'Modi is the first BJP leader to try to include Dalits in its fold.' 'But the rank and file of his party is backward and want to bash up Muslims and Dalits whenever they have a chance.'
"Everyone knows the situation in Kerala. Amit Shah should tell what is wrong here...minorities in Karnataka face widespread attacks whereas religious minorities are safe in Kerala," the chief minister said, adding that Kerala is the only place where the 'communal propaganda of Sangh Parivar' is not working.
Terming Saturday as a "black day" for democracy, the senior DMK leader urged all those who wanted to "remove" the "anti- democratic" All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government to join him.
'The next prime minister will be from an Opposition party and not from the BJP.' 'The BJP may be the single largest party, but not with a majority and there will be a fractured verdict.' Anti-Modi and non-BJP parties will be in a majority.'
Polling in Phase II of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections consists of 67 constituencies spread across 11 districts.
'When it comes to national politics, the Modi-Shah BJP has successfully redefined secularism.' 'If a party like the Congress has to have a future, it has to move closer to the secular centre from the far Left where its Left infatuation during the UPA years dragged it,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
'We want to protect our history, we want to protect our people from getting overwhelmed by the influx from Bangladesh, that is why the people of Assam are out in the streets,' says former Assam chief minister and Asom Gana Parishad leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.
In the Interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high power committee would be set up to consider the challenges arising from 'fast population grown and demographic changes.' 'But who wants data? It pays to feed people's fears, insecurities and apprehensions. If such fears don't exist, they must be created,' her husband Parakala Prabhakar says in this fascinating excerpt from his book, The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis.
'It's not really going to bring about purity in the election process.'
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
The Hyderabad-based AIMIM and Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad's outfit Azad Samaj Party (ASP) on Friday announced they will contest on 100 wards in the minority and Dalit-dominated pockets of the city.
Earlier, a Uttar Pradesh court refused to recognise 40 rebel Bahujan Samajwadi Party legislators, plunging the state into a political crisis.
A double-quick analysis of the Lankan election results would show that the relatively narrow victory margin of challenger Maithripala Sirisena was made up by the three minority communities of Tamils, Muslims and Christians, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Is Ansari flagging a genuine concern? Is a rectification called for?' 'And finally: Do minorities matter?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Women came out in large numbers to vote on Wednesday despite terror attacks and repeated threats.
The Congress needs to reorganise itself at the grassroots, infuse younger blood, and have more boots on the ground. Just offering freebies is not the answer anymore. Leadership matters, asserts Ramesh Menon.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Seattle has become the first US city to outlaw caste discrimination after its local council passed a resolution, moved by an Indian-American politician and economist, to add caste to its non-discrimination policy.
Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of being an "opportunist", prominent cleric Maulana Barkati on Tuesday asked Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to be more critical of Modi in order to prove her secular credentials.
As the House resumed its sitting an hour late, the Speaker made it clear, "The debate should start now. Everybody is watching us. Please don't make me a scapegoat. Let us reach our goal," stressing that the process should reach finality on Monday.
The comments made by senior Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela at a meeting of the minority community -- that the party depends on Muslim votes for victory in the ensuing assembly elections and they should come out in large numbers to vote -- has raised eyebrows.
The war of words on sub-quota for minorities further flared up on Sunday with Bharatiya Janata Party accusing Congress of indulging in worst forma of communal propaganda to garner votes in poll bound Uttar Pradesh and other four states.
The Archies is an evergreen thought passed on from generation to generation. But Sukanya Verma wishes it had some of the comic's tee-hee humour and hyuk hyuk too.
A private member resolution seeking that the government implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report and other reports that have discussed the educational and social backwardness of Muslims and enact a legislation for the prevention of atrocities against minorities was moved in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Poll arithmetic and ground reports give an edge to Lalu Prasad's RJD over Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United in the coming Lok Sabha polls. Mayank Mishra reports
'We are very close to become a theocratic State where Hinduism is the official religion of the government.'
'... that they should listen to people of the soil of the North East and find a permanent solution to tribal problems.'
Our political history tells us this has never worked. A united Opposition does work in some specific, limited situations, especially in the states. But never as some brilliant pan-national collection of diverse interests with no ideological or political core, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
A 7-hr debate was held over the contentious bill. Oppn amendments rejected.
With elections elsewhere in India showing that multi-pronged contests usually work to the BJP's favour, the party can gain if it hangs on stubbornly. In the meantime, any additional support helps. That is why the archbishop's comment attracted political traction in Kerala, observes Shyam G Menon.
Lingayats are said to constitute about 17 per cent of Karnataka's population, and the community has dominance in as many as 100 out of total 224 constituencies, majority of these seats being in north Karnataka region.
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the disqualification of Janata Dal-Secular MLA D C Gowrishankar Swamy from the Tumkur Rural constituency in Karnataka and allowed him to contest the upcoming assembly polls in the southern state.
For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
A renewed energy seems to have been infused into the 75-year old Congress leader Siddaramaiah's gait as he walked to address a packed press conference in Mysore on Saturday.
Three of the fence-sitters rule fairly large states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha that together send 63 members to Lok Sabha -- where the Congress or other opposition parties have been pushed to the margins.
The 13-day-old Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra headed by Devendra Fadnavis will seek a vote of confidence on Wednesday which it is expected to win with the help of Nationalist Congress Party despite its continuing stand-off with Shiv Sena.
'In equities, it has diversified portfolios.' 'So the short-term movement of individual stocks does not impact them.'
The Supreme Court had last month ruled that any appeal for votes on the ground of 'religion, race, caste, community or language' amounted to 'corrupt practice' under the electoral law.
Obamacare was signed into law by former President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.
The AIMIM leader said that the party "laid certain conditions related to the development of our MLAs constituencies in Dhulia and Malegaon".
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