Sixteen per cent of the candidates contesting in the first phase of Assam assembly elections have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
In his letter to Kumar, the veteran leader has made a series of suggestions including an amendment in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act, bringing Lord Buddha's begging bowl from Kabul and hoisting tricolor at Vaishali, the land of world's first Republic.
Wang Yang and Xi Jinping's visits signal the beginning of a major Chinese push to bring about a transformation of Tibet, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
Xi does not want to risk any political or economic crisis complicating his bid to remain in office, observes Ambassador Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
Kumar's comments at the party's national executive meeting came amid a strain in his ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party and appears to be a message to his ally, some of whose leaders have been linked to alleged communal tensions and violence in the state.
The move effectively makes him the second most powerful person in the party.
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Confrontation between government and opposition is set to escalate with Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspending 25 Congress members for five days for "persistently, wilfully obstructing" the House".
'The regime -- and particularly the home ministry under Amit Shah -- have sought to suppress and destroy these struggles through intimidation, bullying, threats, through false cases, arrests, custodial torture, the use of draconian laws like the UAPA.'
The final phase of polling on Saturday will cover 78 constituencies spread across 19 north Bihar districts.
With the Congress still pruning its final list of candidates and the Kerala Congress - Mani and the Socialist Janata Dal sulking over seat sharing arrangements, the United Democratic Front is yet to finalise its list of candidates."There are several issues in the Congress party and the party is now reduced to a pocket organisation of Oomen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala.These two leaders have become so powerful that nobody can challenge them" said a source.
It's time Rahul Gandhi became attuned to the reality of the 21st century instead of recycling failed political jargon of the 20th century,' argues Virendra Kapoor.
'With the big political job done, the time has come to pay attention to the economy, which is the main problem now,' argues T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
They entered the Bihar poll battle to protect and carry forward their fathers' political legacy, but many of them could not win their own seat though some tasted victory.
'The JD-U has become an ideology-less accessory to the BJP,' says Ambassador Pavan Varma, who has been expelled from the JD-U.
26 candidates in Amethi fray take away 60,545 votes; the difference between the victorious Smriti Irani and Rahul Gandhi is 55,120 votes.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.
There is simmering disquiet in the Communist party and the world is watching as to what can unfold in China in the days to come ahead of next year's party congress, notes Rup Narayan Das.
A united Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Thursday pitched for referring the triple talaq bill to a 'joint select committee' of Parliament, claiming its provisions were unconstitutional.
'No action will be taken against Ajit Pawar. I am sure.'
The opposition in Lok Sabha on Monday tore into the controversial Land Acquisition Bill
A senior opposition member in Rajya Sabha on Friday sought a probe into the manner in which the death of former Union Minister E Ahamed was "handled", alleging he had died soon after being rushed to the hospital but his demise was announced much later.
For the first time, Akhilesh is leading the SP almost single-handed into a major election, but he is not the only one running the show Shikha Shalini reports.
The Janata Dal-United, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, opposed the government's move on Article 370 through a fresh Presidential Order ending special status to Jammu and Kashmir. On Monday, opposing the Narendra Modi-led government's decision, they walked out of the Rajya Sabha where the bill to split the state into two Union Territories was passed. Similarly, on Tuesday, the JD-U walked out of Lok Sabha while the bill was being discussed. In Patna, JD-U national spokesperson K C Tyagi said: "We completely differ with the Central government's move on Jammu and Kashmir. There was a need for wider consultations on it, but no consultation was done even within the NDA. We own the legacy of socialist leaders Ram Manohar Lohia and Jai Prakash Narayan, who had opposed attempts to tamper with Article 370 during Congress (government in the past)." Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com on the same, the JD-U leader said that 'walking out of Parliament won't affect their ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party'.
"Nobody can forget June 25-26 in the history of India. 40 years ago, the country was bound with chains of Emergency and turned into a jail for the lust for power," he said.
The amended bill also provides for a stiff Rs 1 crore penalty and a jail term for private entities for storing Aadhaar data.
In his condolence message, President Kovind said in the death of Paswan, the nation has lost a visionary leader. He was among the most active and longest-serving members of Parliament. He was the voice of the oppressed, and championed the cause of the marginalised, Kovind said.
Opposition leaders asked all secular forces to field a joint candidate for presidential elections and have common minimum programme to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party, reports Archis Mohan.
'The Congress party hated him because he had not gone to jail, he was not lathi charged, he had not gone on hunger strike.' 'They felt he had lived in London all his life and then he came to India and became an MP and a minister.'
Voters are disillusioned with the two rival fronts in the state and there are no effective alternatives either. G Sreedathan explains
The seventh Tibet Work Forum was held in Beijing on August 28 and 29. Delhi should be deeply concerned, at a time India faces a precarious situation in Ladakh, because the TWF also defines China's western border policies, observes Claude Arpi.
'It will be a ghastly mistake for the CPI-M to face the 2019 poll on its own.' 'At best, it can hope to split non-BJP votes in some pockets, but the humiliating rout will spell its doom,' warns M K Bhadrakumar.
'What needs to be watched is that the border incidents at Dokalam in 2017 and Galwan in 2020 are triggering nascent Chinese nationalism against India,' asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
Rahul Gandhi is neither Congress president, office-bearer nor Congress leader in Parliament. This technical leeway provides adequate cover for Shiv Sena-Congress ties taking a nosedive, says Rasheed Kidwai.
'The BJP is the most progressive force within Hinduism today.'
Trinamool Congress described it as "Black Monday" and a dark day for the country's constitution, the idea of India, and the Rajya Sabha
Naga Accord is still nowhere to be found, sasy Rahul
The Congress will only survive if it can transform into something more like the BJP used to be: A coalition of strong state leaders held together by shared ideology or personal loyalty, suggests Mihir S Sharma.
The ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala on Monday finalised the seat-sharing exercise among its constituents for all 140 assembly segments for the April 13 polls with lead partner Communist Party of India-Marxist getting the lion's share of 93.
