'The present government's greatest weakness is its intolerance. Tolerance is the key tenet of democracy. How can any government stop someone from speaking one's mind?'
May 13 will be etched in the history of Bengal for two reasons: it brought to an end the 34-year-old Left Front regime in the state and it also marked the demise of the legendary playwright and theatre director Badal Sircar
It is the last place where the dinosaurs who once dreamt of ruling the Earth can still be seen in their natural habitat, says T V R Shenoy.
Addressing her first press conference after the election results were declared, she accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of polarising the people on religious lines to garner votes in West Bengal.
With political equations changing in bastions of Left unionism, stiff challenges await the soldiers of strikes and bandhs.
The map of West Bengal has turned green with intermittent patches of red as the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress swept to power bulldozing the CPIM-led Left Front with a success rate of over 81 per cent.
Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee will hold another round of discussions with the Opposition on Monday in yet another bid to break the logjam in Parliament over the telecom scam. This was decided at a meeting of Congress core group attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party President Sonia Gandhi, as Parliament meets on Monday after a virtual washout for the last two weeks. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram also attended the meet.
The outrageous remarks by Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Pal reflect the reality of "politics of terror and intimidation" in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on Thursday, as it moved Parliament to seek action against him.
Launching a frontal attack on the ruling Left Front government, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the law and order situation in West Bengal was a matter of "grave concern" and called for a change to give a fresh lease of life to the state.
'The Congress's policy is it will take benefits from everybody, but when it gets an opportunity, it does not want to share it with others'
Kerala state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala has called for the resignation of the state Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan from the post following the defeat of the Communist Party of India-Marxist led left front in the local body elections.
Rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra caught up with Abhijit Mukherjee, son of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his campaign trail.
Union Defence Minister and senior leader of the Congress party AK Antony said on Thursday that no force can stop the Congress-led United Democratic Front from coming to power in Kerala and forming a government in the state.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose held both Maoists and Trinamool Congress responsible for the firing incident at Lalgarh which has claimed six lives.
The pole was Hamilton's eighth in nine races this season and the 46th of his career for the championship leader, who won at Silverstone last year and has a 10 point advantage over the German.
Congress had a reason to smile as it was able to emerge as the single largest party in Meghalaya, but failed to secure a majority.
It is a mixed bag for the Congress in the upcoming elections to five state assemblies, says a pre-election survey of the 5 assemblies commissioned by the party.
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress inflicted a crushing blow to the ruling Left front in the civic polls on Wednesday, capturing the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation and bagging 36 other municipalities in the "semi-finals" ahead of next year's assembly elections.
Yechury claimed people want a 'good' government at the Centre and 'not led by leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, who indulge in politics keeping an eye on elections'.
At the moment the process of "cooling down" was on at the Bagree Market and 15 fire tenders have been pressed into service for it.
The latest updates from Malayalam film industry.
In a fashion, his political life may yet be only beginning. Seared by the anguish of the past week's hellish experience, he may henceforth see things and India's political culture in a new, mature perspective. His 'homecoming' may have become complete.
The condition of veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Jyoti Basu has worsened, sources in Kolkata said.
Eminent economist and noted author Ashok Mitra, who served as the finance minister of West Bengal in 1977 and 1982, worked closely with Jyoti Basu. In his autobiography Apila-Chapila, Mitra fondly recalls his bitter-sweet association with Basu, and the latter's penchant for clipped sentences, good food and note-taking.
Admitting that the police and administration had failed to rid Maoist menace in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that the ultras have to be tackled politically as it was done in 1977 when the Left Front came to power.
In a snub to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Mamata Banerjee-led Railways kept the Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran away from the ceremony attended by President Pratibha Patil to mark the start of a new Metro Rail project in Kolkata.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left Front on Monday slammed the Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas issue for recommending that the government pick up the tab on payment of compensation to victims."The GoM report has disappointed the people," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Nilotpal Basu told PTI, "It is unfair that the taxpayer has to pick up the compensation bill."
With successive electoral setbacks in Panchayat, Lok Sabha and municipal polls in the past three years, Left leaders in Bengal have realised that there has been a steady and serious erosion in their traditional vote bank among the urban and rural poor.
West Bengal has received total investment proposals worth around Rs 2.43 lakh crore spread across sectors like education, health, mining, steel, infrastructure and financial services during the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit, which concluded in Kolkata on Thursday.
The Left Front government has roped in UK-based Saffron Brand Consultants, headed by image artist Wally Olins, to rebuild the image of brand Bengal.
Interestingly, KMC for the last five-six years, had been earning money by selling land to developers in prime locations through the bidding process.
Riding the winds of political change, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress on Wednesday won the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, inflicting a crushing blow to the ruling Left Front in the civic elections, dubbed as a semi-final before next year's crucial assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's claim that his government would complete identification of one crore Muslims for reservation in government jobs by June was an attempt to "cheat" them.
Tatas selected West Bengal for Rs 1 lakh small car Nano's plant on May 18, 2016.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to extend its support to the Forward Bloc, which is a constituent of the ruling Left Front in West Bengal, in the local body elections to be held on October 23 and 25.
The Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party have joined hands to call for a nationwide 12-hour strike on Monday to protest the astronomical rise in prices of essential commodities and fuel.
In the small-scale sector, the chief minister claimed to have created 12 lakh jobs.
Land, the core issue of contention, is now being acquired selectively for the sake of setting up new industries and that too in areas where agriculture is weak.
Unfazed by the accusations by a section of the Congress leadership in Bengal of dictating terms in the alliance, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has endorsed Pranab Mukherjee's statement that the tie-up for assembly elections was a political necessity.
India, the largest democracy, lags much behind other countries including its neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan when it comes to participation of the fair sex in politics.
