Crops have failed, people don't have jobs and there is no drinking water. Vicky Nanjappa reports on the abysmal reality of drought-hit northern Karnataka
Heavy rains and floods over the past week have wreaked havoc in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and claimed over 230 lives and displaced over a million people.
Fakira Dingaleshwar Swami of Shirahatti Fakkireshwar Math, a prominent Veerashaiva Lingayat seer, on Monday said he has decided to contest as an independent candidate from Dharwad segment in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
A win on his home turf Hubli has become a matter of both survival and prestige for Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar as he is going the whole hog for a fifth victory from Hubli-Dharwad constituency.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday urged his successor D V Sadananda Gowda to immediately release Rs 200 crore for providing employment to people in drought-hit areas under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
"We have to move together. We have to take Azadi (freedom), things that we don't get by asking, we have to take it by force, remember it," the AIMIM leader can be purportedly heard saying in Hindi.
He held two massive roadshows in Rajasthan and one in Madhya Pradesh and his entries in many of rally venues were marked by a drive through cheering supporters.
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
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If the Cauvery water-sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu -- dating back to 1892 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency under the British Raj and the princely Mysore state -- has exploded again into a war, the discord between Karnataka and Goa over dividing the water of the Mahadayi river simmers under the surface.
Tamil Nadu doesn't need water from Cauvery River as it is already receiving excess water from Karnataka due to heavy north-east rains. This is what the Karnataka government is set to argue when it responds to the Tamil Nadu government's contempt plea filed over the Cauvery River water sharing issue in the Supreme Court.
The BJP's Karnataka unit shared photographs of the artworks inside the new Parliament House, including the murals of ancient India, Chanakya, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and B R Ambedkar and the cultural diversity of the country.
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Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
'Both Modi and Shah know the importance attached by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita to self-introspection (swadhyay) as one of the virtues of wise leaders.' 'From the way both leaders are painting the BJP's performance in the Karnataka election, one can only conclude that they have flunked Lord Krishna's test,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Karnataka Congress chief Mallikarjuna Kharge on the party's prospects in Karnataka, his aspirations on becoming chief minister and issues pertaining to state election 2008.
Two empty bottles of a cough syrup were found in a Goa apartment, where a start-up CEO allegedly killed her minor son, indicating she may have given a heavy dose of the medicine to him in signs of a premeditated murder, even as she was subjected to psychological test to assess her mental state and help find the motive for the gruesome crime, the police said on Wednesday.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
Within a week of assuming power, the Congress government in Karnataka has expanded its cabinet on Saturday, filling all posts.
The prime minister said there had been such a fall in the party that a Congress leader went to be amid those raising slogans like "Bharat ke tukde honge", giving them blessings.
'Now that we are a pure-play India business, many investors are open to investing.'
Yeddyurappa lacks the Karnataka BJP's unqualified support and Shah knows that.
Five others were critically injured.
'I found it unbelievable that L&T said 45,000 jobs were waiting to be filled because of unavailability of suitable skillsets.' 'So, when the Opposition sweepingly says there are no jobs, I'm sorry... I'm not saying it's raining jobs, but there are jobs. The (skill) gap has to be bridged.'
Following the party's sweep of assembly elections in three Hindi heartland states against the odds, the BJP's brain trust is now busy game-planning as to how it can improve on its 2019 Lok Sabha election tally of 303 seats.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
"This is an unparalleled and unprecedented win," he said.
If you are in the vicinity of a flood affected area or near an aid camp, shoot a video and upload it on rediff iShare, and mail us the link at citizen.reporter@rediffmail.com
Interrogations conducted by the Gujarat police on two accused in the Gujarat blasts case -- Abbas Sameja and Shaikh Ahmed -- have revealed that Nasir, the operative who was first picked up in north Karnataka was aware of the blasts.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), climate tech and fintech sectors will be the hot areas for venture capitalists and founders in the next year, according to the prediction by Prashanth Prakash, founding partner of the global venture capital firm Accel Partners in India and the chairperson of Karnataka Startup Vision Group. Prakash said that about $25 billion has been invested into building Gen AI globally. But a lot of that capital has not yet come to India, opening up huge opportunities for startups in the country.
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
Key states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana would go for polls this year, besides states from the North-East.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
However, it fell nine seats short of a majority.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who had taken a tough stand on the ongoing crisis within the party, softened his stance on Sunday evening and termed the Reddy brothers -- consisting of state tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy and revenue minister G Karunakara Reddy, who are spearheading a faction within the state BJP to oust Yeddyurappa from the CM's chair -- his friends!
Tax devolution shares, which threaten to create a north-south divide among states, may have more to do with per capita income, and not so much with population.
'Shivakumar is an andhbhakt of Congress ideology and principles.'
While 67 per cent of India's population is 39 years old or younger, states are governed by chief ministers who are 70 or older.
Mayawati said it became necessary for her to make the announcement as the Congress and some other parties, as part of a "conspiracy", are allegedly trying to create an impression that they would be forging an alliance with the BSP.
