Why are the protesters still on their own and why are political parties abstaining from joining this mass movement? Aakar Patel explains.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
'I have stopped going to college and instead come here to protest.' 'What is the point of going to college when you are unsure about your citizenship?' 'I am here to protest and save my future.'
The costs of providing free vaccines are way lower than the costs of a freewheeling epidemic.
'Doklam was almost like a trailer to what is happening in Ladakh today.' 'Modi failed to take note and failed to act,' observes Harishchandra Dighe.
'Mohan Bhagwat's reaffirmation of the RSS's Hindu rashtra ideal has shown that nothing has changed, that it remains firmly rooted in its fundamental beliefs, that the willingness to listen to voices from outside its fold was a pretence about being openminded,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) K V Subramanian will be leaving the finance ministry and returning to academia on completion of his three-year term. The government had appointed Subramanian, an ISB Hyderabad professor, as the CEA in December 2018. He had succeeded Arvind Subramanian, who quit the position close to a year ahead of his extended tenure. Subramanian's three-year term would have come up for renewal in December but he decided to return to academia.
In some ways, Jyotiraditya parting ways with the Gandhis was similar to the saga of the Gandhis and the Bachchans, largely a story of friendship that turned sour. A fascinating excerpt from Rasheed Kidwai's The House Of Scindias: A Saga Of Power, Politics And Intrigue.
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.
Paramilitary force personnel and state police force will be deployed and drone cameras will be used to ensure security on Friday.
Roshan Shah, a Canadian citizen and an Overseas Citizen of India, filed a Right to Information application in Gujarat in 2013 to demand that Narendra Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, make his educational qualifications public.
He attacked the dispensation over issues such as the state of the economy, the situation in Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens in Assam and action by probe agencies against opposition leaders.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the session has been "more productive and satisfactory" than the previous Budget Session and last year's monsoon session.
The meeting was convened by the Congress. Six major parties -- the DMK, the SP, the BSP, the TMC, the AAP and the Shiv Sena -- choose to stay away. The BJP took a swipe at the absence of major opposition parties at the meet and also said that their anti-CAA resolution must've made Pak happy.
'They have no other agenda, but to perpetuate hate.' 'They have destroyed the economy and polity and they survive only on hate.' 'They think through hatred, they can mobilise the large chunk of Hindu votes.'
In order to formulate a Uniform Civil Code, the Law Commission has sent out of list of 16 questions to gauge public opinion,
The measures include an information search prompt with the Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) and State Election Commissions to provide reliable information around the elections, a custom emoji to encourage participation, a series of pre-bunks and debunks to tackle election-related misinformation, and a youth discussion series titled #DemocracyAdda aimed at voter literacy and civic participation among young Indians for the upcoming elections.
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.
He, however, asserted that all infiltrators will be thrown out of the country.
The revision of the consumer price index and GDP base years from 2011-12 and 2012, respectively, were dependent on the outcomes of the consumer expenditure survey of 2017-18 that the government decided to junk recently.
'Yes, we are angry, we are frustrated, but not all our anger is directed towards Delhi.'
'The JD-U has become an ideology-less accessory to the BJP,' says Ambassador Pavan Varma, who has been expelled from the JD-U.
'Do the Muslims of India think that they are receiving justice from their nation and particularly from the Supreme Court?'
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.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday sought answers from Narendra Modi on CNT/SPT Acts, starvation deaths and 'divisiveness',a day after the prime minister threw challenges to Congress on citizenship, Article 370 and triple talaq. She also attacked the prime minister on economic slowdown, Citizenship Act, National Register of Citizenship and alleged assaults on women in different parts of the country.
It will be presented in the Lok Sabha next week in its original form.
Government sources had claimed on Tuesday that four persons have committed suicide in fear of NRC so far, while four others had died while waiting in queues to procure the requisite papers.
'In enacting the citizenship law, the BJP's focus has been so much on consolidating its Hindu vote bank all over the country to divert attention from the economic downturn that the party forgot that there are Hindus and Hindus and that one group of Hindus may not always be warmly embraced by another,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
As the Aam Aadmi Party heads for a resounding win in Delhi, Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf lists the reasons behind Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's triumph.
In this winter of discontent, in every procession, in every demonstration, in every protest -- from Jawaharlal Nehru University to Jamia to Shaheen Bagh to the streets of Mumbai -- the front rows have been occupied by women. It's been weeks since women have been sitting in protest across the country against the newly-introduced Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. The protests are a nerve centre of unwavering voices against what has been perceived as a discriminatory law. The women -- some housewives, some students with hijabs covering their hair, and others in full-length burqa robes -- are rallying against the 'Man' in what could also be perceived as a revolution for the 'weaker sex' in India.
'As a nation we are tearing ourselves apart through decisions we have deliberately chosen to take,' argues Aakar Patel.
The publishing of the NRC will not rid India from illegal immigrants who are already here. But even if it manages to withhold their political and voting rights, it will be a significant achievement, says Anand Kumar.
'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.
'The NRC had an effect on Assam and I think to cover up or make up for that, CAB has been brought in.'
'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.'
The Chief Election Commissioner pointed out that the exercise involved nearly 7.3 crore voters and over 1.06 lakh polling stations.
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.
'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 BJP will get the lion's share of the Opposition vote. I would give the Congress-Left around 15 per cent.'
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.
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