This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
Dalit leaders ask community members to give up disposing dead cattle to 'send a strong message' to the Gujarat government.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla recognised Rahul Gandhi as the leader of opposition on Wednesday, a day after the Congress communicated its decision to name him for the position to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The jama'ath of a mosque in Kerala has allegedly opposed the participation of people belonging to the lower strata of the Muslim community in their general meeting, drawing sharp criticism from progressive organisations in the society.
A woman Dalit panchayat president in the district was allegedly humiliated by the vice president, who did not allow her to sit on a chair at meetings or hoist the national flag, drawing widespread condemnation from political parties.
In the morning, he offered prayers at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi.
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
Pictures of the well laid out dining table with an assortment of dishes and cutlery went viral on the social media.
'Whatever Modi had promised us on OROP has not been delivered. He lied to us'
The BJP got the benefit of a split in Muslim votes in some seats of western UP, and its candidates registered wins from Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Baghpat and Aligarh Lok Sabha seats.
The Bench said "it is a very important issue" and wanted to go through the previous rulings of the apex court on this issue.
Teltumbde, Navlakha and nine other civil liberties activists have been booked under the stringent provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for having alleged Maoist links and conspiring to overthrow the government.
Incidents of arson, firing and vandalism were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab as protesters agitated against the dilution of the SC/ST Act.
The Dalits of Thabola village in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district are facing social and economical boycott for a month now after two grooms from the community decided to defy the diktats of the upper caste villagers. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports.
Stoutly defending Sanatan Dharma, Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Thursday dubbed the ruling DMK a casteist party that must be decimated, and questioned its track record on Dalit empowerment.
'When I applied for the job of santhi, I applied as a person who was eligible.' 'When I joined the temple at the age of 21, it was because I got the 4th rank in the list.' 'Now, everybody is talking only about my caste. I am above all that; it doesn't matter to me and to the people with whom I am associated with.'
These events would include celebrating the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha in Bihar in a big way. It was Gandhi's first mass agitation in India, where he had led a protest of peasants against forcible cultivation of indigo.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday said he was in favour of extending reservation benefits to Muslims but emphasised that it should be based on social backwardness and 'not on the basis of religion'.
Is the Union government responsible for it (Dalit atrocities)? Is the party (BJP) responsible for it?," Ahir asked.
After the BRS lost the assembly elections recently, a number of its leaders quit the party to join the BJP or the Congress, which is in power in the state now.
In embarrassment for the BJP, former Union minister Sanjay Paswan on Thursday accused Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya of showing "grave insensitivity".
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister is scheduled to attend a meeting of PDA "Picchda (backward classes), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities)" at the party office in Lucknow and has no plans to go anywhere till now
Rajnath says incidents of atrocities against Dalits have come down since the Modi government took over.
Mumbai-based Anand Teltumbde is a leading scholar-activist who has written extensively on issues related to caste, class, imperialism and globalisation. In an interview with Yoginder Sikand, he reflects on the Dalit movement in the era of globalisation.
The mob attacked Vijay and the Dalit leaders apparently for visiting the temple where entrance of persons belonging to backward castes is prohibited.
The Enforcement Directorate had last week arrested Chhagan Bhujbal's associate and chartered accountant Sunil Naik in connection with the case.
'The Opposition parties will continue to woo Chandrababu Naidu even though he has said he will support the BJP.'
Following on the footsteps of Barack Obama, a Dalit should be made the prime minister of India and Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan is the ideal candidate, the National Dalit Front said on Wednesday. "Change is taking place at a global level. The time has now come for India to have a Dalit prime minister," Udit Raj, the secretary general of the recently-launched NDF said in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of seeking to divide women in the name of caste and by spreading lies, as he launched a fierce counter-attack on the party over its demand of OBC sub-quota in women's reservation in legislatures.
Accusing Mayawati of not allowing any Scheduled Caste leader to rise in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said there is a big opportunity for the Congress to create leadership space in the community and it should ensure that Dalit leadership is created in all fields.
He said he was committed to the welfare of Dalits and other oppressed sections of the society but some people cannot digest that "Modi is pro-Dalit".
The youth -- their dreams of government jobs unfulfilled -- are voicing their frustration.
'If a Brahmin child by birth is poor then he must get reservation benefits rather than an OBC child who is rich and born in a rich family.'
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge cited national crime data to take on the government, saying every 80 minutes a crime against Dalit was taking place, three Dalits raped and two murdered every day.
The victim had gone with the autorickshaw driver, who was known to her, in his vehicle on the day of the incident.
Kejriwal on Friday accused the state administration of colluding in the incident of attack on Dalit men by cow vigilantes as he met the victims and their families.
'If the Maha Vikas Aghadi thinks that they have won 30 (Lok Sabha) seats and that would translate to winning 180 assembly seats they would be living in a fool's paradise.'
Karan Bhushan rejects the charges against his father, saying the "allegations are political and made up. We will challenge them in court".
This will pave the way for emergence of 24,000 new panchayat-level leaders in Telangana, he said.
Muslim community members came in large numbers to support the Dalit community in their campaign.
