The BJP's panicky return to basic-instinct majoritarianism in Bihar has pushed Muslims back into the 'secular' basement, says Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
'Nowhere in the country, except perhaps Jammu and Kashmir, do extremist groups enjoy political patronage as they do in Kerala. Terrorists are exported from Kerala to Afghanistan, Syria.'
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.
Opposition parties in Lakshadweep and Kerala are up in arms against various measures initiated by the Administrator of the group of islands, terming them as 'anti-people' and have sought his recall.
Rediff Labs analysed the past performance of the parties to develop this Sentiment Meter for the 2016 Kerala election.
'If you want to really grow, it has to be geometric progression like it happened at the Centre or Haryana or Tripura, where you made a quantum jump.' 'This is possible in Kerala provided we present a better alternative with a great leadership, but the current leadership is busy fixing each other.'
Vicky Nanjappa reports on the interrogation report of Shakeel Ahmed, a middleman who was arrested recently in the Kerala child trafficking case in which over 500 children were rescued.
The raids, taking place mainly in South India, was termed by the NIA as the 'largest ever' investigation process 'till date'.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
With Pinarayi Vijayan set to be chief minister, what will be the role for party patriarch V S Achuthanandan? And what are the key takeways from the election results in Kerala?
A recent interfaith marriage of a Muslim activist of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist's youth wing DYFI, has stirred up a political storm after the relatives of the Christian bride alleged "love jihad", with a senior left party leader supporting the charge, only to retract his statement later.
'Unlike in other states, minorities form a significant number in Kerala. They have money and political power. In such a society, the emergence of a new communal power is not a healthy thing.'
'Bharat is a name that is 7000 years old.' 'We are not saying the name of the country should be changed from India to Bharat; we only recommended that the stress should be on Bharat.'
The decision was taken by the state cabinet, which gave its approval to the proposals of the high power committee headed by Local Administration Minister Paloli Muhammadkutty, set up to study the state-level implementation of the Sachar Committee report.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
'Who is the aggressor and who is the victim is not clear, each blames the other.'
'If the missing people really had any contact with IS, it would be dangerous.' 'Majority of Muslims do not approve of this.'
Leaders of 24 non-BJP parties have been invited for the meet on June 17 and 18, the first edition of which saw the participation of 15 parties.
Thousands of Muslim women, including tourists, flocked to the mosque from various parts of Kerala and abroad.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
The Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.
Home Minister of Kerala Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said on Saturday that the Popular Front of India was spitting communal venom in the state and trying to create a wedge between the Muslim community and other religions in the state.
Muslim population in India has grown by 24 per cent between 2001 and 2011 against national average of 18 per cent with the community's representation rising to 14.2 per cent from 13.4 percent of total population.
'It is still God's own country. Nobody needs to worry about coming here. Anybody can come to Kerala without worry because bad elements will be kicked out of the state mercilessly... These terrorists visited many places and not only Kerala,' says Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, reacting to the fears that Kerala has become a terror hub.
The BJP scripted history by opening its account in the state assembly.
'In a secular society where women are treated equally by law, I want the same equal status for my daughters in society, on par with all the boys.'
In a statement filed in the court, Director General of Police Jacob Punnose said he could not come to "a definite all conclusive finding" due to divergence in contents of reports from SPs of different districts and subordinate officers on the organised work of the 'Love Jihad' in the state.
As the month-long fasting observed by the people of the Muslim community during Ramzan came to an end on Modnay, devotees across the country offered namaz on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr in large numbers on Tuesday.
'Public dissent is the highest public duty and I will continue to speak out,' says Harsh Mander.
Death of a princess, deadly Godzilla and detectives galore on OTT this week.
'Continuity in a common agenda is essential, not to disrupt the progress achieved so far,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The ministry of minority affairs informed the Lok Sabha that in 2022-2023, it had been allotted Rs 5,020.5 crore (Rs 50.20 billion); in the Revised Estimates, it had got Rs 2,612.66 crore (Rs 26.12 billion); and had spent, until the end of March this year, Rs 712.5 crore (Rs 7,12 billion).
Murshid Muhammed, a native of Padna in this district, was killed in a drone attack in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan,
Among them, 17 were from Kasaragod and four from Palakkad.
The SC said that it would examine the question as to whether the Kerala high court can annul the marriage of a Muslim man with a Hindu woman.