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At last a political party other than the Bharatiya Janata Party has caught on that cornering increasingly rabid Hindu votes is half the electoral battle won in Modi's India. For decades, the "secular" and "communal" Hindus were separated by the Muslim vote-bank with the secular Hindus slowly but continuously losing ground because of the consolidation of "Hindu votes" even as the proliferation of secular parties left the "Muslim votes" divided and infructuous. This allowed the BJP to start the process of monopolizing the Hindu vote-bank, which kept gravitating towards achieving a distinct state of consolidated Hindu majority.

Chennai: Delhi’s 24-year old Harkrishan Wadia was the quickest among the home qualifiers as seven Indian drivers made it to the Stage-2 of the FIA Rally Star Asia-Pacific Finals following preliminary runs at the Madras International Circuit here on Monday.

Ahmedabad: The quartert of Ajatasatru Sharma, S Albert Raj, Bhumjit Singh and Gyanjit Arambam paddled in unison to K4 Sprint gold in the Canoeing and Kayaking competition on the river Sabarmati enabling Services to further consolidate their position at top of the medal table in the 36th National Games Academy here on Monday.

Gurugram: Austria’s Christine Wolf is keen to defend her Hero Women’s Indian Open title, which she won at the DLF Golf and Country Club here in 2019 However, the event could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Over the last few months, what the remit of political campaign promises should be has remained constant in public discourse. This increased attention for election promises is partly the result of a public interest litigation (‘PIL’) filed at the Supreme Court in January by politician and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. This PIL contests the practice of promising “irrational freebies” by political parties from public funds during election campaigns and the use of public funds for the distribution of the promised freebies by the elected government.

At the heart of politics is cowardice. Okay, foolhardiness. Take demonetization, for instance. It was a reckless display of authoritarianism, unbridled power, when the BJP-led NDA Government tipped its hat to its Prime Minister and forgot that in a democracy, collective decisions are the norm and the decision to demonetize was patently dictatorial and wrong. Now, we have the Election Commission, “guided by urgency”, as one news outlet put it, taking decisions and not being answerable.

Last month, the alleged murder of a 19-year-old girl receptionist, Ankita Bhandari, in the Vanantara resort in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttarakhand’s Pauri district sparked massive outrage across the country. The girl went missing on September 18 following which a missing complaint was lodged by her parents without any avail. The girl was allegedly pushed from a cliff into the river Ganga by the owner and two of his employees for “refusing to indulge in prostitution with hotel guests.” Only after her body was found, the police were forced to act under massive public protests. Three people, including a BJP leader's son, Pulkit Arya, along with two others were arrested for her alleged murder. Uttarakhand DGP admitted that the girl was forced to commit 'wrongful activities’.

New Delhi: Braving the weather ‘Athletic Drive’ won 3 of their 7 games and drew 4 against team ‘TeeM EDC’ and with a total of 9.5 points topped their group on Day 6 of the ‘Lloyd Delhi Golf Club League here on Monday.

Gandhinagar: National champion Sumit Kundu, former world championship medalist Jamuna Boro and Asian champion Sanjeet stormed into the semifinals of their respective weight divisions at the 36th National Games here on Monday.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) is holding its 24th Party Congress at Vijayawada on October 14 ro 18 this year at a crucial time of the country in terms of both politics and economy. There has been a decisive shift in the political direction of India towards farright in the last four years since the last Party Congress of CPI in 2018. The delegates at the Vijayawada congress will have to discuss in depth the latest political and economic developments in the country and chart out the steps to build broadest possible unity of the secular forces against the ruling BJP.