'The loose use of words like foreigner or Bangladeshis obscures the fact that the post-Partition migration to Assam has been of both Hindus and Muslims.'
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said the country's farm production and procurement increased during 2020-21 crop year despite the pandemic and agricultural exports reached a record level of Rs 3 lakh crore during the same period. In his address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget session, Kovind said the government is focusing on making the country self-sufficient in edible oils besides making special efforts to promote organic farming, natural farming and crop diversification. "My government is working continuously to empower the farmers and the rural economy of the country... I would like to give maximum credit to the small farmers of the country for this consistent success and strengthening of the agriculture sector," he said.
More than 60 individuals and entities, an overwhelming number of them Indians, were on Thursday charged by the Justice Department for allegedly participating in a multi-million dollar scam involving call centres based in India which conned thousands of American citizens.
'The NRC had an effect on Assam and I think to cover up or make up for that, CAB has been brought in.'
'The best thing that Modi can hope for in this visit is that he is able to mobilise Indians in America to vote Republican and try and help Trump return to power,' argues Aakar Patel.
'As demonetisation showed us, the Shah-Modi duo can take big risks.' 'Risking economic damage for political benefit, however, is one thing, stoking old fires in complicated Assam is another', warns Shekhar Gupta.
That AAP managed a sizeable vote share in Gujarat is creditable. The BJP can no longer ignore AAP's growing presence in its strongest bastion, explains Ramesh Menon, long-time observer of Gujarat politics.
The CJI, who hails from Assam, said that NRC is neither a 'new or a novel idea' as it found expression as early as in 1951 and the current exercise is an attempt to update the 1951 NRC.
Banerjee, the 34-year-old nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is stated to have sent an email to the investigating officer of the case citing some personal reasons for his non-appearance.
The inter-faith ceremony, where there was a traditional Hindu-style 'hawan' and chants of Sikh 'kirtan', saw participants also reading out the Preamble of the Constitution and taking oath to preserve its "socialist, secular" values.
'The government has given up its focus on economic growth because it it not something Modi has been able to fully understand.' 'This explains the extraordinary focus on divisive politics by the BJP even at a time when the world's most important man in visiting India,' notes Aakar Patel.
'Modi should arrest Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Sharma.' 'These leaders were instigating mobs and spreading hatred and they must be thrown in jail.' 'I had seen dreams of a new India under Modi, but now I am disillusioned with him.'
'Gogoi will be remembered as someone who recovered Assam as a state, as a people and society from the fear of insurgency that had struck the state from the 1980s till 2000.'
The Chief Election Commissioner pointed out that the exercise involved nearly 7.3 crore voters and over 1.06 lakh polling stations.
'What stood out at these meetings between industry representatives and government leaders was how the equation between the ministers and industry had undergone a subtle and qualitative change,' points out A K Bhattacharya.
The experts said that climate change is not only raising temperatures and making India's heatwaves hotter, but also changing weather patterns that further drive dangerous weather extremes.
The BJP which stormed into Mamata Banerjee's fortress earlier this year by bagging 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats faced immense flak when the final NRC in Assam left out Bengali Hindus in large numbers.
The leaders alleged that those who had no contribution in the freedom struggle wanted to spread fear 'in the name of nationalism', suppress the voice of people and were questioning the legacy of Congress.
Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi read out the Preamble to the Constitution of India as part of the 'Satyagraha of Unity' protest.
'The BJP will get the lion's share of the Opposition vote. I would give the Congress-Left around 15 per cent.'
The Asom Gana Parishad's fears relating to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill are not misplaced. But does the party still matter in Assam's politics?
It took a lockdown for us in India to even recognise that the plight of migrants needs to be addressed. They were faceless and unrecognised. They were unappreciated and even hounded. They were poorly paid and exploited, notes Ramesh Menon.
Unless the judges factor in the ungovernability of technologies and their beneficial owners, present and future Presidents, prime ministers, judges, legislators and officials handling sensitive assignments may become redundant with reference to their age-old roles for securing 'national resources and assets', warns Dr Gopal Krishna.
'There is little appetite in the Democratic foreign policy establishment to pick a fight with India.'
The polls have come at a time when opposition parties in Haryana are in a disarray.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A 73-year-old Australian, who is stranded in India since March last year, has filed a lawsuit before a Sydney court against the federal government for banning flights from India and threatening to prosecute those attempting to enter the country with the possibility of a jail term and a penalty, saying the move is "unconstitutional".
The anti-CAA protest was an ugly rant more consistent with the violent chaos of anarchy, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Even in this darkest hour of a crumbling economy and raging disease, there is hardly a murmur of protest against the government, observes Sumit Bhattacharya.
Neither Modi nor Shah had held legislative or executive power in Delhi before 2014. They have no training in appealing to the diversity of India as represented in Parliament. Their prism is the provincial politics of Gujarat. An exclusive excerpt from Vinay Sitapati's fascinating new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi.
Shah also said that no 'illegal migrant' will be allowed to stay in the country and that the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam was completed in 'time-bound manner'.
'At a time when the economy is depressed, a pandemic is raging, and the Chinese are making noises on the border, the NRC could be resuscitated.'
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
'Why is the RSS trying to destroy the indigenous culture of Assam and its language?' 'If these migrants settle in Assam, they will overwhelm the 47 per cent of people who speak Assamese.'
In a career spanning six decades, Chatterjee has acted in more than 300 films.
'The north east does not want the solution that the BJP has given and it has become clear that it has not been fully thought through,' says Aakar Patel.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the delegation. She said Modi government was 'shutting down' people's voices and bringing legislations which are not acceptable to them.
He said in the last 8-10 days, the active cases in the state stood in the range of 5,000-6,000.
Singh said the nation and the society as a whole are gradually getting conditioned to look at things in the eye instead of getting confused by duplicities.
Britain and China have clashed over the offer of British National Overseas passports to Hong Kong residents, observes Rup Narayan Das.
