Such is the force of his oratory that many Muslims, even those who don't vote for him, have come to believe that Asaduddin Owaisi is the first and only politician who speaks up for Muslims since Independence, observes Jyoti Punwani
The caste census has already become a hot-button issue. Unless settled earlier, it will echo loudly in the coming assembly elections and eventually in the 2024 parliamentary poll, notes Virendra Kapoor.
The Modi govt is continuously indulging in theatrics on issues related to Dalits and backwards and any more drama on the issue will not get them any political mileage, Mayawati said.
'After the creation of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh has been left as an agrarian state.' 'Therefore, the special category status to this residual state was imminent and necessary for its development,' YSR Congress MP V Vijayasai Reddy explained in the Rajya Sabha.
Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are contesting in all the 30 seats, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist is in the fray in 15 and its alliance partners of Sanjukta Morcha the Congress and ISF are competing in 13 and two seats respectively.
'The EC is a sacred institution.' 'In the last few years, more than once, we have found the EC bending over backwards to accommodate the government.'
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The draft bill on reservation to Jats and four other castes was cleared at a Cabinet meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
The Bahujan Samaj Party on Thursday claimed that Election Commission decision of covering statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and party symbol elephant is one-sided and unjustified and was a violation of Article 14 of the constitution.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday complained to the Election Commission that Congress leader and Union Minister Salman Khurshid had violated the model code of conduct by promising nine per cent sub-quota for backward Muslims in Uttar Pradesh if voted to power.
Prasad also attacked the previous United Progressive Alliance government for letting the women's reservation bill, introduced by it, lapse.
In a veiled reference to the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday said those who have been in power for the last 60 years have followed the "divide and rule policy in the country and conspired to snatch the rights of Dalit and backward communities".
A day after distancing itself from Law Minister Salman Khurshid's remarks on reservations, Congress on Saturday tied itself in knots, saying it favoured further increase in job quotas for backward minorities in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. The Congress also said that there should not have been a ban on the Centre's decision on 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities in jobs as it was taken prior to the poll announcement.
The prime minister highlighted the gains made during his last four years vis-a-vis the previous governments to suggest that he has lived up to the promise of hope he had offered to the electorate in 2014.
The Child Protection Services programme under the Integrated Child Development Services was increased to Rs 1,500 crore from Rs 925 crore.
The reason: The Planning Commission has decided to cut the allocation for higher and technical education in the Budget 2007-08.
Guntur district collector has issued a notice to mother of Rohit Vemula, the University of Hyderabad research scholar who committed suicide in January last, asking her to prove she belonged to the Scheduled Caste.
Rohith Vemula's suicide exposes all of us as a nation, argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Manmohan Singh announces proposals to set up commissions on minorities
'The BJP has lost 5 states and Lok Sabha elections are due in less than 90 days.' 'The reservation bill is a jhunjhuna (lollipop) for the upper castes.'
'We have learnt lessons from Mamata Banerjee who overcame the BJP's canard by reciting Chandi Path and playing up her Brahmin origins in her campaign. We need to adopt strategies like asking Muslims to lie low and distributing tickets prudently so that we are not accused of favouring one community.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
The two parties have fielded 33 candidates each belonging to the Jat community for the December 7 polls.
The new system will consider the university or college as one unit, instead of treating department or subject as one unit.
On the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Monday attacked Bharatiya Janata Party leaders saying when polls come they see Dalits as Hindus but later they do not even like to sit with them, and the party was not happy when the architect of the Constitution got Bharat Ratna.
The controversial decision of the United Progressive Alliance-II government ahead of general elections to include Jats in Other Backward Classes category came under judicial scrutiny with the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking explanation from the Centre for allegedly ignoring the advice of a statutory body to keep the community away from reservation benefits.
The events that unfolded after Advani's arrest not only benefited the BJP, whose political clout grew exponentially, but also catapulted Lalu to the forefront of the anti-saffron camp.
After lying low for some time now, veteran congress leader Arjun Singh, who created a nationwide furore after asking for reservation for backward class students in higher education, is once again out to create trouble for the party leadership.
The 14th Finance Commission had recommended that states' share in the divisible tax pool be raised to 42 per cent, from 32 per cent earlier.
'The BJP's target could be the Kolis, Thakors and other numerically strong OBC communities to negate the shift of the Patel vote bank.'
The Lokpal chairperson, all of its eight members and support staff are being allocated space in the hotel premises.
Mevani, after his meeting with the Gandhi scion, said he would ask his community members to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Gujarat polls.
'Every person has two identities in India, that of his caste and nation.' 'It is understandable in a multi-caste, multi-religious society and I don't mind this.' 'What I mind is the State has failed in doing enough to melt these two identities in such a way that everybody has access to citizenship which is more important than your caste.' 'That is why people remain in the narrow identities of his caste or religion.'
'Persisting with the inequalities, indeed seeing them get worse, is no one's prescription for national unity,' notes T N Ninan.
Hindutva was arguably one of the big political ideas of the 1990s. The Bharatiya Janata Party may have begun nurturing it earlier, but it was only during the last decade of the 20th century that the idea manifested itself as a powerful concept to earn for its practitioners rich electoral dividends.
Kushwaha said a delicious "kheer" can be prepared with milk from the Yadavs and rice from the Kushwahas.
In Gujarat's political circles, the appeal was seen as an indirect call to vote against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
'Karpoori Thakur must be remembered by people today who are tired of witnessing fractious politics where corruption, bigotry, hatred and violence seems to have become distressingly recurrent,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
It is an ode to his politics that believed in building bridges across social or political divides that he was one of the most liked state leaders among the upper castes even as he drew his support mostly from Dalits, a group which at times shared antagonistic relations with the more prosperous communities due to a number of social and political reasons.
The govt said that once the apex court clarifies the issue, then it can frame rules for the benefit of transgenders.
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