'If only the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had allowed the then home minister Sardar Patel to handle Jammu and Kashmir in the same manner he was handling other princely states of India, today the part of Jammu and Kashmir that is illegally occupied by Pakistan would have been a part of India and the issue of PoJK would have never have risen'
What is the effect of the report of a commission of inquiry that has been rejected or not accepted by the government, and whether the empirical data which formed the basis of the report can be looked at while determining a constitutional issue, the Supreme Court wondered on Wednesday while considering the question of quotas for Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians.
The government must expedite its plan for asset sale and privatisation, both of which hardly got any mention in the Budget speech, points out A K Bhattacharya.
Should we not be creating roles in India for the talented, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
When the votes get counted for the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will be hoping to set a few new records.
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ram, Laxmi, stories from the Hindu epics are seen in carvings, paintings and murals, as well as recognisable figures from mythology, like Garuda, Sheshnag, Nandi and Apsaras, notes Deepa Gahlot, savouring the beauty of Cambodia.
'...to bring the Global South and others to the negotiating table on the basis of Gandhi's non-violence so that we can leave a safer world for our children.'
Tamil Nadu's latest budget offers path-breaking initiatives and major boost for social infrastructure, which other state governments are sure to follow in the coming years, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'People should realise that what we are fighting for today is actually for tomorrow, for future generations.'
Centre's move to form a 29-member panel on making the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism effective and keeping three positions vacant in it for SKM representatives has triggered strong disapproval from it.
Aiming to breach the Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party fielded its candidate to contest all 182 assembly seats and carried out a high decibel campaign in the run-up to the polls in Gujarat.
'India's defining characteristic has been its ability to manage and sustain democratic governance through an accommodation of ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity.'
The grand old party faces the onerous task of rebuilding its moribund organisation, which is struggling to overcome a leadership crisis and regain credibility with the voters.
'Secularism is associated either with corruption, malgovernance or minority votes.' 'That allows the BJP to construct its own majority vote.' 'It will remain a feature of electoral contests, but it is not the only reason for the BJP's success.'
The BJP also announced a Rs 5 meal scheme for all, named after religious guru Anukul Chandra, and setting up of a Regional Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Agartala.
According to state government sources, not only did the governor insert some corrections, but he also initialled the final draft after those corrections had been made, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Akali Dal is convinced that Waris Punjab De and Amritpal Singh are part of a bigger plan to create a law and order problem in the state, leading to the imposition of central rule and even the exclusion of Punjab from the Lok Sabha polls as was done in 1991.
'What worked for the BJP were three things: Hindu nationalism, religion and a silent but strong anti-Muslim sentiment.'
BJP, AIADMK oppose the project while DMK and CPI(M) support the Sethusamudram shipping project across the Palk Strait. T E Narasimhan reports
After a dream debut seven years ago when he was sworn in as deputy chief minister after being elected MLA for the first time was followed by a slump in his political fortunes, Tejashwi Yadav has finally come back to center-stage as the kingmaker and deputy to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Hakki Pikkis are a semi-nomadic tribe, traditionally of bird catchers and hunters, from Karnataka. Their knowledge of the forest and traditional medicine is extensive and is prized by the Sudanese community.
Bollywood stars travel all the time on work or for a much-needed vacation.
'And Joshimath has already shown the dangers ahead.' 'We have to acknowledge that our mountains are still young babies.' 'You don't put an extra load on the back of a growing child!'
'You will see more laws that treat Hindus and non-Hindus, especially Muslims, quite unequally.' 'Once you see this kind of erosion of secularism, it will be very hard to get it back.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the BJP has emerged as the "third force" in Kerala that will replace the two fronts in the next year's assembly elections.
The average age of those who died was 80.3, and 90 per cent of the fatalities were aged 65 or over, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
The salary hike for government employees is likely to put an additional burden of Rs 24,000 crore on the state excheque.
The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has recommended the environmental release of the genetically modified (GM) mustard variety DMH (Dhara Mustard Hybrid)-11, paving the way for the commercialisation of the country's first GM food crop. The GEAC said the recommendation was valid for four years from the date the approval letter was issued. Further studies and coordinated trials will have to be conducted jointly with the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) within two years, according to the minutes of the GEAC meeting held on October 18, which was released on Wednesday.
MPs will first attend a 'Farm Progress Show' in Iowa, then visit the Monsanto headquarters in St Louis, Missouri.
'She was the only prime minister who won a decisive military victory.' 'She won a real war; she didn't play video games on prime time TV over surgical strikes!' 'She understood power better than any other politician, saw it as her birthright and used it with inborn expertise.' 'Every politician today who tries to be a "supremo" through populism and absolute control over his or her party is referring to the Indira Gandhi playbook!'
As some BJP pollsters concede, the Modi leadership's sweeping success in elections 2019, especially across central India, owed not to Hindutva ideology, but to welfare schemes, all of them borrowed from Tamil Nadu, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP-ruled states push through amendments to laws, aim to get larger share of FDI pie
'There is only one common feature between Gorbachev and Putin.' 'They are both patriots, and both try to save Russia and make it great.' 'But in very, very, different ways.'
Dibyendu Karfa tells us how he got past cultural differences to marry the girl he loved.
While Modi had a party and an organisation that supported him, all Mulayam, a self-made man with no inheritance in politics, had was a set of (fairly flexible) beliefs.
The Congress and JD-S have made much of Amit Shah's remarks about milk co-operatives. 'If the Opposition harps on the statement, it could add to the narrative that Gujarat was trying to take over Karnataka.'
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has rejected the Aam Aadmi Party government's proposal for chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's Singapore visit to attend a summit on August 1.
Tripura's popular chief minister shows up the failures of the elitist central leadership of India's Left, says Devesh Kapur
