-The Hindu Contrary to expectations, the BJP’s appeal among backward classes and the rural poor has petered out The phrase ‘subaltern Hindutva’ was bandied about quite a lot in academic and journalistic circles during the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly election. Many journalists and scholars covering stories from the field had a common account, that a large section of rural poor, backward classes, Dalits and Adivasis had firmly shifted towards the Bharatiya...
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Cash transfers, votes from women and Muslims: 7 reasons why Mamata Banerjee crushed BJP in Bengal -Shoaib Daniyal
-Scroll.in In spite of the media hype, the BJP was no match for the Trinamool Congress juggernaut. The 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal were bitterly fought. The Bharatiya Janata Party marshalled all its resources, pumping in huge sums of money, bringing in national leaders, influencing election arrangements and getting large sections of the national media to portray it as the favourite. In the end, it all came to nought. The BJP fell...
More »Uncritical support for Modi paved the way for India’s COVID-19 crisis -Vidya Krishnan
-CaravanMagazine.in India is a veritable chamber of horrors right now. Every day appears to mark a new record-highest number of daily cases, with the country witnessing 3,52,991 new COVID-19 cases and 2,812 deaths on 25 April. Patients are dying due to a lack of oxygen in hospitals—at least 24 patients died in a hospital in Nashik, in Maharashtra, on 21 April, and another 25 died in Delhi, the national capital, two...
More »Too little: On the Election Commission’s COVID-19 curbs
-The Hindu The ECI woke up late to the ill-effects the long campaign in Bengal had on public health The Election Commission of India’s decision to restrict campaigning for the remaining two phases of the West Bengal Assembly election is an instance of wisdom dawning late. Nevertheless, it will help limit the public health damage to what was already caused by an unreasonably extended election cycle in the State during the pandemic....
More »Amid tall poll promises, distress looms over north Bengal tea gardens -Shiv Sahay Singh
-The Hindu With no ownership of land or houses and denial of minimum wage, lakhs of workers continue to live in a vicious cycle of bondage plucking Over the past few elections, Benam Oraon, a tea garden worker at Nagrakata Tea Estate in West Bengal, attended several election meetings and kept a note of the promises which political parties made. This election, however, he is contesting the polls as a candidate from...
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