The United States is going to retain a laser focus on its counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said on Friday, and warned the Taliban of a forceful response to any attack on American forces or disruption of its operations at the Kabul airport.
Making the electoral process inclusive and giving voting rights to the maximum number of citizens is worthy cause to make our democracy better, says Col Anil Athale.
'The only reason why these troubling developments are taking place is because of a certain arrogance of power displayed by this government that hopes to clamp down on those voices which have repeatedly pointed out that their bloated rhetoric and grandstanding are not matched by their insipid and tepid response in matters of governance.'
His address comes a day after the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses crossed the landmark figure of 100 crore in India.
'Denying access to the country to writers of both foreign and Indian origin casts a chill on public discourse; it flies in the face of India's traditions of free and open debate and respect for a diversity of views, and weakens its credentials as a strong and thriving democracy'
'After taking the decision on Kashmir, nearly 20 days have passed and even now, the people there are not allowed to react or respond to it'
It is this new Muslim who is not burdened by the Pakistan guilt, who is ready to fight it out for the rights enshrined under the Constitution, and who is not defensive about Muslim identity that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are out to crush, argues Mohd Asim.
We are today carrying out the reconstruction of New Delhi which will cost us Rs 20,000 crore and give the prime minister a new house while crores of people have no means and no money to buy vaccines for their children, observes Aakar Patel.
'Once such conduct becomes legitimate through political and popular sanction, then the ordinary citizen will have no defences left,' warns Shyam Saran.
India is worried about Pakistan getting the Taliban to ignite trouble in Kashmir, observes Ramesh Menon.
'We will do a holistic review of the entire act and the policy at the state level and I need to be convinced that not a single Jharkhandi is uprooted from his or her home due to this law'
"For any reason, if one is not able to vote, it should pain one," he said.
"What the RTI Act did was to make available to citizens any information that could be provided, that the government was obliged to provide to a Member of Parliament (MP). In theory, that channel remains open to us," says prominent economist and RTI activist Reetika Khera about how Indian citizens could still have access to information that they want
'The prime minister has taken pre-emptive action by not appointing a Chief Information Commissioner at all to render it dysfunctional.'
'The bureaucracy is also hardening its stand and in most cases has realised that the commissioners are not really committed to transparency,' says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
'Like one-one drop of water fills earthen pots and one-one brick helps to construct a house, donation of Rs 1 to my campaign fund will help me fight to take the voices of marginalised and exploited people to Parliament.'
Birla conveyed to the head of the European Union's legislative body that it was inappropriate for one legislature to pass judgements on another and the practice could be misused by vested interests.
From Covid to climate change, Shankar Acharya's look at some of the trends and events that might shape 2022.
No longer, Virendra Kapoor points out, are these awards given on the recommendation of ministers, or the Delhi-based liaison men who had ruled the roast till 2014.
The President talked about demonetisation, electoral reforms and disruptions in Parliament.
India has too many small companies and this is inefficient. It should instead have only a handful of very large players running its economy and these giants can then compete with the world, observes Aakar Patel.
It is going to be a rough and brutal 2020 for India as its government pushes on with its ideological agenda, and the citizens do whatever they can to protect themselves, notes Aakar Patel.
Will Indian democracy benefit from the potential that Shashi Tharoor stores in his mind, spirit and intellect? Or will it be the saga of another leader who promised much but delivered too little, asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's address on the eve of 70th Republic Day of India.
Ravi was arrested by a Cyber Cell team of the Delhi Police from Bengaluru and brought to Delhi. She was currently in police custody.
Tharoor was asked by a Pakistani journalist as to how the political fortune of the Indian government was impacted by the rising COVID numbers. He said it was paradoxical as the government was "not doing well" in dealing with the pandemic and people realise that, but polls suggest that it has not hurt the BJP politically as it should.
Sanders is the second Democratic presidential nominee after Senator Elizabeth Warren to speak against the violence over the Citizenship Amendment Act in New Delhi.
'This chauvinistic attitude, what they call nationalism in the name of religion, is sad.' 'It is a tragic state that we are all in currently.'
'India need to look beyond the economic prism.' 'China had no qualms in taking the Kashmir issue to the UN Security Council last year -- not once, but thrice -- thus violating Indian sensitivities,' observes China expert Srikanth Kondapalli.
'There is nothing more this government can do now to break our agitation.' 'It has used all the tactics and has failed'
Criticising the saffron party for "undermining democratic values" in the country, the chief minister said, "Democracy exists in Bengal but it is under threat in several other parts of the country."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday pitched India as the most attractive investment destination for those looking to invest in urbanisation, mobility, innovation and sustainable solutions. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, he said India and some African nations will witness the biggest wave of urbanisation over the next two decades. The post pandemic world has to be rebuilt around people and cities will have to be made more liveable, he said adding post-Covid restart will not be possible without a reset of mindset, process and practices.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Professor of Economics at Harvard University Raj Chetty have been named by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as '2020 Great Immigrants' honourees, the Corporation said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Grassroots democracy must get precedence than any other considerations, including security," the functionary said.
India's negotiating posture at the multilateral negotiations should be aligned with a significantly transformed development strategy domestically.' 'The positions the country takes at the negotiations will then carry credibility, says Shyam Saran, former foreign secretary and India's chief negotiator on Climate Change 2007-2010.
Once civic elections are done with, the system discards the voter from the realm of self-governance, the essence of the grassroots democracy. The voter's vote, it appears, has been subverted by a system, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The anti-CAA protest was an ugly rant more consistent with the violent chaos of anarchy, argues Vivek Gumaste.
The Bombay high court on Thursday said that in democracy a person has the right to express views, but it does not confer a license to violate the constitutional rights of others. A bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik was hearing a petition filed by Sameet Thakkar, seeking to quash an FIR registered against him over his tweets against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son, minister Aaditya Thackeray.
A senior State Department official, on condition of anonymity, said that he has met with officials in India about what is taking place in the nation and expressed concern. The US has also 'expressed desire first to try to help and work through some of these issues', the official said.
BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg has urged the top court for an urgent hearing, considering the difficulty faced by residents due to the nearly-two-month-long protest on a road connecting Delhi and Noida. Also, various other arterial roads of Delhi have been facing traffic congestion due the protest.
Dubbed as the "Super Bowl of American Democracy", Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, would respond to questions on their track record, the Supreme Court, economy, race and violence in cities and integrity of the elections at the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio -- a key battleground state.
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