-The Indian Express BJP is attempting to use citizenship issue to woo Namasudra community in Bengal. It is generally believed that unlike other states of India, caste and religion don’t play a significant role in West Bengal’s electoral politics. Academic literature often articulates this as West Bengal’s “exceptionalism”. As a result of the electoral decline of the Left Front and some limited attempts by the Trinamool Congress at community-based mobilisation, the...
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In UP leather belt that votes today, closed tanneries cast shadow -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express 4 lakh jobs, Rs 4,000-cr per month at stake; Kanpur, Unnao count losses. Kanpur, Unnao: Rizwan Nadri is a self-proclaimed Narendra Modi bhakt. “I credit his government at the Centre for approving a 20 million-litres-per-day (MLD) common effluent treatment plant (CETP), which will give us a new lease of life,” states this 34-year-old owner of Nadri Tanning Industries. His three tanneries are among the 241 in Kanpur’s Jajmau leather...
More »From Plate to Plough: Cow and cane -Ashok Gulati
-The Indian Express Farm distress, particularly the stray cattle menace and the crisis in livestock sector, and mounting sugarcane arrears could dampen the BJP’s performance in UP. If one wants to know the quality of our evolving democracy, one must watch the ongoing election campaign in India. It is great fun too. And nothing is more interesting than tracking it in Uttar Pradesh (UP), where the real political battle is being...
More »MNREGA job spike to take some load off Congress in Rajasthan -Shalini Nair
-The Indian Express At Rs 199 a day, the Central government-notified MGNREGA wage rate for Rajasthan is Rs 26 less than the state’s minimum wage. Banswara, Bhilwara, Jaipur, Udaipur (Rajasthan): For four years, Pista Sargara (55), a long-standing job card holder under the MGNREGA, approached her panchayat office in Bhilwara Lok Sabha constituency desperate for any work under the scheme. She was turned away each time. The turnaround came in January...
More »No work, but Rajasthan labour chowkis say Modi better for nation -Shalini Nair
-The Indian Express In the two-cornered contest in Rajasthan, voters, irrespective of whether their allegiance rests with the BJP or Congress, are critical of the decline in jobs. Ajmer, Jaipur, Rajsamand, Udaipur (Rajasthan): For about half an hour, starting 8 am, buses halt at Udaipur’s Syphon labour chowki to offload passengers huddled on their roofs. Hundreds of daily wage workers commute to the 10-odd labour chowkis in Udaipur city, from villages...
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