drskmukherjee

West Bengal's Bhowanipore, along with Assembly seats of Shamshergunj and Jangipur, will go to polls tomorrow, September 30th. I will concentrate on Bhowanipore constituency because the TMC supremo and CM of West Bengal for last two decades, Mamata Banerjee is contesting here after her sensational defeat with a slender margin by Suvendu Adhikari at Nandigram.  Bhowanipore can be seen as mini-India because it is as diverse as an Assembly seat can get. It may lie in the heart of Kolkata but it could pass off as mini-India. Such is the demographic phenomenon of Bhowanipore that a large chunk of its population comprises non-Bengalis: Sikhs, Gujaratis, Marwaris, Marathis, Odiyas and Biharis. Many say this was why Mamata, after registering successive victories from Bhowanipore in 2011 and 2016, chose to contest the 2021 election from Nandigram instead: she feared the non-Bengali votes would all go to the BJP following the aggressive campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minist...

We were getting the feed from political analysts and party insiders about failures of Amarinder’s second stint as chief minister, mainly due to non-performance and his confrontation with the Gandhi family for not toeing the party line. All these reasons led to growing dissidents and turning other party members against him. Siddhu took full advantage of the situation. Rahul and Priyanka took the call on his ouster after 40 party MLAs  wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi a few days ago. Congress MLAs from Punjab were continuously calling on them to change the leadership in Punjab over Amarinder’s alleged non-performance. The Congress Legislative Party (CLP) was unanimous to leave on Sonia Gandhi to ask Capt Amrinder Singh to step down. And it was done. Sunil Kumar Jakhar is the front runner for the CM candidate. Jakhar even tweeted to congratulate Rahul Gandhi for his bold decision.  It must be known that in spite of his great regards for Capt Amrinder Singh, Sunil Jakhar, ...

After Nehru, Congress did the worst to  perpetuate his  family holding over the party to wrest power by killing internal democracy in the party. The very democratic spirit within the party was conspicuously murdered to promote the family owned leadership. The Nehru family went on promoting her longevity to run the party. The same practice is still continuing. The ego of the family is so big that they would not learn from the shameless condition of the party is in now. The sycophancy further distorted the reality when the leaders became answerable to a family than the people of India. That is why today the congress party is looking at failures in every state and national election, saving its face only with a select few who are able to win votes despite the central leadership and not because of it. Today, there is no reason left for an Indian voter to consider the Congress Party apart from nostalgia. They have simply failed to deliver on the expectations of both Bharat and India...

As per India's budget documents for the FY 2021-22, India's direct overseas aid stood at ₹18,154 crore (US$2.5 billion) which also includes concessional loans. India also extended the credit worth $30.66 billion to several countries for their developmental projects. India has set up 'Indian Agency for Partnership in Development', as a part of the Ministry of External Affairs (India) to channelize aid to recipient nations. Out of ₹18,154 crore Rs 7,148 crore was earmarked later revised to Rs 5,369 crore as aid to countries in its neighbourhood as well as in Africa and Latin America.  Bhutan has been allocated a maximum of Rs 3,004 crore while Iran Rs 100 crore for Chabahar port project. Nepal has been alloted Rs 992, Afghanistan pegged at Rs 350 crore and Myanmar at Rs 400 crore. Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will get Rs 200 crore each, while an amount of Rs 250 crore has been set aside for the Maldives . Rs 300 crore has been allocated for African countries , Rs ...

 संकटग्रस्त आर्थिक हालात वाले देश मे विपक्ष और पत्रकारिता पर निगरानी करने की ये पेगासस के हमले की खबर अती भयानक है। यह कहानी चोर दरवाज़े से लोकतंत्र को रौंद कर मिट्टी में मिला देने की है। पेगासस से फोन की जासूसी का सम्बंध केवल जानकारी की चोरी करने की नही है बल्कि किसी निर्दोष को हत्या के इरादे और आतंकवाद के आरोप में फँसा देने का भी है।  वैसे भी एक सही सूचना के बिना एक नागरिक नागरिक नही होता है। दुनिया भर की अखबारों में अपने लोगों की जासूसी कराने बाले देश अगर रवांडा, अज़रबैजान के साथ भारत की वाहवाही छपी है और आप इसे वाहवाही समझते है तो समझ लीजिये।  पेगासस जासूसी कांड के संदर्भ में सबसे बड़ी समझने वाली बात यह है कि इस तरह के software या spyware से खबरें जुटाने वाले sources या सूत्रों से जुड़े लोगों को खतरा तो होता ही है, उससे बड़ा खतरा पत्रकारों के बीच जैसे भय फैलता है उससे जो असर भारतीय लोकतंत्र पर पड़ेगा हमारे लोकतंत्र को और कमज़ोर करेगा। लोकतंत्र में नागरिक की जासूसी! बड़े शर्म की बात है। इससे अविश्वाश गहरा होता है। क्या एक नागरिक को सरकार से सवाल करने पर और एक पत्रकार को एक खबर...

The news of Pegasus' attack to monitor the opposition, media persons and journalists in a country under troubled economic conditions is terrifying.  This is a sad and shocking story about trampling democracy through the back door of thieves to soil the institution.  The espionage of the phone from Pegasus is not only about stealing information, but also about framing innocents on charges of murder and terrorism.  Anyway, in the absence of correct information and in a country where uncomfortable data are not disclosed to citizens, in such a democracy a citizen is not a citizen.  If India's applause has been printed in newspapers around the world with Rwanda, Azerbaijan, countries that spy on their people and you consider it applause, then let you thrive on the illusion and perish.  The biggest thing to understand in the context of the Pegasus spying case is that such software or spyware poses a threat not only to the people and institutions associated with the so...

NDA Government's Claim is Untrue to Blame UPA Era Oil Bonds For Fuel Price Hike Petrol and diesel prices have gone all time high and hit over Rs 100 per litre.  The government is facing clamour from the people to bring the rising price of petrol and diesel down by cutting on high taxes and duties on fuel.  As of now, the petrol and diesel are out of the GST ambit and are wholly under the state and government for the tax levy purpose. If petroleum products are brought under the GST, 28% tax would be collected on them as that is the highest slab in the tax regime. Presently taxes account for 58 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and 52 per cent of the retail selling price of diesel. 42% of the tax collected goes to the state. The states also add value added tax (VAT). Rajasthan levies the highest VAT on petrol in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh. That is why the petrol and diesel prices vary from state to state. Dharmendra Pradhan, the Petroleum Minister befor...