Uttam Ghosh offers his take on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ajay Mohan Bisht's controversial statement where he proclaimed that before 2017 only those saying 'abba jaan' were getting rations in the state.
Has Ajay Mohan Bisht, the ruler of UP, fallen out of favour with Narendra Damodardas Modi, the emperor of India?
'It is a fight for principles for him, where he shall be presenting his protest to the wrongdoings.'
Dominic Xavier wonders why the Bisht government in UP is so terrified of democratic protest that it has to resort to draconian measures at every turn.
A week from now, October 20, Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi will host Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh.
For months, there has been talk that Narendra Damodardas Modi and Ajay Mohan Bisht, aka Yogi Adityanath, don't get along.
Dominic Xavier wonders if such cruel and heinous crimes against women will ever end in Uttar Pradesh.
Dominic Xavier remembers the Hathras victim and hopes that the perpetrators of the gang-rape and murder are punished with the most stringest punishment available under Indian law.
Just where are the stars travelling? We tell you.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan felicitates Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.
The Delhi high court on Monday said the state government dragged its feet on the issue of tabling of several Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports before the assembly, raising 'doubts on its bona fides'.
The six constituencies of northeast Delhi affected by the 2020 riots saw a close contest between the BJP and AAP, with both parties winning three seats each. AAP's Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad won Seelampur by a margin of 42,477 votes, defeating BJP's Anil Kumar Sharma. AAP also won Babarpur and Gokalpur, while the BJP won Mustafabad, Karawal Nagar and Ghonda.
'Mohan Bhagwat is very upfront with his views and arguments.' 'Mohan Bhagwat is competent to deal with Modi's personality cult.'
'In politics, not everything is spoken and there are a lot of messaging done very discreetly.'
'There is a famous saying here that 'the way to Delhi passes through Lucknow'.' 'If the BJP loses UP in 2022, Modi's premiership in 2024 will be in doldrums.'
For the first 90 days of 2021, from January 5 onwards, one Union minister will visit one district in Tamil Nadu every week till the assembly election.
With about 18 weeks to go for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the state is being barnstormed by one notable politician after another.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah will need him if they want to win UP again in 2022 and India in 2024. This signals a Yogi Adityanath-sized change in BJP politics, even under Mr Modi, Shekhar Gupta.
Can Jitin Prasada retain the BJP's Brahmin vote in UP?
Though the run-up to the poll saw a high pitched campaign by the parties, the turnout of the voters on December 1 was an unimpressive 46.55 per cent (34.50 lakh) out of the total 74.67 lakh voters.
If her mother anoints her as the Congress's chief ministerial candidate for the UP assembly election, it could be Game On! in Lucknow.
'There is a sense within the government and Modi that things are not as good as they were in 2019.'
'If there is any possibility, then the BJP has to accept our conditions. There should be caste census in the country, the report of the social justice committee should be implemented, the CM should be from backward caste and also the poor must be provided a uniform, mandatory and free education as well as free medical treatment.'
'If Yogiji has to run this government without any problems, he has to remain in power, and if he has to keep the BJP bosses in Delhi and the RSS happy, then he has no option but to do it.'
If the Congress recovers some of its earlier influence among the Dalits, the BJP will be in a quandary since the Dalits were among the party's latest acquisitions. To lose them will be a disaster for the saffron camp not only in UP, but all over India, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Journalist Prashant Kanojia was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on August 18 for a retweet and has been in custody ever since.
The BJP's message is that the past must be reinvented as creatively as imagination allows, states Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Sacking Ajay Mishra would further antagonise Brahmins in UP already upset with Yogi's government.
'As long as a Hindu rashtra is not formalised, one can live in hope,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Cities, roads, stations rechristened in the time of Modi.
'The central BJP has worked out an arrangement -- Yogi manages the state while Modi manages the Centre.'
I believe that UP has been doing this consistently -- of grossly under-reporting the Covid-positive cases. Nothing else explains the glaring differences in UP's positivity rates versus other badly affected states, says Omkar Goswami.
'I was feeling so suffocated under Yogiji's rule.'
'Yogi Adityanath is working for one caste only and suppressing the others,' Bihar Minister and NDA ally Mukesh Sahni tells M I Khan.
'Whom do I want to marry and what decisions I make for marrying the person I love are totally personal decisions, in which neither the State nor the courts have any right to interfere.'
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
If he doesn't win next year, it will set back the party's prospects in 2024. If he wins, it will be seen as his win as much as the BJP high command's, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Today in Uttar Pradesh all big parties like Samajwadi Party, BJP or even Bahujan Samaj Party are out to woo smaller parties as they know the Hindu votes are getting divided.'
The Constitution is a terrific document, but it is also one that has suppressed the Hindu majoritarian sentiment. We are living through times when this suppression is being popularly rejected, notes Aakar Patel.
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