With the BJP continuing to be the constant combatant, centrifugal pressures will rise. Fractured relations between the Centre and the states as between BJP and non-BJP ruled states is a sizeable risk owing ahead, warns Shekhar Gupta.
'The claim that Hindi unifies our country is absurd. That language is not the mother tongue of a majority of Indians. The move to inpose Hindi on them amounts to enslaving them. The Union Minister's statement is a war cry against the mother tongues of non-Hindi speaking people'
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?
As the low-pressure area in the south-eastern Arabian Sea intensified into a severe depression on Friday, heavy rains lashed many parts of Kerala and huge tidal waves started hitting low-lying coastal areas.
The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to issue an ordinance empowering it to deduct salaries of its employees to mobilise funds to fight Covid-19 in the state. The move comes a day after the high court had stayed an order of the Left Front government for salary cut of its employees, observing that it lacked legal backing.
The gold, weighing over 30 kg, was seized from the "diplomatic baggage" that had landed by air cargo at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport recently from the Gulf.
BJP activist Remith was hacked to death in the home town of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday.
Aditi Phadnis predicts frequent stand-offs between the Centre and states in the future.
She was capable of a level of human compassion that is rare today among politicians, recalls Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who knew the Communist legend K R Gowri, who passed into the ages on May 11, from his childhood.
Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary late Saturday night, a BJP leader was hacked to death less than 12 hours later on Sunday morning and later, prohibitory order under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district, additional police force was deployed there and senior officers camped there to monitor the law and order situation.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had moved the resolution at a special session on Thursday which was unanimously passed by the House with the ruling Left Democratic Front, Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front and the BJP supporting it.
As Kerala reeled under a daily increase of nearly 30,000 cases of COVID-19, the deadly Nipah virus has come as another thorn in its side, prompting the state to further heighten the alertness of its health machinery to prevent an outbreak of a different infection.
'If questioning and dethroning hierarchies is your primary motive, why not put an end to the practice of announcing your shining star, your box office draw, in big flaming letters and mentioning everyone else's name in small font at the bottom of the screen?' asks Sreehari Nair.
The Trinamool Congress registered a decisive victory in West Bengal on Sunday, contrary to results of most exit polls which predicted a tight race between the BJP and the TMC with an edge to the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said 83 people were under treatment at various hospitals and the condition of 22 of them was 'serious'.
Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
'...to come back to power because it was not doing well.'
On matters relating to the Diaspora, the Centre needs to call the shots, suggests Ambassador T P S Sreenivasan.
The elated woman later said she was yet to come to terms with the reality that she has finally won her battle and her son, who was forcibly taken away from her by her parents on the third day of his birth last year, is with her now.
The former minister said even days before the Centre issued guidelines and protocols in identifying and containing the disease, the state commenced its preparations to fight the possible outbreak of the disease.
Kerala IT Secretary M Sivasankar was removed as Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday, in the backdrop of the gold smuggling controversy, where the role of a former woman employee of the IT department is being probed.
After coming under fire for his sexually-coloured remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former member of Parliament Joyce George on Tuesday withdrew his comments and expressed regret publicly, even as the national party demanded his arrest while the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist distanced itself from the slur.
'These conversations, please understand, were not a one-off exercise, and nor should anyone pretend that they were recorded by accident. I learn that they run to at least 1,200 hours of conversation -- over fifty full days if played from end to end.'
Remith, who suffered severe injuries on his head and neck in the attack that happened at 10.30 am, died on the way to hospital, police said.
CPI-M alleged that some Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party workers came in a vehicle and hurled a bomb at Pinarayi in Dharmadam assembly segment from where CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan won.
He told flood affected people at Meppadi and Kaithapoil that as their representative, he has spoken to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi "to ask for help for this region from the state and Central governments."
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan jointly flagged off the inaugural Air India Express flight, carrying 186 passengers to Abu Dhabi.
Instead of the special session earlier, the cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, decided to recommend to the Governor to convene the 21st session of the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly on December 31 to discuss the farmers' issue.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Centre should re-examine its decision and the operation and management of the airportbe handed over to the Special Purpose Vehicle in which the state government has stake.
The actor met with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and discussed the political situation in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
The consent is akin to a blanket nod for the agency to probe scheduled offences specified in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DPSE) Act, 1946.
He appealed to Kerala to extend cooperation to store full water in the Mullaiperiyar dam.
With the controversy over 'love and narcotic jihad' remark by Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt refusing to die down, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday engaged in a fresh round of verbal sparring.
'We must encourage ambitious leaders and not stifle them.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance, which fought the April 2 assembly polls with the fancy claim of winning at least 35 seats in Kerala, on Sunday came a cropper as it failed to retain even its lone segment Nemom, even as all its major contestants, including 'Metroman' E Sreedharan and party state chief K Surendran, fell by the wayside.
Drowning, followed by inhalation of water leading to lung failure was the immediate cause of death of the elephant, said the preliminary report prepared on May 28, a day after the elephant, estimated to be 15-year old, died in Velliyar River.
'Evidently, something has gone terribly wrong in the state of the Indian Union.' 'The rulers seem nervous that the pandemic is spinning out of control,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The young IAS officer had returned to the state on March 19 from his honeymoon abroad and had been asked to remain under observation. However, he left for his brother's place in Bengaluru without informing anyone.
The Kerala government has told the Supreme Court that it is "vigorously vaccinating" people against Covid-19 and is expected to inoculate at least 60 per cent of its population within two or three months.
The SC asked the Kerala government to file its response during the day on an application against the three-day relaxation in COVID-19 restrictions in the state in view of the upcoming Bakrid festival.
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