An analysis of the results in Haryana reveals that caste-based voting is anything but dead. It could even help the Bharatiya Janata Party win a second successive term in the state in the forthcoming assembly polls, reports Nitin Kumar.
The order that was passed less than a week ahead of the first phase of polls scheduled on October 10 throws a spanner in the election process.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state's police chief over the incident.
The PIL said the independent expert committee should be asked to submit its report within four weeks and direction be issued for action against state agencies for dereliction of duty.
Raising slogans, members of the BRS, Left parties and some members of the Congress walked out of Lok Sabha in protest as the prime minister was speaking.
A shocking fact revealed by a pan-India survey that was flagged at a seminar of Dalit intellectuals
'We would do well to encourage all Indians to participate in democracy by contesting and laws that prevent or deter individuals and parties should be relooked at,' says Aakar Patel.
Shah attended a function on renaming of Mughalsarai junction after Pt Deendayal Upadhyay.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
A total of 829 candidates have qualified for civil services, including the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, the Union Public Service Commission announced
The senior Congress leader was in a coma since October last year, when he was admitted to AIIMS after he suffered a brain haemorrhage.
Sources in the poll panel said, prima facie, Adityanath has violated the EC's advisory of keeping armed forces away from political campaign.
Religious tolerance in India is "deteriorating" while religious freedom violations are "increasing", a rights expert has told American lawmakers.
Officials said there was no discussion on constituting a delimitation commission.
The mortal remains of Lakhbir Singh were cremated at his native village in Punjab's Tarn Taran amid tight security in the presence of his family members. No Sikh priest was present to perform Ardas (Sikh religious prayer) and no one from his village, Cheema Kalan, attended the last rites.
The Lokpal chairperson, all of its eight members and support staff are being allocated space in the hotel premises.
The Election Commission Wednesday decided to defer proposed by-polls to three Lok Sabha and eight assembly seats in view of the prevailing coronavirus situation in the country.
Over 83 per cent of the more than 13 lakh electorate cast their vote on Monday in the single-day Nagaland state election which passed off by and large peacefully, Chief Electoral Officer V Shashank Shekhar said.
'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.' 'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.' 'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'
Neither the ruling DMK nor the fractured AIADMK Opposition anticipated that an assembly by-election would put them both to test, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the session has been "more productive and satisfactory" than the previous Budget Session and last year's monsoon session.
In the light of the efforts being made to forge electoral unity between scheduled castes and Muslims, Mohammad Sajjad examines what the architect of our Constitution, B R Ambedkar, had to say about the Muslim community.
'The BJP is the most progressive force within Hinduism today.'
At a time when the Congress is considering an electoral understanding with the BSP in the 2014 polls, Rahul Gandhi's critical remarks about Mayawati has left party leaders confused. Anita Katyal reports
For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Community will now avail of exclusive schemes run by the ministry of minority affairs.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
'The ruling provides a Constitutional template, it draws boundaries, and there is this expectation that henceforth political parties will not make crude appeals to religion for electoral gains.'
'If the museum in his memory inspires and instils among Brahminical British Indians an attitude of equality towards Dalits, the edifice would be worth it,' reports Ashis Ray.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance released its manifesto for the February 20 Punjab polls on Saturday, promising a slew of sops for various sections, including 75 per cent reservation in all government jobs for youngsters from the state, an unemployment allowance, 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and massive infrastructure development.
According to a senior Planning Commission official, according to the new criteria evolved by members Abhijit Sen and Mihir Shah, henceforth BRGF amounts will be allocated on the basis of backward blocks and not just districts.
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
'While censorship of any sort is anathema to the creative spirit, political correctness has become more and more the norm rather than the exception,' notes Uttaran Das Gupta.
The incumbent Congress could win only 18 seats, with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi losing both seats he contested -- Chamkaur Sahib as well as Bhadaur.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday claimed that a few retired judges and some activists who are 'part of the anti-India gang' are trying to make the Indian judiciary play the role of the opposition party.
The original idea was to replace the existing schemes for scheduled castes and tribes.
After the Gujarat and Himachal elections and the municipal polls in Mumbai and Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh will elect new assemblies next year leading up to the Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024, points out Virendra Kapoor.
Three days after a teenage girl was molested and pushed to her death from a moving bus in Punjab's Moga district, her relatives have refused to perform her final rites till the time the proprietors of the company that owned the vehicle are booked.
The new candidates fielded from these constituencies by the BJP are: SP Singh Baghel (Agra), Parameshwar Lal Saini (Sambhal), Raj Kumar Chaher (Fatehpur Sikri), Jai Prakash Rawat (Hardoi-SC), Ashok Rawat (Misrikh-SC) and Arun Sagar (Shahjahanpur-SC).
'If Lalu puts the agenda of his son's career ahead of the coalition's interest, this coalition will fare very badly.' 'Lalu will ultimately want that his son becomes deputy chief minister but if he's prepared to wait for some time, nothing bad will happen for the coalition,' Professor Prabhat Ghosh, Director, Asian Development Research Institute, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com
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