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Voter Name Deletions, Denial of Voting Rights Blot on India's Elections

Only a peaceful, Gandhian ‘feet on the ground’ movement can save our 1950 compact. The values embedded in that 1950 compact: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Justice, Secularism, can be defended only by that. Each one of us must decide and work for rescuing the republic and the Idea of India. Keep in mind that everyone who lives in this land owns this country. It’s not owned by any one denomination, religion, caste, creed, region, colour, eating and dressing habits and traditions. It’s owned by everyone.

Jammu & Kashmir's Drug-Addiction Crisis is a Multidimensional Threat: Joint Civic and Institutional Campaign Against it has Generated a Sense of Shared Responsibility

A particularly noteworthy initiative has been the implementation of the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (NMBA), the national de-addiction campaign. In Jammu and Kashmir, this national mission has gained remarkable traction. The recently conducted 100-day intensive campaign under NMBA has created widespread awareness and engagement across all districts. It has mobilized stakeholders from all sections of society, including educational institutions, law enforcement agencies, civil society groups, and community leaders.

Indian Elections: Big Changes and Some Bigger Questions

At the end of the day, this is a political battle that shows the BJP to be an unstoppable steamroller, now controlling power across the North, the West and the East. The Opposition parties, which have been unable to come together with a cogent way to stand up and fight the political fight for the long haul, will have to once again think of the road ahead. It is clear that the BJP of today will stop at nothing in doing the deals it needs to take power

A Thousand Splendid Wounds: Afghanistan through Hosseini’s prophecy

India's engagement with the Taliban is strategic as much as it is humanitarian, a counterweight to Pakistani influence, a gateway to Central Asian connectivity. And the Taliban's continued erasure of women and minorities sits as a profound moral contradiction at the heart of any diplomatic embrace.

More on Public Policy and Governance

BJP and RSS complement each other: Modi factor looms large in their relationship

The context in which Nadda was making this statement needs to be understood in light of the party's electoral strategy. It no way signals differences in thinking or the parting of ways between the parent organization and its political progeny. Modi’s towering image is needed for the furtherance of the agenda of a 'Hindu nation'.

Free bus rides vs fancy bullet trains: What kind of development must India have

India can be forced to shine but whether the people of India will shine remains the question, and that remains the ground on which the Congress is making huge strides in its fight against the BJP in this election.

Manipur continues to bleed as political skullduggery continues

According to a new report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), conflict and violence triggered 69,000 displacements in South Asia during 2023, with Manipur alone accounting for 67,000.

Are Hindus in danger in India due to rising Muslim population?

It is estimated that the Muslim population which is 14.2 per cent as per the 2011 census will stabilize at 18 per cent by 2050 as the trends amongst the Muslim community show. 

India's leadership in economic migration is a mixed blessing

India’s inward remittances keep growing, having more than doubled since 2010, and showing a growth of over 6 per cent per year, ahead of GDP growth. By comparison, China’s inbound remittances have been falling. Pakistan and Bangladesh get about one-fourth of what India gets.

Three verdicts that upheld India's democracy

If democracy does survive in this sub-continent, posterity will certainly hail these recently pronounced three judgments as the primary reason for its preservation.

Future of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project remains in limbo

While Iran’s ties with the West, especially US, may have hit rock bottom, Pakistan despite the public posturing will not be able to go ahead with the project at the cost of annoying the US.

Manipur: Where voters are more concerned about existential threats than electoral preferences

At the heart of the violence lies majority triumphalism combined with a systematic denial of knowledge acquisition, specifically histories, for the minority community in Manipur.

India's election: Is the Congress setting the agenda with a sharp ideological positioning?

Do note that the BJP because of its sloganeering and expectation-setting has to cross its previous mark of 303 to be seen as victorious; the INDIA alliance has to pull the BJP below 272 to claim victory. Barring the possibility, extremely remote at this time, of the Congress and/or the INDIA alliance faring very poorly at these polls, what we have is a party that will shape the direction of policy in India in the days ahead. 

India's election: What the manifestos missed out

Despite learning a bitter lesson from Covid-19, our governments, whether at the state or national level, have failed to recognise the importance of ensuring trouble-free access to public health.

The unheard public voice: What democracy needs is a strong middle layer

The rich build gated communities for themselves, in which they pay for their own private services of security, and 24X7 power and water supply. They lose sight of the needs of people living outside their walls.

Neglecting the demands of Ladakhis can have bearing on India's national security

Mixing politics with national security in sensitive border regions like Manipur and Ladakh can cost us dearly. China is a rogue state with aggressive designs and well well-advanced in hybrid and conventional conflict with an expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons.

India's rising inequality: Government should work toward a workable wealth tax

One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations calls for a reduction in inequality. On that count, India must exert more by making the income tax net wider and ensuring a lower indirect tax burden

Gandhi to Modi: The debasement of India’s political discourse

Contrast this exchange against the utterly crass and debased rhetoric, both during the election season and otherwise, that India’s political and cultural leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, employ.

Unveiling the complexities of Naxalism: Socio-economic disparities, violence, and resistance in contemporary India

The narratives elucidate how historical marginalisation, compounded by contemporary socio-economic inequities, lays fertile ground for the propagation of Naxalite ideology, which promises liberation from caste-based oppression and economic deprivation.