If women voters are mobilised in big numbers to the voting booths on November 6 and 11 by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA, then it will be quite difficult for the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan to defeat the incumbent government, points out Sheela Bhatt.
'So my question was, 'What is it that you are proud of? What have you achieved? What is your contribution?' 'He had no answer.'
'Without our support Nitish Kumar wouldn't have become chief minister.' 'After the government was formed we became ministers, but our agenda remained the same: Amit Shah had promised reservation for Nishads.' 'He wouldn't listen, so we went to UP and contested 52 seats in the 2022 elections. He didn't like the idea of rebellion.' 'He saw that this man, coming from Bombay, is very sharp. He's made four MLAs now, tomorrow he'll make 40. A time will come when they will make it 125.' 'They bought our MLAs and ousted us from the government.'
In the slot of rural poor, there are those who struggle to pull themselves out of crumbling hovels, and there are the Jamtara-like bunch who turn to crime. Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound is about the former, whose quest for respect and dignity is thwarted because they are underprivileged, notes Deepa Gahlot.
'They were very vocal on the defence of the Constitution, reservation, SC/ST Act and democratic rights.'
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh is reviving its 'brotherhood committees', a strategy used successfully in the 2007 elections, to bolster its support among Other Backward Castes (OBCs) ahead of the 2027 state assembly elections. These committees, to be formed in all 403 constituencies, aim to connect with 100 people from OBC communities in each village, acting as ambassadors of the party at the booth level. The BSP sees these committees as a counter to the Samajwadi Party's PDA pitch and a means to consolidate its scattered rural vote bank. The party is also highlighting the 'anti-Dalit' and 'anti-OBC' tactics of the Congress, BJP and SP, hoping to capitalize on perceived grievances and reposition itself as a champion of marginalized communities.
Sirisha was tied to a tree and allegedly beaten by moneylender Munikannappa and others after her husband failed to repay a loan of Rs 80,000 taken three years ago.
This divergence is likely to intensify political dynamics both within the party and across the state, particularly as the opposition Mahagathbandhan -- comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, and Left parties -- has been aggressively protesting the SIR and demanding its immediate scrapping.
The Supreme Court on Monday came to the rescue of a Dalit youth, who had lost his seat in IIT Dhanbad after missing the deadline to deposit a fee, by asking the institute to admit him to the BTech course.
A 14-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly tied up and beaten by a man on the outskirts of Hyderabad for plucking a pomegranate from his house, police said on Wednesday.
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
'Both the DMK and ADMK are equally to blame.' 'When the question is violence against Dalits, they don't take measures to protect Dalits.'
The incident took place on Monday afternoon in Chadasana village when the accused persons also hurled casteist abuses at the Dalit groom, Vikas Chavda, while he was riding a horse as part of his wedding procession, a Mansa police station official said on Tuesday.
'Mountain Man' Dasharath Manjhi's son Bhagirath, who recently quit Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United to join the Congress, on Friday disclosed that he wanted a party ticket in the upcoming assembly polls.
Many Dalits claim that an atmosphere of fear continues to prevail in the village after the attack and some Dalit families were reported to have fled from the village.
Kumar's parents failed to deposit Rs 17,500 as the acceptance fee by June 24, the deadline for depositing the requisite fees for blocking the seat.
Disputes over a temple has torn a Tamil Nadu village apart.
The Dalits of Thabola village in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district are facing social and economical boycott for a month now after two grooms from the community decided to defy the diktats of the upper caste villagers. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports.
Former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren is on ventilator support in critical condition. Jharkhand Education Minister Ramdas Soren was airlifted to Delhi after suffering a brain stroke.
A case under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 364 (kidnapping) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has been registered, the official said.
'They have no chance of winning if free and fair polls are conducted.'
A Dalit woman from Lakshmisagar village in Chitradurga district, Karnataka, has filed a case against eight men of Nayak community for assaulting her and parading her naked on the village's streets on January 17.
A group of people allegedly assaulted a Dalit man and chopped off his thumb after his nephew picked up a cricket ball during a match at a school playground in Gujarat's Patan district, police said.
'In a world which is full of categories, hatred and ideologies, there was this basic decency.'
This is important because he is to be seen as a sure winner before criss-crossing the state to campaign for candidates of the party or an alliance, highlights N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Talking about boycotting polls is simply a move to galvanise party leaders, workers, and supporters for the big political fight.'
He lashed out at the state government terming it an "extremely sad and inhuman" crime.
'I don't know how long cinema will survive.'
'What attitude has spawned such gruesomeness in the state of Saint Tukaram, Saint Dnyaneshwar, and great leaders like Chhatrapati Shivaji, Chhatrapati Shahu, Phule and Ambedkar?'
The Nagapattinam unit of the Republican Party of India-Gavai has announced that the people of Chettipulam village will embrace Buddhism on December 6, the death anniversary of Ambedkar. The RPI has said that the Dalits were not able to overcome the continuous attack on their dignity, which has forced them to decide on embracing Buddhism
Action under the stringent National Security Act, which allows for detention without trial for one year, was also initiated against the accused, he added.
A young Dalit woman was allegedly thrown into a hot cauldron of a jaggery-making unit for protesting against molestation in the Budaun district, police said on Sunday.
'These characters have huge spirits and they are fighting something that is much bigger than them.' 'The attempt was to portray how they navigate their lives, to retain that spirit and not let it die.'
According to the victim's complaint to the police, some people belonging to the upper caste assaulted him at the temple, tied him up and singed him with burning sticks throughout the night.
As the election nears, political positions on prohibition are shifting.
The injured victim, who is under treatment in a hospital, claimed that she had to bear this torture despite paying off the borrowed money with interest.
With all the evasions, one assertion made by the Pune (Rural) police stood out: They had found no connection of the Elgar Parishad with the violent incidents of January 1, 2018. Yet, the case against the 'Bhima Koregaon 16', which is based on exactly this alleged connection, continues, and seven of the accused continue to be behind bars under the UAPA, explains Jyoti Punwani.
Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, India's 52nd chief justice and its first Buddhist one, has played a key role in shaping the judicial landscape, penning about 300 verdicts, including landmark rulings on constitutional issues, liberty, and perhaps most important against the executive's 'bulldozer justice'.
As the Bharatiya Janata Party looks set to retain Haryana, the Congress' poll campaign, which was built around various issues including unemployment, farmers' plight and Agnipath scheme, appeared to have failed to click with a majority of the voters.
The arrest of an upper caste woman for allegedly stopping Dalits from entering a temple in a village in Gujarat's Botad district led to the social boycott of residents of the scheduled Caste (SC) community but the issue was resolved after police brokered peace, an official said on Monday.
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