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With passage of resolution for restoring Article 370 in the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir on November 6, 2024, a tightrope has been stretched through national unity of the country and the legitimate aspirations of the people of the state on which India will have to walk now. The third day of its very fist session, the assembly passed the resolution with majority, and demanded restoration of special status of the erstwhile state of J&K.

Food prices remain a major concern for the Reserve Bank of India as it uses its monetary policy handle to bring inflation continuing to play truant within the desired ambit while supporting economic growth. Policymakers will, therefore, be drawing some comfort from the agriculture ministry’s first advance estimate of principal kharif crops, projecting production of rice, pulses and maize in the current 2024-25 crop season to stay ahead of last year. A favourable monsoon encouraging farmers to bring more land under cultivation helped in boosting production. They find a lot of inspiration from minimum support price (MSP), guaranteeing a minimum 50 per cent margin over cost of production, announced well ahead of sowing for kharif and rabi crops.

KOLKATA: Football and electoral politics make strange bedfellows though a few politicians have been in sports bodies and ran them almost as their fiefdom in West Bengal. But heads turned and eyes were raised in amazement when the men heading Mohan Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting endorsed the candidature of Sanat Dey, Trinamool Congress candidate for Naihati assembly bypoll scheduled on November 13.

Country is swallowed up by impoverishment. Hunger, unemployment, and absence of any possibility of respite from the hurting present have left the entire people in the throes of depression. The middle class is also suffering along with those called the ‘have not’, though they never identify with them. There is hardly any difference between the middle class and the proletariat today. It is the centralization of country’s resources and rule of finance capital, a stage when the capitalist system reaches its zenith.

Wittingly or unwittingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been continuously raising the issue of infiltration during their election campaigns. They talk about “Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration” in their rallies, but little knowing the tribal psyche that has developed during the last three centuries of their struggle against “Dikus” (outsiders) who infiltrated into Jharkhand, grabbed their resources, and interfered with their culture and autonomy. All non-Adivasis are infiltrators for them, and on what Modi-Shah duo are emphasizing, is at best, just another addition. It has alarmed the tribes and they seem to be much more united against the BJP in this election.

A sibling rivalry and a mother’s appeal to be true to a father’s legacy. Then, there's a Chief Minister out to make hay from the family feud. Then, his Deputy Chief Minister applauds another state's Chief Minister and asks his state's Home Minister to adopt this CM's model to drive crime underground; that he would do it if he's "Home Minister". All of this when 'Batenge toh katenge' is top of the mind everywhere.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kerala unit has been shaken to the core by the ‘expose’ by the former office secretary of the party in Thrissur, Tirur Satish. The damning disclosure is that the Rs 6 crore of “black money” stolen from a car at Kodakara in Thrissur district in the run -up to the 2021 Assembly elections was part of a tranche of secret election funds for the BJP in the State.

November 4, 2024, the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the Vidhan Sabha Election in Maharashtra is marked by Election Commission of India’s (EC’s) orders of transfer of Maharashtra DGP and asking the chief secretary to send a panel of names of three IPS officers by 1 PM on November 5 for appointing new DGP. EC has acted after Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) complaint, but the opposition is still worried over the misuse of power by NDA government in the state led by Shiv Sena (Shinde), even though Chief Election Commissioner has warned officials during the review meetings to remain impartial and also be perceived to be non-partisan during the elections.

Once again, with elections to Jharkhand assembly knocking at the door, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has fired his salvo of lies, with the promise to introduce uniform civil code (UCC) for the state while exempting tribal communities from its implementation, once it comes to power. Having mastered the art of speaking untruths in the party interests, Shah used the illegal Bangladeshi immigration as the whipping chip to arouse communal feeling and polarise the Hindu voters before the two phase assembly polls on November 13 and November 20 this year.

After Partition, some Muslims remained in India, choosing not to go to Pakistan. Since then, Indian Muslims never tired of stating “we remained in India out of our own choice”. Today, after 78 I-Days, they say, “Ye Desh Kisi Ka Baap Ka Nahi hai!” It would be foolish to question them. Especially, when there is a Muslim Waqf Board and the board lays claim to over 9 lakh acre of India’s landmass.