The Kolkata police on Saturday issued a lookout notice for suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma after she failed to appear before its sleuths for the fourth time in a row over her controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammed that triggered widespread violence in parts of West Bengal, a senior officer said Saturday.
While the saffron camp questioned the administrative capabilities of the Mamata Banerjee-led state government, the Trinamool Congress claimed that BJP leaders "behaved like good boys" this time.
India needs to address Bangladesh's longstanding concerns to improve bilateral ties between Dhaka and New Delhi, Hossain said adding: Bangladesh's previous (ousted) government addressed the concerns of India, but India did not address Bangladesh's concerns.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has set an ambitious goal of winning over 215 seats in the 2026 state assembly elections, aiming to secure a fourth consecutive term for the Trinamool Congress (TMC). She declared that the party will work to significantly reduce the BJP's tally and ensure that their candidates struggle to retain their deposits. The TMC's national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, echoed this sentiment, urging party workers to ensure a decisive victory and achieve a two-thirds majority in the upcoming polls. The BJP, however, dismissed the TMC's claims, stating that Banerjee is merely trying to boost morale among party workers.
Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee has said the current situation in Bangladesh is unlikely to trigger a fresh round of exodus of minority Hindus into India. He believes that migration is primarily driven by social networks and economic opportunities rather than persecution. Banerjee, known for his work in poverty alleviation, further emphasized that India's overt preference for Hindu migrants from Bangladesh in the past has been a significant factor in their migration, rather than attacks on the community.
'My one recommendation would be to first quell the violence and then encourage dialogue and build the trust among the different communities.' 'This is not easy but necessary, for violence cannot be the way forward.'
In a joint statement, they noted that while the incident highlights the prevailing "apathy, misgovernance and lack of accountability" in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, the state government's "apparent inclination" to shield perpetrators rather than protect victims is a "grave miscarriage of justice".
Days after the prime accused in the arson and violence in Bengal's Bogtui village was found hanging in a temporary office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the probe agency on Wednesday shifted the makeshift set up in Rampurhat to the metropolis, a senior official said.
The MHA said that the law and order situation of all states should be monitored in view of the protests.
Night patrolling on hospital premises and regulating access for people to key areas are among the measures the Centre has asked states to implement to ensure the safety of medics at workplaces, following Supreme Court orders in the rape-murder case of a junior doctor in Kolkata.
Healthcare services remained affected at state-run hospitals in West Bengal as junior doctors continued their cease-work protest.
According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear on Tuesday.
Banerjee, referring to violence-hit Bangladesh, said she would keep the doors of West Bengal open for people in distress from the neighbouring country and offer them shelter.
Non-emergency services, such as OPD and diagnostics, and elective surgeries at city-based health facilities, including at Centre-run AIIMS, Safdarjung hospital and RML hospital, are hit since Monday.
Subhas Chandra Bose was under house arrest, yet he pulled out a daring escape from his Elgin Road residence in Calcutta to Germany via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia...
Hugely creative with a very evolved aesthetic sense, he made the Illustrated Weekly of India every young reporter's dream. Payal Singh Mohanka remembers Pritish Nandy who passed into the ages on January 8, 2025.
In a communication sent to all heads of central government hospitals, the ministry asked them to ensure adequate number of well secured duty rooms with basic amenities for female health professionals and deployment of women health professionals at night be preferably done in more than one in number.
Delhi Daredevils fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who is charged with domestic violence and infidelity by his wife Hasin Jahan, has been summoned by the Kolkata Police on Wednesday, forcing him to stay back in Kolkata while his team left for Bengaluru for their next IPL match.
Ending the logjam persisting for 42 days in the wake of the rape and murder of a young doctor at RG Kar hospital, the agitating medics withdrew the 'cease work' after holding a march to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office in Salt Lake in Kolkata from the state health department's headquarters, where they had been demonstrating for over a week.
Daily life was partially affected in West Bengal on Wednesday due to a 12-hour shutdown called by the Bharatiya Janata Party, protesting the police action against demonstrators during a march to the state secretariat.
This comes amid the row over the arrest of former priest of ISKCON Bangladesh, Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, over sedition charges, which led to protests and unrest in Bangladesh.
Kolkata hangs its head in shame as the hope of a government with a moral compass and a heart in the right place recedes into the distance, notes Payal Singh Mohanka.
'Healthcare is not an industry.' 'The government is only encouraging insurance as they are not able to provide healthcare to people.' 'Opening new medical colleges is not what is needed.' 'You have to invest in public sector hospitals.' 'You cannot hand over healthcare to the private industry.'
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Saturday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'benign intervention' to bring a central law to check violence against healthcare personnel and declare hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements.
'Violence is the human abuse of power and rape is one of its worst manifestations.' 'Especially, the R G Kar kind, which allegedly involves not just brutal rape and murder but also destruction of evidence, complicity of authorities, suppression of protests, people willing to defend the indefensible and a shameful persistence of all involved to hold on to their seats of power,' asserts Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
The officers have been deployed for north, west and south zones of the state as well as for the Kolkata Police areas.
The cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,566 healthcare workers from diverse medical institutions across India using a pre-tested, self-administered online questionnaire, which assessed various dimensions of workplace safety.
The respondents were from over 22 states with 85 percent of them being under 35 years while 61 percent were interns or postgraduate trainees.
The 17-year-old girl, whose body was found in a canal in Kaliaganj police station area on Friday, knew the man, Superintendent of Police (SP) Md Sana Akhtar said, identifying him as the prime accused.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which Sheikh Hasina has crushed during her multiple terms as prime minister, has stirred into action after its leader Begum Khaleda Zia was released from prison.
In a letter, the EC said the state government must ensure that adequate steps are taken so that no post-poll violence happens.
The government on Saturday said a committee will be formed to propose safety measures for healthcare professionals even as OPD services were hit across the country as doctors joined the 24-hour nationwide strike called by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to protest the alleged rape and murder of a trainee medic in Kolkata.
A violent stir took place in Kaliaganj after the body of a girl was found in a canal, following which the local police station was razed by angry locals and a man was shot dead allegedly in police firing.
A four-member team of the Union home ministry, tasked with looking into reasons for the post-poll violence in West Bengal, met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the Raj Bhavan.
Police said there were intelligence inputs that attempts would be made to trigger violence during the match, because of which it was cancelled.
Aseem Chhabra picks his top 10 Indian films of 2024, which includes films that have had theatrical releases or are streaming on OTT.
Senior Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy on Friday stirred the hornet's nest by saying that the party will not accept the use of violence and muscle power by its candidates during the upcoming civic polls in West Bengal.
BJP president J P Nadda drew a parallel between the post-poll result violence in West Bengal with the bloodshed during India's Partition, while his colleagues compared the Trinamool Congress with Nazis, as the saffron party's leaders protested in different cities on Tuesday against attacks targeting its workers in the state.
Mamata Banerjee's party won 132 seats and was all set to pocket two more to post a hat-trick of wins, decimating a frail challenge from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left Front and the Congress, officials said.
Sporadic post-poll violence continued on Tuesday in West Bengal claiming several lives as chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked officials to act decisively and Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to express anguish over the law-and-order situation.
