-The Hindu Every election hangs between the two points of mahaul (atmosphere) and samikaran (voter block equations), goes the popular wisdom on polls in Bihar. JEHANABAD: Mrityunjay Kumar worked as a tailor at a small boutique in Noida when a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was announced. He found himself without a job and far from his home in the Mahmudpur village in Jehanabad district of Bihar. Like many...
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Caste-community configurations and alliances: Tracking BJP’s electoral footprints in Bihar -Saqib Khan
-Vikalp.ind.in In the run-up to the 2020 Bihar Assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been trying to portray itself as an equal partner in its alliance with the Janata Dal (United) (JD) (U) and a key player in the state’s electoral politics. From 11.6 per cent vote share in the 1990 Assembly election, BJP gradually consolidated its position in the state in the 1990s and 2000s and became a...
More »Bihar economy: Dragged by legacy issues, a slow, steady progress -Aashish Aryan
-The Indian Express Nitish’s 15 years have seen high growth, especially in welfare indices, spending; industries slower to catch up. New Delhi: As Bihar heads into an election that promises to be a battle of proxies fought between former and present allies, on the state’s economic conditions alone, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems to have a clear edge. The state has improved in the last five years in terms of growth of...
More »‘Understanding today’s democracy capture requires rewriting democratic theory’ -Yogendra Yadav
-Scroll.in An excerpt from the introduction to Yadav’s new book, ‘Making Sense Of Indian Democracy: Theory as Practice’. That was foreshadowed by Congress’ victory in the wake of the Sikh massacre and followed by Modi’s victories in the Gujarat assembly elections, held in the wake of the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002. We should have known about the dark side of Indian democracy. At any rate, we are no longer now looking at...
More »Can raising the approved labour budget from 280.76 crore person-days to 306.6 crore person-days help the unskilled returnee migrants who prefer MGNREGA to Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan?
Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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