-The Indian Express Ranchi: Over 15 districts spread across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa saw Durga Puja with a difference this festival season. Instead of the goddess slaying Mahishasur, the usual story of the Puja, this year, tribals and people belonging to Scheduled Castes and backward classes in these districts are celebrating the "demon king" as a non-Aryan inhabitant and a just king of the land, with Durga...
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Acquittals in massacre case kindle new fear in Bihar's caste battleground -Deepu Sebastian Edmond
-The Indian Express Arwal (Bihar): Baudh Ram paused while laying out clothes to dry, to spew expletives. Then he said, "Go look at the memorial. That is all that is left now." Anger and frustration provide a not-so subtle cover for fear in Subash Nagar of Laxmanpur Bathe village of Arwal district - site of the December 1, 1997 killing of 58 people by upper-caste men - after the 26 convicted...
More »12 crore first-time voters hold key to 2014 Lok Sabha polls -B Sivakumar
-The Times of India CHENNAI: Close to 12 crore youths will be eligible to vote for the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. To put that in perspective, no single party garnered more than 12 crore votes in the 2009 polls, showing how significant this segment can be if all of them register to vote. In the 2009 polls, the Congress polled 11.9 crore votes, the BJP 7.8 crore, BSP...
More »1 in 30 MPs faces murder charge, for rest of India it's only 1 in 1,061 -Atul Thakur
-The Times of India It's often argued that criminalization of politics merely reflects the increasing criminalization of society. However, an analysis of data on Lok Sabha members facing criminal charges and official figures on crime in India show that the proportion of people facing such charges is way higher among Lok Sabha MPs than in the population as a whole. In fact, for a range of serious charges, the rate among...
More »Thanks to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and Anganwadi system, more and more village girls are going to school -Abheek Barman
-The Economic Times As elections approach and the campaign gets shriller, the UPA and opposition parties are in the market for talking points to pin each other down. The BJP gloats that it created more jobs in its five years than UPA-I managed to create between 2004 and 2009. This is correct: between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 when the BJP was in power, the total number of jobs went up by a little...
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