Darjeeling is on the boil over the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state. June and July are bad months to have a strike. Tea picking during its most valuable season has been affected. Those consequences will be felt all over the world and ultimately damage Darjeeling tea.
A simple guide to the strange defensiveness of the government and its supporters, and how and why the arguments they're making are wrong.
'You will be surprised at how wide the Mission272+ Internet campaign has been in terms of its reach across India. We have volunteers in all of 543 Lok Sabha seats. Every one of them signed up to volunteer through the Internet. We are laser focused on Mission272+. All of our volunteers are working at the constituency level to make a difference so every vote and every booth counts.' Shashi Shekhar, who is spearheading the BJP's Internet-social media campaign, explains how it is done.
Jaitley's team presents a quintessential mix of foreign-educated, intellectual technocrats and seasoned bureaucrats
'If we play our cards right, we may even benefit from the competition between the US and China as seen from increased investment from each of these countries into India.' 'The size of our market gives us an important lever of power which we shall have to play adroitly and intelligently,' points out Ambassador Gautam Bambawale -- who served as India's envoy to China -- in the Professor V M Dandekar Memorial Lecture 2019, delivered on March 8, 2019 in Pune.
A brief report card on Modi's ministers.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee would seek to placate the hawks in the RSS by stating that the writing of history should not be one-sided. At the same time, he would project a moderate 'Nehruvian' image of himself as the archetypal liberal politician who would strive to attain a balance between conflicting viewpoints. A fascinating profile of the former prime minister and Bharat Ratna by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shankar Raghuraman.
While the Congress leadership will undertake the mandatory introspection exercise to pinpoint the reasons for the debacle, Anita Katyal offers five factors which led to the humiliating rout.
Amma will wait for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'honeymoon' with the voter to fade away before deciding on the issues that are of real concern to the state and others that may need a considered and balanced solution, say N Sathiya Moorthy and M Kasinathan
'We need to put aside our anxieties about the Budget for now and possibly for long, and carry on as best as we can,' advises Shreekant Sambrani.
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav might have repeatedly castigated his Chief Minister son Akhilesh Yadav for his loose grip over the administration.
Without reforms to boost returns for multinational capital, Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' campaign will face testing times.
Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid speaks about the importance of the fourth edition of the India-US Strategic Dialogue, which he co-chaired with United States Secretary of State John Kerry in New Delhi
On Reva, Mahindra says electric cars are an innovation that can disrupt the automobile sector.
Why does Modi want to speak to the students while his audience should be teachers and parents, not necessarily in that order. And September 5 is not Children's Day but Teachers' Day, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The 10-year UPA rule came under sharp attack in the BJP's National Council meeting in on Saturday, which unveiled the new government's future plans and policy prescription in domestic and foreign affairs arena in a political resolution, which hailed the "strong and able" leadership of Narendra Modi.
'There could be some aberrations here and there. This has nothing to do with the government or the ruling party. The government machinery is put in action when atrocities take place. They are not sitting silent.' 'Beyond making sensational news, what purpose does returning the awards serve?'
With what joyous expectations I welcomed you! You have tumbled me into a cauldron of gloomy forebodings, says B S Raghavan.
As the 16th Indian parliamentary elections get underway, Vikas Lather profiles Sukumar Sen, India's first chief election commissioner.
Arun Jaitley had a tough fiscal hill to climb.
'As the night wore on, we could hear insects, see fireflies and slowly, the stars took over the naked sky.' 'For those of us who spend the largest part of our lives in a cement jungle and wake up to machine sounds, this was music.'
'For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror.'
'Over the next 10 years we expect more than 100,000 new start ups to come up and create more than $500 billion in value and 3.5 million to be employed in these start ups.' 'And these are the start ups that will be solving India's problems.'
What is the road ahead for Rahul Gandhi? Shehzad Poonawalla offers a blueprint.
'I found my motivation in the fast emerging mobile market.' 'Nokia's biggest mistake lay in its stubbornness to change.' 'It's important to understand the pulse of the people It has been a long journey for Md Gyasuddin, Hitech Mobiles MD.
The proposed changes to the child labour law to allow children and adolescents to work for their families would be most retrograde and regressive, say Shinzani Jain and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
'When you go through the ups and downs of life you need someone who says that no matter what happens to you, whether you are successful or not, I am there with you.' 'In the absence of that person and that love, you have a society which is depressed.'
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We present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's full speech as he addressed the country on the occasion of 66th Independence Day, from Red Fort, Delhi.
'Let me talk about young Indian startups with their hearts in the right place and how they are proving that innovations that represent 'affordable excellence' -- breaking the myth that 'affordability' and 'excellence' cannot go together -- is indeed possible!' says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, in this fascinating feature.
'They gave Nitish their votes to bring progress. But he forgot this and got involved with his own political interests. That is not done. So he was rejected.' 'Lalu is a symbol of anarchy. He is the symbol of regressive politics.' BJP General Secretary Dharmendra Pradhan discusses Lalu, Nitish, and his strategy to bring Bihar in the BJP's fold, with Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com
As Maharashtra and Haryana show, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah completely control the BJP and are taking it to the next level ruthlessly, without carrying forward any past baggage.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh interacts with readers on Rediff Chat as he discusses the period that changed India's history, forever.
There are no permanent friends or foes in politics. It's true that the RJD supported us on the trust vote, but it doesn't mean we needed them, says Bihar new chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi.
'It is difficult to imagine the BJP becoming the legatee of Ambedkar. Whichever way one looks at it, Ambedkar's thought and Hindu nationalism are not easy to reconcile.'
On the occasion of the Narendra Modi government completing one year in office, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com speaks to BJP president Amit Shah who is yin to Modi's yang. Don't miss it!
Iconic rights activist Irom Sharmila on the highs and lows of her long fast, why she gave it up and her plans.
'It was a mission undertaken in darkness in every sense -- literally, because Afghanistan had no electricity at that time; and, metaphorically because Delhi historically dealt only with the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and the foreign ministry's vast archives had nothing to offer on the culture and politics of the northern tribes in the Hindu Kush.'
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while addressing the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on "Recapturing India's Growth Momentum" in Washington on Thursday, said that the leading think tank need not launch an initiative to explore how India will vote in 2014, declaring that the Indian polity will vote the Congress back into power.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday addressed the first joint sitting of Parliament as mandatorily required under the Constitution after the general elections. The address is the political, economic and foreign policy road map of the Narendra Modi government and covers virtually all crucial areas.
'The Congress era was already over anyway! The real question is: Has India opened a new, post-coalition era and I'm very doubtful about that,' Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on Indian politics, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com, analysing Mandate 2014.
