RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.
Why is China's supreme leader promoting Han Chauvinism so aggressively, asks Claude Arpi.
From Sri Lanka's most popular political family to its most despised -- going by the voices on the streets calling for the Rajapaksas' ouster -- what went wrong for the clan? Veteran Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy offers an insight.
While the polling so far has been peaceful, police had to open fire in the air in Purnia to disperse a crowd trying to disturb voting, even as people boycotted polling at 12 booths in Katihar in protest against barriers not being set up at two railway crossings.
'Does a political or social worker ever retire? Is Nitish Kumar himself contesting the assembly elections'
"They should go wherever they want," Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar said on Thursday when asked of Prashant Kishor and Pavan Verma's repeated questions about the party's stand's on the newly enacted Citizenship Act.
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
The passage of this major legislation comes ahead of the general election due early next year.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has often been mocked by opponents for not having a well-defined ideological plank, seems to have finally found its calling in Bengali sub-nationalism, as a section of top party leaders feel only an 'inclusive message of regionalism, which the Bengalis can identify with, will counter the aggressive nationalism and Hindutva practised by the saffron camp'.
Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence. Gangrape of a girl under 12 years of age will invite punishment of jail term for the rest of life or death.
'As his close associate Som Pal told me, "Mandal was never V P Singh's brainchild. It was a Janata Party commitment he inherited".' 'He would have done it anyway at some point, but the specific timing of his decision was dictated entirely by political exigency -- his government was threatened.' 'It also turned out to be a game changer in Indian politics.'
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the future of the country should be better for all sections, including farmers and Muslims.
The ED case came about after the CBI first carried out a preliminary enquiry followed by filing a regular case on the orders of the Bombay high court that asked it to look into the allegations of bribery made against Deshmukh by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The opposition in Lok Sabha on Monday tore into the controversial Land Acquisition Bill
Confrontation between government and opposition is set to escalate with Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspending 25 Congress members for five days for "persistently, wilfully obstructing" the House".
About 25 years after the incident, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said he "felt sad" for ordering firing on 'karsewaks' in Ayodhya in 1990.
A united Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Thursday pitched for referring the triple talaq bill to a 'joint select committee' of Parliament, claiming its provisions were unconstitutional.
'Indian markets may initially react and follow the pattern of US and other global markets post US elections.'
The Opposition must understand that while 2024 may draw mileage from the growing resentment towards the BJP, the real battle and proof of how well India learnt from its disastrous dalliance with the Right-wing, will be in 2029, observes Shyam G Menon.
At many places, Kumar lost his cool and chided the protestors for "acting on behalf of political rivals".
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
In an interview to Rediff.com's Anita Katyal, Shambhu Srivastava speaks about the need of breaking out of the communal-secular paradigm and focusing on the Congress party's poor performance and its track record in fuelling communalism.
The ground, which served as the battleground for the 51-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician during the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption movement, is getting decked up and workers are busy making arrangements.
"In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. He will never change, just words!" Trump tweeted his first reaction to Biden's acceptance speech on Thursday.
If the Congress recovers some of its earlier influence among the Dalits, the BJP will be in a quandary since the Dalits were among the party's latest acquisitions. To lose them will be a disaster for the saffron camp not only in UP, but all over India, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Varma sought 'ideological clarity' from Nitish over extending alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar despite having expressed apprehensions 'in private' about the BJP-RSS leading the nation into a 'dangerous space'.
Participating in an online session, a panel of Hindu-American women, from different walks of life, expressed their strong views in favour of President Trump.
Insiders say the BJP is now concerned the LJP putting up a good fight against the JD-U would mean benefitting the MGB in those seats. Moreover, Chirag and Tejaswi are known to be friends, and the former is battling for his political survival.
'Communalism was the biggest enemy of a free society and Bhagat Singh imagined a future without it. Did we succeed in bringing alive such a future?'
'The Left is dying, but its economic ideology rules, unchallenged.' 'Modi is its newest standard-bearer.' 'Even in today's bitterly polarised politics, if there is one thing on which not just the BJP and Congress, but all other parties agree, it is that socialist economics is the only way to survive,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Trinamool Congress described it as "Black Monday" and a dark day for the country's constitution, the idea of India, and the Rajya Sabha
Vora was admitted to the Escorts Hospital in Okhla a few days ago with a urinary infection. He also had a lung infection and was put on ventilator support, his family said.
Speaking at a special function organised at the Lohia Park in Lucknow to mark the 45th death anniversary of his party ideologue and highly rated socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, the SP patriarch said, "I am keeping a vigilant eye on the activities of all ministers; and let it be loud and clear that any behaviour unbecoming of the high office they are holding, will not miss my attention."
The bill was taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha after the Speaker rejected Opposition demands to refer the key reform measure to a parliamentary Standing Committee.
'The minority community has been used only for political gains.'
Ballot papers were posted out as voting opened on Monday to decide if veteran leftist Jeremy Corbyn will remain the head of UK's Opposition Labour party, amid deep divisions within the 116-year-old organisation over the leadership challenge triggered by the 'Brexit' vote in June.
Intensifying its attack on Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dared him to withdraw support to the United Progressive Allaince government if he was a true Lohiaite and ridiculed the SP chief for asking party workers to bag maximum Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
In a boost to the United Democratic Front ahead of assembly polls in Kerala next year, the Congress candidate K S Sabarinadhan on Tuesday won the Aruvikkara assembly by-poll by a margin of 10,128 votes defeating his nearest rival M Vijayakumar of the Opposition Left Democratic Front.
Opposition leaders asked all secular forces to field a joint candidate for presidential elections and have common minimum programme to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party, reports Archis Mohan.
The ruling People's Democratic Party on Tuesday welcomed the "historic peace accord" between the Centre and Nagaland's National Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM, saying a similar approach was needed in Kashmir and suggested that the four-point formula propounded by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf could be used as a 'launching pad'.
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