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“Kolkata rape-murder” versus the "Badlapur monstrosity". The BJP is targeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the horrendous rape-cum-murder of a trainee doctor in a hospital and the Congress is out to settle scores for the INDI-Alliance after the sexual assault on a pair of schoolgirls aged 3 and 4! Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar, who is Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, went after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis even as a Congress team arrived in Badlapur to put the BJP on the mat.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has made critical observations about the status of human rights in India in its country audit prepared after 28 years. The comments are critical about most of the areas of operations of the government where rights of the people are involved.

The Centre's abrupt reversal on its proposal to permit lateral entry into senior government and public sector positions can be traced back to a complex interplay of political dynamics, strategic manoeuvring and to a large extent pragmatism. The change is widely attributed to the formidable pressure applied by Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, a deeper analysis reveals that the ruling party's apprehension was significantly heightened by Rahul Gandhi's strategic intervention, which raised alarms about the Modi government's agenda to progressively curtail quotas for backward classes.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) dreams of making India a Hindu Rashtra. It has been pursuing it through all its activities, and through hundreds of its affiliate organisations. Governance in India has been secular so far, and the government employees were barred in participating in RSS clan’s activities until July 9, 2024, when PM Narendra Modi led Centre lifted the ban, putting the government service in danger of losing its secular character, because government employees with RSS bias itself undermine secular governance.

The rape and murder of a young medico in R G Kar medical college in Kolkata has shaken not only the medical community but the people across sections of the society are outraged and are coming out on streets to demand stringent action against the culprits. They are unhappy over delay in the progress of investigations. The report that there was effort to destroy the evidence has further irked the people.

Has Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped taking decisions, leaving the door open for allies to declare their intent at will by shouldering the responsibility? Take for instance, the Modi government’s decision on the UPSC's lateral recruitment process. Modi took a decision and ally Union Minister Chiraq Paswan put it to rest, indicating that Modi is now only a figurehead, a rubber stamp, in this NDA government “led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

LONDON: This month’s far-right riots brought chaos to communities across the country, perhaps most notably in parts of the North East. The pattern of locations might initially have seemed random, but it quickly became clear that there was a concerted effort to seize upon some of the country’s most deprived areas to drive a racist agenda.

After lengthy negotiations in Doha, Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as its new Political chief, replacing Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Teheran. Since 2017, Sinwar has served as the group's leader inside the Gaza strip. He now becomes overall leader of its political wing. Sinwar's promotions undermines more pragmatic and senior figures in Hamas with wider exposure to the international political arena and geopolitical landscape of the region, such as former politburo head Khaled Meshaal.

CHICAGO: The task facing the people’s and democratic movements in the 2024 elections is clear, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders: Trump has to be beaten in order to block fascism. After that, it’s time to take on what he called “uber capitalism” and the big money oligarchy controlling the United States.

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s (PM’s) claim of “countless job opportunities” available for youth in his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort, data reveals otherwise. As against the earlier release on regular basis of employment and unemployment surveys by the Statistical Department of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation till 2011-12, the RSS Pariwar union government stopped the employment and unemployment surveys in 2017 and replaced it by the periodic labour force surveys (PLFS).