The first COVID-19 vaccine shots in India were given on Saturday to nearly two lakh frontline healthcare and sanitary workers as Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest inoculation drive against the pandemic that has caused 1,52,093 deaths and upended millions of lives in the country.
Setting the stage for confrontation in Parliament, an all-party meeting called in New Delhi on the eve of the monsoon session on Monday ended in a deadlock over controversies related to the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scam even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to discuss all issues. The government ruled out any resignations.
New Delhi-based Samskrita Bharati has decided to take upon itself the task of cleaning up Indian languages and introducing Sanskrit as the mainstream language. Dinesh Kamath, the organisation's all-Bharat organising secretary, speaks to Vicky Nanjappa about the cause.
Using the Jinnah portrait as an issue, and by demonising AMU and consequently Indian Muslims, the politics of communal polarisation is sought to be played out ahead of the Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll and to sustain it till the next Lok Sabha election, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'Whether or not Chandrashekhar Azad succeeds or fails electorally, he has already made democratic politics more accountable to Dalits.'
'As soon as the BJP feels they are going to lose power, they will publish the caste census data of 2011 and conduct the caste census of 2021.'
'A hundred days later, it is a moot point whether the lockdown has been partially or totally effective, or, as sceptics indicate, plain ineffective.' 'Did it actually deflect infections and the loss of lives, or was it merely a hasty decision rammed down the populace's throats that choked the economy and caused the searing tragedy of dispossessed migrant workers?' ask Radha Roy Biswas and Manoj Mohanka.
Rumours of a live power line having snapped triggered the stampede. The injured have been rushed to a local hospital, a BSP spokesperson said.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Monday said it was in "our best interest" to heed the advice of the Constitution as not doing so would result in a "sharp descent into chaos".
'Narendra Modi could be too old to change his personality. On the other hand, his attachment to the RSS could be mostly sentimental. So one must hope that if he becomes prime minister, he is able to detach himself from the RSS view of the world as completely as Narasimha Rao detached himself from the Congress's First Family.' 'India cannot be governed by the autocratic methods by which he has governed Gujarat. If he becomes prime minister he will have to learn to speak in a more civil language about his political opponents,' historian Ramachandra Guha tells Arthur J Pais/Rediff.com
Between January 1, 2017 and September 18, 2018, one manual scavenger died every five days. He is no caped superhero, but Bezwada Wilson continues to fight the good fight for manual scavengers, says Manavi Kapur.
The hypocrisies of high-caste Hindus have cost their followers very dear. Millions have left their dharma, their great religion which boasts of the loftiest philosophical ideas, says Tarun Vijay.
In a season of political deal-making, it would seem the BJP is not only keener to win new friends but is ahead of rival Congress in the game. Its only competition, if at all, has come from regional satraps and the Left parties, which on Tuesday resolved to fight the elections together against both the Congress and BJP.
'It is very hard to get the police to file a report against someone from an upper caste.' 'Things are so bad that sometimes we have to sit on a dharna with the body of a Dalit victim to get the police to file a complaint.'
He also gave examples witnessed at various places, like changing of the crop pattern in view of scarce water and adoption of sprinklers, drip irrigation, water harvesting and water recharging methods.
'To suggest that activists -- and that too 'five star activists' -- are driving the courts, is to betray an ignorance of the functioning of the legal system of the most gross kind,' says Senior Advocate and former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising.
Modi said the wave in favour of the BJP was stronger this time than in 2014.
Shah said the Opposition's 'irresponsible' conduct caused a loss of over Rs 333 crore of public money and the ruling National Democratic Alliance MPs' decision to forgo their salaries was a 'call of conscience'.
Indians must remember that Pakistanis hate losing to India, at war or in cricket, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Bajirao Mastani has the potential to do for Maratha 'history' what Mughal-e-Azam did for Mughal 'history', says Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
Some of the 19 NIT scholars who spent a week at the Rashtrapati Bhawan as part of an 'in-Residence Programme' share their learnings with Upasna Pandey
Although the Opposition has been making a hue and cry over demonetisation, the BJP's programmes have been attracting crowds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered an impassioned speech to the United States Congress.
It is a fight for survival for the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, which has been its citadel. In an interview party President Sharad Pawar speaks on the NCP's prospects and how the Bharatiya Janata Party is exploiting Narendra Modi's popularity in the state assembly elections.
'If you look at the entire protest on April 2, you will find it was not only about the Atrocities Act dilution, but the accumulated anger of the Dalit community against the BJP over the last four years.'
Article 370 is an anachronistic decree that has outlived its utility, militates against India's sovereignty, and discriminates against both Indians and Kashmiris by mutually excluding each other from syncretic growth. It is redundant, can be debated and constitutionally discarded, says Vivek Gumaste.
'A robust electoral democracy provides the institutional basis for the generation and regeneration of political hope.'
'The moment the BJP loses a state, it announces some policy which never takes off.'
Attired in his trademark half sleeves kurta and sporting a Rajasthani turban, Prime Minister Narendra Modi devoted a bulk of his 90-minute address on the occasion of the 70th Independence Day to presenting in effect a report card of his government's work particularly in boosting economic growth, ease of doing business and welfare schemes for the poor and farmers.
'In the last five years of UP government, the UP police were given a fair environment and the rule of law always remained supreme.' 'In these five years, nobody within BJP dared tell a police officer to act against the rule of law.'
"We will work out the parameters then we will see as to how mentioning will be done," he said.
'The nominations were not meant to last permanently, but depended on the government of the day.' 'There was no question of revoking it during Congress, Janata Dal or even Vajpayee's NDA rule.' 'But Modi is different.'
Defying prohibitory orders, protests were held in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and several other cities. Protesters, mostly students and activists, were detained on a large scale in national capital and other places.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the passage of bills as a "momentous occasion" in parliamentary democracy and said a new dawn awaits the people there as they are now free from the "shackles" of vested interest groups.
Sanjeev Nayyar suggests 16 measures by which we can tackle our unrelenting and untrustworthy neighbour.
"Any fight with the Congress will remain in the state. At the national level, we will fight together, this I am saying from the heart..." she said.
'If they were really serious (about conferring the Bharat Ratna on Savarkar) what were they doing for the last five years?' 'Why do they have to take so long?' 'Gandhi himself never got the Bharat Ratna so it does not really matter.'
Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.
The argument that a Bharatiya Janata Party government has no business marking the 125th birth anniversary of Panditji makes little sense, says Virendra Kapoor
