With the Jat agitation showing no signs of let up, the BJP government in Haryana on Saturday said it has "accepted" the demands of the community.
The thing is that unemployment and joblessness are a personally felt shame. It is not easy to mobilise a set of people who identify with others as a group that cannot get work, asserts Aakar Patel.
The statement comes in the aftermath of the Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel's resignation.
Marathas, a politically-influential community constituting around 30 per cent of the state's population, have been demanding reservation in jobs and education.
Chirag and Ketan asked Hardik to stop 'boasting' only about his 'imprisonment' or else they would reveal some of the 'darkest secrets' related to the agitation.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday passed a bill providing internal reservation of 10.5 per cent for Vanniyars, a most backward community in government jobs and in admission to educational institutions.
'The BJP's problem is what rabbit can it pull out of the conjurer's hat?'
Hardik Patel said agitation will be intensified till success is achieved.
A man demanding reservation for the community jumped to his death in a river in Aurangabad district.
The state government is worried that the agitation may pose a serious threat to it, reports Sanjay Jog.
'The Maratha versus OBC friction will increase. A huge chunk of the Shiv Sena's social base consists of OBCs.' Dhaval Kulkarni reports.
The Army made no attempt to ascertain the identity of the civilians returning from work on a pick-up truck before shooting them in Nagaland's Mon district on Saturday, a joint report by the state's Director General of Police T John Longkumer and Commissioner Rovilatuo Mor has said.
Twenty years after the burning of a train in Godhra killed 59 'karsevaks' and triggered one of India's worst post-Partition riots, the poll-scape reflects the yawning gulf between the two communities.
After the Gujarat and Himachal elections and the municipal polls in Mumbai and Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh will elect new assemblies next year leading up to the Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024, points out Virendra Kapoor.
The government will stand guarantor for loans to be disbursed to youth from the community.
A financial loss of Rs 8 to Rs 10 crore has been estimated due to the violence.
Jat leaders have blamed Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for not fulfilling their quota demands for which they launched a massive stir last year.
On Monday, around 5,000 nurses of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi went on a strike over their long pending demands, including those with regard to the Sixth Central Pay Commission.
'If Mr Rahul Gandhi is coming to Rajasthan he should also know how his own chief minister is throttling the voices of the people belonging to the most backward classes.'
All the essential services, schools and colleges have been excluded from the bandh.
BJP leaders also say it will be a very difficult task before the new chief minister pleasing the 56 party MLAs, reports Shishir Prashant.
Voting for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 54 seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, will be held on Monday to decide the phase of 613 candidates.
Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com offers his unique perspective on the Patel agitation and the reservation issue.
The Congress's motion of no confidence against the Bharatiya Janata Party- Jannayak Janata Party government in Haryana was defeated on Wednesday with 55 members of the assembly voting against the motion while 32 members from the opposition camp backed it.
In an open message to Shah, which he shared on the social media, Patel said the agitation will not stop just because the BJP chief wanted it to.
In renaming TRS and repositioning it as a 'national' party, KCR is also eyeing a pole position in opposition politics ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The shutdown has been complete in not only major cities like Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung, but even smaller towns such as Tuli, Jalukie, Pfutsero, CNCCI president Khekugha Muru told PTI.
The court observed that 10 per cent reservation for poor among the unreserved category takes the total quota beyond 50 per cent, which is not permitted as per the SC's earlier decision.
Haryana was again on the edge on Thursday with the 72-hour deadline set by Jats for resuming their agitation over quota from on set to come to an end on Thursday night.
The new system will consider the university or college as one unit, instead of treating department or subject as one unit.
Despite various political leaders, including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealing protesting Jats to maintain calm and peace, the incidents of violence and arson continued during the night in various parts of the state, crippling the normal life in worst affected places like Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Hisar.
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
With the ongoing Jat agitation in Haryana entering its tenth day, several blockades have been lifted up and efforts are underway to remove the remaining blockades on roads.
Lok Sabha elections result of 2019 tells us the Modi wave has only consolidated, instead of waning.
Hardik Patel, 22, who was briefly detained over his hunger strike to demand Other Backward Class reservation for the Patel community, called for a state-wide bandh on Wednesday to intensify the agitation.
Hardik Patel, was one of the accused in the FIR which was filed in Mehsana district on July 23, 2015, when a rally of the Patel community seeking reservation turned violent in Visnagar, resulting in damage to property and assault on some media persons.
True, Azam Khan is being targeted rather disproportionately and also because of his Muslim identity. That must be protested and resisted. But to say that he is a big messiah, and his profit-making educational enterprise is an issue concerning all Muslims of India, is absolutely unjustified, assert Mohammad Sajjad and Md Mohammad Zeeshan Ahmad.
Patel quota leader Hardik Patel on Tuesday returned to Gujarat after spending six months away from his home state and launched a second round of agitation by appealing to Patels to unitedly fight against prevailing "autocracy" in the state, an oblique reference to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Prominent international celebrities and activists on Wednesday joined American pop star Rihanna to extend support to the farmers' protests here and garner international attention on the protracted stir but their remarks were slammed by India as 'neither accurate nor responsible'.
The girl mentioned in the note that she had secured 89 per cent marks in her Class 10 exams held earlier this year, but could not get admission under a category where her family could have paid less fees, Sanas said.
