Shailaja Teacher, arguably the most famous Covid warrior in India, versus former student leader Shafi Parambil who defeated 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan in the last assembly election. Shyam G Menon reports from the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, which some feel is the most politically important contest in Kerala this election.
'I will try to make sure everything runs smoothly from now on.' Is Gajendra Chauhan having the last laugh?
Dogs are adding an additional bite to the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as the demonstrators blocking the central part of the city for about a week brought their pets into the agitation fondly calling them "democracy dogs".
Officials said the government has made necessary arrangements for opening of 190 primary schools in Srinagar city as security forces remained deployed in most of the Valley.
The draft guidelines have drawn flak from several quarters.
In a statement, the ICC on Tuesday said it has taken serious cognizance of the case reported to its office.
Police said security has been tightened at Tappal as a precautionary measure.
"Hum kya chahe - Azadi. Kashmir ki Azadi. Manipur ki Azadi. Nagaland ki Azadi (We demand freedom. Kashmir's freedom. Manipur's freedom. Nagaland's freedom)," one of the posters said.
The single judge of the Karnataka high court hearing the case related to the 'hijab' ban in school-college campuses referred the matter to Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi on Wednesday with a view that the CJ may decide on constituting a larger bench to look into the case.
As the year 2023 comes to an end, a look at some newsy events that shaped the world in the first half of the year.
Despite their opposition based on ideology, both the political Right and the political Left possess similar behaviour, observes Shyam G Menon.
"The current environment on the campus is extremely vitiated and is perceived by the Dalit community as intimidating and hostile," he said.
Amidst police security and confusion, classes resumed on Monday at the private school in Bangalore where a three-and-a-half-year-old girl student was sexually abused last week.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar condemned the violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and said that it was a "disturbing and fascist strike" by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Vouching for academic credentials of the students named in the probe report of the controversial Afzal Guru event on February 9, a group of Jawaharlal Nehru University faculty members has noted that the sequence of events "does not constitute a major act of indiscipline".
Against the backdrop of Kerala's appetite for commonsense, it was assumed that this controversy would pass. Respect for rationalism and scientific outlook is strong in the state despite political forces gnawing at it for their own goals, observes Shyam G Menon.
Seeking steps to stop discrimination against people from northeast, Members of Parliament from the region on Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who asked the legislators to place their views before the committee constituted to address their grievances.
"I stand by my comments. Anybody who tweets on social media platform should be careful. But anyone with a contrary view should be allowed to speak. Gurmehar is a young girl and she should be allowed to speak her mind," he said.
Most of the Kuki MLAs irrespective of their party affiliations are unlikely to attend the Manipur assembly session slated to be called from August 21 in view of the continued ethnic violence, according to leaders from the community.
A day after a scuffle between agitating wrestlers and police personnel, the police Thursday beefed up security and surveillance at Jantar Mantar and at Delhi borders, deploying additional manpower, bolstering CCTV coverage and raising barricades to prevent the entry of farmers who were coming to support the grapplers.
Hundreds of people staged a demonstration outside the Ryan International School demanding a CBI probe and set afire a liquor shop near the school.
A state-run university in Tamil Nadu has removed noted writer Arundhati Roy's Walking with the Comrades, book from the syllabus of MA English course following complaints, including from Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh affiliate Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad that it glorified the ultras and was anti-national in content.
'The group commands 85 per cent of the global GDP, and if you are able to convey your point of view effectively to this group then you have reached more or less all the important players that matter.'
"The very fact that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru believed that democracy has made revolution superfluous after independence and how it meant the complete opposite of a bloodless change," it said.
Concerned over continued disappearance of a Jawaharlal Nehru University student for nearly two months, Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the police to "scan" the entire campus, including hostels, classrooms and rooftops, of the varsity by using sniffer dogs.
He said one has to respect rights of all our citizens, regardless of ethnicity, language or creed.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the National Democratic Alliance government of "suppressing" students' voice as he visited the JNU campus to express solidarity with them, a day after the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
They just wanted their angst noticed, and as a symbol of recognition, Jallikattu, restored without the annual ritual of court cases and adjournments, explains N Sathya Moorthy.
The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party allegedly shared the personal details of the girls from Udupi including their residential addresses who had approached the Karnataka high court against the ban on wearing of hijabs in classrooms.
Restrictions under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) continued to be imposed in the clash site and surrounding areas, they said.
The spark for the raging violence was lit by demonstrations by tribal groups against a move to grant the majority Meiteis the Scheduled Tribe status, which the residents of the hills had been enjoying for decades since Independence.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday reviewed the situation in Manipur with Chief Minister N Biren Singh and top officials, even as the Centre dispatched additional security forces and anti-riot vehicles to maintain peace there, sources said.
27-year-old Poojan Sahil who created the song can't be happier at its acceptance and success. The video of the song has almost 2.7 lakh views on YouTube in less than a week and is being widely shared across social media platforms.
In its interim order issued by the three-judge full bench led by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, the court also made it clear that the order was confined to such of the institutions wherein the College Development Committees have prescribed the student dress code or uniform.
It said there is anger among Mizo youths, who are deeply anguished over the "barbaric and atrocious act of Meiteis" against Zo or Kuki ethnic people in Manipur.
'As far as I know Burhan Wani did not kill anyone.'
The Swedish teen climate change campaigner said it is 'deeply unfair' that students are asked to appear in the tests during the pandemic.
A student cannot wear hijab to a secular school as a matter of right, Supreme Court judge Justice Hemant Gupta said on Thursday, insisting that they are required to follow the discipline of the school in the matter of uniform.
'They (students) were born in a borderless world, a world of the internet and a deep-seated belief that they could live and work anywhere they wished.'
'He should not come to Kerala and fight against the CPI which is an integral part of the INDIA alliance'
