslim community was increasing in the country, the number of the minority community members vis-a-vis Hindus was fast declining, and added that he could prove it.
The four names that are in the fray from the Congress are Jaipal Reddy, K Chandrasekara Rao, Damodar Raja Narasimha and D Srinivas.
Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 per cent, the first socio economic and caste census released in eight decades said.
Always interesting, DMK politics is going to get even more absorbing in the days to come, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Out of the 25 seats, five seats each are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be handed over the case of attack on Enforcement Directorate officials at Sandeshkhali and the custody of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, as it slammed West Bengal Police for 'totally biased' conduct and said every attempt is being made to delay the probe to 'protect' the accused.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
More than ever before, women voters can make or mar a political party's electoral fortunes.
Modi said that those who call themselves the biggest sympathisers of the backward communities are in reality their biggest enemies.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said there was no ground to reconsider the verdict.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pinned its hopes on the old guard to ensure victory in next month's assembly elections in Chhattisgarh as it gave tickets to 11 sitting MLAs and renominated 13 leaders who lost in the 2018 polls.
Against the Samajwadi Party's decision to field actor Jaya Bachchan and retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader and party MLA Pallavi Patel on Wednesday said she will not cast her vote.
'This is just a harmless card that helps me beat the system occasionally... being labelled a Scheduled Caste is another cup of tea altogether.'
A majority of over 50,000 internally displaced people are currently staying at relief centres across five valley districts and three hill districts.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, has said that helming the NCP away from the shadows of his uncle and founder Sharad Pawar after the split is a huge responsibility.
Gandhi claimed that Dalits, tribals, and Other Backward Classes were made bonded labourers and their participation was lacking in big companies, hospitals, schools, colleges and courts.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment on the issue of the grant of reservation in promotion to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in government jobs.
Nitish Kumar wants to assure the BJP leadership that he will continue to be a part of the NDA. But he also wants to secure a larger number of seats for his party in the 2025 assembly elections in Bihar.
Rajya Sabha witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge made remarks on the manner in which political parties select women candidates from weaker sections and raised the issue of 'delayed' GST payments to non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Last year, 50,291 cases were registered for crimes committed against Scheduled Castes, an increase of 9.4 per cent over 2019 (45,961 cases). The crime rate had increased from 22.8 per lakh population to 25 per lakh population in 2020, the National Crime Records Bureau stated.
Stoutly defending Sanatan Dharma, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Thursday dubbed the ruling DMK a casteist party that must be decimated, and questioned its track record on Dalit empowerment.
The crime, which took place inside a parked tempo in the wee hours, had sent shockwaves through the city and evoked the memories of the 2012 Delhi gangrape case due to the brutal
While Hardik Patel will contest from Viramgam, Rivaba Jadeja has been fielded from Jamnagar North.
'Only the smoke is coming out now. Let us prevent the lava from coming out by taking proper measures.' 'I have told every leader that you cannot have a stable government without winning the confidence of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the most backward castes.' 'Leaders feel that by giving a sop here and there and by symbolic actions, they can win votes. That's all they want. Votes.'
The bench said states can make laws to give preferential treatment by subclassifying caste within SC/STs.
Rather than a blind reproduction of the government template, a more productive way of enforcing affirmative action in the private sector could be to emulate an American model, suggests Kanika Datta.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
With over one lakh cases of atrocities against members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe pending, the government is considering amendments in the existing law to fast-track the trial, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik said during Question Hour that a concept note was sent to state governments for comments on amending the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The top law officer said that even if some people of the community have come up, the stigma of caste and backwardness is still attached to them.
It had given the BJP a tough fight in 2017 winning 77 of the 182 seats at stake.
Last month, the Channi government replaced the state's advocate general A P S Deol after strong opposition from Sidhu.
Questions that the state had come to recognise over time but consistently delayed treating seriously because doing so requires an overhaul of perspective and lifestyle, notes Shyam G Menon.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
This is the full text of the address to the nation by President Droupadi Murmu on the eve of India's 78th Independence Day.
Contests in 13 seats would attract most attention during the Chhattisgarh assembly elections as they feature prominent leaders of the Congress and BJP.
Describing it as 'Sankalp Patra', the party in its manifesto promised 33 per cent reservation to women in government jobs and private institutions in the state and free rides in Haryana roadways buses.
The Congress on Wednesday hit out at the government over the women's reservation bill, saying the only appropriate description of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done with the matter is "it is a post-dated cheque drawn on a failing bank".
The unrest in the Sandeshkhali region of West Bengal ballooned into a major political row on Thursday as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the saffron camp of fomenting trouble in the area, while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Commission for Women (NCW) accused her party Trinamool Congress and the state government of being complicit in crimes against women in the area.
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