View Articles

The BJP’s friends such as the RSS have been advising it against trying to form a government in Delhi with the help of defectors from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, but the saffron outfit’s initial reluctance to go for fresh polls is worth analyzing.

KOLKATA: West Bengal has earned many dubious distinctions during the 38-months long Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule.

BRICS have laid the foundation for a New Development Bank at its sixth Summit at Fortaleza. But let’s not forget that it needs much to be done by India in the long run to derive benefits from the proposals and position itself as a leader of hope for the developing and emerging economies.

The recent Indian election saw popular discourse that none of the other 15 preceding Lok Sabha elections had seen. While all elections have been fought tooth and nail, the contemporariness of this election was evident with the sophisticated use of social media, which played a big part in the election lead-up; so much so that the nomenclature of India’s first ‘twitter’ election was nonchalantly used. This coupled with the increasingly raucous mainstream news channels that synchronized well with the chatter on social media outlets. Amongst all the noise, the only sound that was audible and that set the stage for the election, was lucidly put, which side of the ‘Modi aisle’ you were on?

Years back Sarkaria Commission on centre-state relations had recommended that governors should be eminent persons outside the political realm rather than active political workers. But reverse had happened; some Governors in the past played a partisan role during moments of political instability, some have used Raj Bhavans for political ends. The situation went on deteriorating with change of governments at the centre and reached this pitiable stage. Congress could have upheld the dignity of gubernatorial office but it acted in grossly partisan manner; the situation deteriorated from Indira Gandhi’s time and became from bad to worse. The Governors became tools in the hands of ruling party at the Centre.

The end of eventful innings of two great women who had lifelong penchant for a just society in early July this year marks the severance of link between the present generation of women’s struggle for social emancipation and elimination of gender discrimination. One was, Zohra Sehgal (born as Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan), who stopped breathing at the age of 102. She was arguably the greatest performing artist of the 20th Century- a dancer of international repute from the mid-1930s when she earned appreciation of discriminating dance critics in Europe while participating under the famous Uday Shankar’s roving troupe (Uday Shankar Ballet Company), an all time -great stage artist and one of the greatest woman actor s on the celluloid. She made a mark as a choreographer too. The other was Vidya Munshi, the first woman journalist of Calcutta in the late 1940s who left the media and plunged into the women’s struggle under the concerned mass front of undivided Communist Party of India. She was 95 when she breathed her last and but she was alert and agile till the end.

NEW DELHI: The Union Budget is yet short of a roadmap for skills education in this fiscal. Mr Jaitley’s maiden budget seems to be a beginning. It reads as a silent indicator to a better tomorrow with the initial allocation for the Rural-Urban connectivity, the Rs. 500-crore Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Scheme (SPMRS).

By taking a decision to retain the Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, the Congress leadership has confirmed once again that it is a status quo party. Only a few days ago the Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda got a reprieve when it was announced that he too was not going to be changed. Both the states are going for polls in the next few months. It is nobody’s case that changing the chief minister just a few months before the elections is the answer to the problem but the party has also to take note of the rebellion within and outside. The only relief is that the uncertainty has ended. The Congress rebels and the NCP who had serious reservations about Chavan are now expected to work with him. Will they?

New Delhi: A report prepared by a group of top police officials of the country has revealed that Muslims see police as “communal, biased and insensitive... ill-informed and corrupt”. The report admits 'a trust deficit among Muslims' and has urged the Centre to take appropriate measures to restore their confidence on police force.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP’s efforts to forge a third front in Kerala, dominated by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front(LDF), seem to have gained traction, post Lok Sabha elections.