A sessions court in Gujarat's Mehsana district on Wednesday set aside a lower court order sentencing Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani and nine others to three months in jail in a 2017 case of taking out a public rally without police permission, noting debates and bona fide criticism of government actions are essential for the existence of democracy.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
The summons have been sent at the south Delhi guest house where Shah, the Chairman of Democratic Freedom Party of Jammu and Kashmir, has been kept after Delhi police detained him on Saturday.
The statement posted on SDPI's website alleged that freedom of speech, protests and organisation have been ruthlessly suppressed by the regime going against the basic principles of the Indian constitution.
The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed three bills to replace the colonial-era criminal laws by voice vote.
'The Election Commission is in the process of updating electoral rolls.' 'Once that is done, the dates for elections will be announced by the ECI at an appropriate time.' 'What can be more democratic than this?'
Purists may balk at this level of public discourse, but no one can deny its ability to marshal opinion.
Exiled ex-Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed on Thursday declared that he would return to his country and run for presidency in elections next year, as he asserted that India will be "mindful of assisting democracy".
'It's not really going to bring about purity in the election process.'
They have already prepared a draft common minimum programme (CMP).
It said the Congress will infuse new blood in leadership roles without creating new fault lines and cementing its ideological moorings.
'Till today, we don't know how many people died of Covid in India.' 'How many migrated from cities to villages during the Covid pandemic?' 'How many corporates contributed to PM Cares?'
Opposition parties on Thursday alleged that an "undeclared Emergency" has been imposed in the country in the light of restrictions and detention of thousands for defying prohibitory orders to deal with the mounting protests against the new citizenship law in multiple cities. Rejecting the charge, the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party said no government can tolerate violence and alleged that the opposition parties were fuelling the protests for vote bank politics.
'On the international platform, the prime minister is talking about freedom of speech and he should be ashamed of it'
The United States has vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on the latest Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations, an outcome lauded by Israel but criticised by Palestine as 'unfair, immoral, and unjustified'.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
'What you need is a credible Opposition, a credible platform to persuade people to believe that it can replace this government.'
The bickering between allies All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu over late Dravidian stalwart C N Annadurai peaked on Monday with the regional party snapping ties with the saffron organisation, saying it cannot tolerate any affront to the late chief minister and its other leaders.
'The government or the ruling party has indicated indirectly that you are not supposed to publish anything critical of the government or the senior functionaries of the government.'
In democratic India, a citizen can be a patriot and at the same time be critical of the government, unlike China which promulgated a national security law in Hong Kong prescribing patriotism to contest elections, observes Rup Narayan Das.
A resolution calls the US Secretary of State to designate India as a country of particular concern for alleged violation of religious freedom.
Priyanka said the presence of Gandhis in the party would impede the functioning of a non-family president only if her family wanted things to be that way.
'"PM Shastri ji created...VP Radhakrishnanji inaugurated. Narendra Modi closed it. Nehru ji lives in the hearts of INDIA'
The Opposition MP pointed to a set of changes taking place in India that had caught the Congress and UPA government off guard, such as a shift from rural to urban.
Vijayan said that the trailer of the Hindi film, at first glance, appears to be "deliberately produced" with the alleged aim of creating communal polarisation and spreading hate propaganda against the state.
As Germany took note of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the Congress of 'inviting foreign powers' for interference in India's internal matters and the Opposition party hit back, alleging that its rival was attempting to divert attention from the Adani issue.
He cited the Congress' poor performance in the 2019 general election after victories in assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh the previous year to buttress his point.
After the 18-member 'Assam Advisory Committee' suggested the two organisations to form a political party, a source close to the development said the new outfit will be launched within the next 10 days.
Amit Malviya said Twitter was in violation of India laws for an extended period (between 2020-2022).
The prime minister's insistence that his voice cannot be suppressed left me both puzzled and amused. He has at his call, the government's official news dissemination/publicity channels, the pliant newspapers and television channels that were eager to prostrate themselves before a powerful government and yet, the dominant voice thinks it is in competition with other voices! exclaims Shyam G Menon.
'Politics is a game of public perception and my father felt that by his long disappearances, Rahul Gandhi was losing the battle of perception.'
Our precipitous decline is being noticed and recorded abroad with alarm. It is strange that within India we are carrying on as if it is business as usual, observes Aakar Patel.
Three persons were shot dead and several others were injured as violence and arson marked the conclusion of nomination filing for the three-tier West Bengal panchayat polls slated next month.
Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected as the new speaker of the United States House of Representatives in a dramatic post-midnight ballot on Saturday, after days of intense negotiations and a series of humiliating defeats to finally capture the gavel on a historic 15th attempt.
'There is little appetite in the Democratic foreign policy establishment to pick a fight with India.'
With its political colour dominated by less than democratic trends, BRICS currently leaves some of us wondering -- where in this grouping is there an assurance that human freedom will be respected unconditionally? It would be nice to see the new members of BRICS drawn from the ranks of countries wedded to preserving and guarding human freedom, observes Shyam G Menon.
The parties reiterated that they are bound, wholly, by the contents of the 'Gupkar Declaration', a resolution issued after an all-party meeting on August 4, 2019 at the Gupkar residence of NC president Farooq Abdullah.
She said it was a strange thing for her to know that for the time being he has been disqualified from even fighting another election for eight years.
'When the Executive can do whatever they want, why bother having an election?'
'It was Maulana Azad's foresight which created the IITs, UGC, science academies across the country.'
