If the protests have cemented the ties between the peasantry and the traders, the political implications for the BJP might become too serious to be disregarded because its core base was made up of the urban Khatri merchants.
The Congress VP attacked the PM and said that the party would not let the BJP proceed on the land bill.
Women, if addressed properly, have the potential to become a decisive factor in elections.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal announced the decision to snap ties with the NDA on Saturday night, amid stepped up agitation by farmers in Punjab over the three legislations which were recently passed by Parliament amid Opposition protests.
Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit's statements embarrassed the party, and within hours she alleged she had been 'misquoted'
The Congress expressed its 'whole-hearted' support to the 'Bharat bandh' called by farmer unions against the new agri-marketing laws and announced that it will hold protests that day at all district and state headquarters in solidarity with the demands of the farmers. TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said the party rank and file would actively participate in the bandh to ensure it was a success.
Non-Congressism is the answer to India's current difficulties, says Dr Shambhu Shrivastava, who gives a historical perspective of non-Congress experiments in 1967, 1977, 1989 and 1998.
Reduced to a mere shell of its former glorious self, it now mechanically sticks to the form while substance was frittered away a long time ago, says Virendra Kapoor.
Rahul Gandhi, in turn, thanked all the leaders for reposing faith in him and said he would apply his mind on their request of becoming the Congress president, the sources said.
'Had these three farm laws existed it would have become a huge election issue.'
Here's an analysis of the style and strategy of the man who did the magic for Narendra Modi and then Nitish Kumar and whom the Congress has now hired.
The Aam Aadmi Party claimed on Wednesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party has approached four of its legislators in Delhi, asking them to switch sides and join the saffron party or else, face 'false cases, the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate)'.
Chawla, who is the general secretary of Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and is known to speak for 'Khalistan', had shared the purported picture on his Facebook page.
The Kartarpur corridor was an excellent opportunity for the Congress to seize centre-stage in Sikh religious affairs. After all, the Akalis never achieved this in their years in power, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
The Centre on Friday said that no farmer died due to police action during the year-long protests by farmers.
'The Congress has become two distinct parties, one of the durbar, the other of the field and if they keep drifting apart, death is a certainty,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan came down heavily on Congress leaders for "persistently and willfully obstructing the House" and suspended them for 5 days. The members who have been punished include a president's son, ex-chief ministers' sons and an ex-CM's grandson. Rediff.com brings you the complete list.
Gandhi will embark on a 15-kilometre padyatra in Telangana's Adilabad district on Friday, highlighting the issues of farmers.
Speaking with Shekhar Gupta, the Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of The Print, on his Off The Cuff show, the former soldier and two-time chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh expressed 'personal' hurt over the way the Gandhis treated him and asked for his resignation.
Vice Chancellor of Jamia Milia university and a seasoned bureaucrat Najeeb Jung was on Monday appointed as the new Lt Governor of Delhi while former Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul was made Governor of Meghalaya.
Shah said that the people of the country will decide about the principal opposition party to BJP in the 2024 polls and they have not given this label to any party.
The Centre may pass any law undermining the Constitution and on the back of its majority, but once the common man and farmers rise, they will not keep quiet until the new farm acts and the ruling party are destroyed, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar said on Monday.
Moily asserted that Gandhi continues to be the AICC president and he has not stepped down.
Stung by the Bharatiya Janata Party's attack in the Tehelka case, Law Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday hit back at the principal Opposition and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, accusing them of vilifying his name and said magazine's editor Tarun Tejpal was not related to him and he does not hold shares in the entity.
With Scindia quitting the party, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh appeared headed for a collapse.
Former Congress Working Committee member Jagmit Singh Brar created a flutter with his remarks that there was "no harm" if Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi take a two-year break in the wake of Lok Sabha poll debacle.
Replying to the general discussion on Budget in Lok Sabha, she said the former Congress chief was creating fake narratives but does not have patience to listen to replies on allegations levelled against the government.
The panel was informed that the economic impact of the second wave of viral infection was "asynchronous in its onset and wider in its spread particularly in rural hinterland", a source said.
There was near unanimity among the guests at the Sibal dinner that the country is ready for a change, that the ruling party has lost popularity. However in the same breath speaker after speaker lamented that without Opposition unity Modi could as well win a third successive term, reveals Virendra Kapoor.
'What criteria is GoI (government of India) using to judge how long the lockdown is to continue...'
'The protesters took out a march carrying black flags. They burnt Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effigy while raising slogans against the three farm laws'
Hardev Singh, head of Nirankari Mission, was killed in a road accident in Canada on Friday.
Since when have elections become rocket science that you need to hire highly-priced specialists?And even if in the age of social media every party needs to present its best face, is Prashant Kishor the only one with such expertise, especially when his record is mixed with more losses than election wins to his credit? asks Virendra Kapoor.
The government should not go in for an 'aggressive fiscal consolidation' in the upcoming Budget as global risks have not abated, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal said on Wednesday. Goyal further said subsidies are expected to come down as food and energy inflation moderates. WPI inflation in food articles in November was 1.07 per cent against 8.33 per cent in the previous month.
The strategist is expected to visit Punjab for 2-3 days in mid-February for an early assessment.
The BJP president also accused Congress leaders, including a chief minister, of trying to actively create vaccine hesitancy during the once-in-a-century pandemic.
Though the Bills of Punjab and Rajasthan have a lot of similarities, the one approved by the Chhattisgarh Assembly is structurally different. None of the three has tried to address a key demand of the agitating farmers in full, which is to make all payments below the MSP, within and outside mandis, illegal.
She noted that the democracy was at peril under the Modi government and alleged that it was misusing and abusing its mandate in the "most dangerous" fashion, the sources said.
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Bombay high court order directing sale of bankrupt Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) to ensure the repayment of dues of crisis-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank. A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobe and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant took note of the appeal of the Reserve Bank of India against the Bombay high court order.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar accused the Congress of ignoring farmers' interests and keeping them poor to ensure cheap grain prices, and asserted that the Modi government empowered them by implementing the Swaminathan commission report to give them remunerative price through MSP.
