Kumar, whose NDA-allied Janata Dal-United has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, has emerged as a key player in government formation
Former Delhi government minister Rajendra Pal Gautam on Friday quit the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the Congress, alleging discrimination against Dalit and minority leaders in the Arvind Kejriwal led party.
Gandhi said farmers asked him during his Bharat Jodo and Bharat Jodo Nyay yatras about why they were not getting the benefit of loan waivers like billionaire industrialists or MSP (minimum support price) for farm produce.
This would give BJP the chance to explore Constitutional options for government formation if there is no clear-cut mandate, explains Sheela Bhatt.
The Bihar government has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Patna high court verdict that has set aside the amended reservation laws in the state, which enabled the Nitish Kumar government to increase the quotas for Dalits, tribals and backward classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.
Hit by a shortage of officers, the government has decided to hire its retired employees to contribute in the conduct of the mammoth Census exercise covering 1.2 billion residents spread over 35 states and Union Territories.
'I think of that young baby, still in her diapers, balancing with her arms held up by her mother, a Tamil woman wearing a salwar kameez and a dupatta, seated on a stoop,' recalls Aseem Chhabra.
Once people throw out the Congress, they do not let it come back. They put 'no entry' boards for the Congress, he said. It always thought power was its birthright but it has now been exposed, the prime minister said
'Christians, for example, make up 2 per cent of India's population but an estimated 16 per cent of those who were born in India now reside elsewhere,' said Pew.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday took exception to the way the national census was being carried out and demanded that it be held on the basis of caste, to ascertain the number of people belonging to backward classes.Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour, Prasad said there was a 'huge conspiracy' behind the way the current national census was being carried out.
As several political parties make a pitch for conducting caste-based census, the Union Cabinet is set to discuss the vexed issue on Thursday.
Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said the debate in the Union Cabinet over the issue of caste-based census was about the next census and not the ongoing exercise.
With Nitish Kumar on its side, a BJP-led government may feel increased pressure to conduct a nationwide caste-based census.
'Three manufacturing sectors can create jobs by the million: Apparel, food, and electronic assembly.' 'Let's talk to them and ask them what it would take to scale by a factor of ten,' suggests Naushad Forbes.
If everything goes according to the plan, the exercise will begin after the Lok Sabha elections, the official said.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed his regret that the Other Backward Class (OBC) quota was not provided under the Bill brought by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in 2010.
With 7 per cent economic growth, India is not creating enough jobs as reflected by the number of applicants for vacant posts in some states, Reserve Bank's former governor Raghuram Rajan said and suggested the government needs to focus on promoting labour-intensive industries to generate employment. Rajan further said some Indians, especially those at upper level, are comfortable and have high incomes, but consumption growth from the lower half of the country has still not recovered to pre-pandemic level.
The current census process leaves no scope for duplication, C Chandramouli, registrar general and Census commissioner, tells Saubhadro Chatterji
The provisions in the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill make it clear that the women's reservation will come into effect only after the delimitation exercise or the redrawing of constituencies taking into account the data of the census conducted once the bill becomes a law.
Rediff.com's Priyanka meets Dr C Chandramouli, the Census Commissioner of India, where he explains what it takes to organise the mammoth exercise.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwla and Manoj Misra, however, agrees to hear as many as 10 petitions of the Bihar government against the Patna HC verdict.
Using the Mahabharat reference as a leitmotif, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that an atmosphere of fear prevails all around with a group of six trapping the entire country in a 'chakravyuh' he promised would be broken by the INDIA bloc.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday promised free education in government schools and colleges in Chhattisgarh and Rs 4,000 a year for 'tendu' leaves collectors if his party retains power in the state.
With the Bihar government releasing the findings of its caste survey, pressure seems to be mounting on the Karnataka government, especially within the ruling Congress, to make the state's Socio-economic and Educational Census, popularly known as the 'caste census', public.
They saluted 'the hands that weave timeless stories'.
'We have essentially tried to set out an agenda for the next five years and it, in essence, represents the political commitment to that agenda.'
'The top 10 per cent of the population should adopt and handhold the bottom 20 per cent of the population as a social responsibility.'
A head count to identify the poor, including their caste and religion, was on Thursday approved by the government, which aims at ensuring that the benefits of the targeted subsidy programme reach them. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for conducting a census in rural and urban areas to identify those living below poverty line. The enumeration on the basis of caste and religion would be part of the census.
Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, awarded death penalty in the 26/11 attacks case, would be among those who would be counted in the 15th national census, as part of the population enumeration exercise.
The CM also said that to prevent the sale of land from the indigenous communities like tribals and Adivasis to others in undivided Goalpara district, a strong law will be brought.
Hindu population showed a decline by 0.7 per cent at 96.63 crore during the period.
What possible answers could Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist convicted in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, have given to queries on 'reasons of migration' and 'nature of work' by Census officials? Kasab, whose conviction and death sentence for his role in the November 2008 attacks were upheld by the Bombay high court on Monday, was counted for the 15th National Census. He reportedly answered all the questions asked by the enumerators.Kasab's age is 23 and he hails from Pak.
Muslims' share in the reservation will keep on increasing also because of "conversion and infiltration because they are having a secular cover from them (the Congress)", he added.
"There are differing views (in the Cabinet), but that does not mean divisions," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said when asked about the lack of consensus at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday on conducting caste-based census.
Opposition parties Nationalist Congress Party and Samajwadi Party on Wednesday demanded reservation for OBCs in the women's reservation bill and questioned the reason for calling a special session when the bill cannot be implemented before census and delimitation.
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.
If the BJP has to work as a junior partner of Vijay's TVK, then either the party will have to change the state leader, or the latter should change himself. Incidentally, ever since Vijay started talking politics and elections, the pro-BJP/Hindutva social media had stopped dragging his name into any non-existing issue.' In particular, they have stopped referring to him by his Christian name, 'Joseph Vijay', observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bowing to demands by several political parties, government on Thursday decided to carry out a caste census next year.
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