BJP

Caste, communalism and coup

Jawed Naqvi, Delhi,

There were at least two occasions in recent memory when the exultation on Indian TV channels was telling.Gen Musharraf staged a military coup in Pakistan and at about the  same time, in India, then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was heading for the majestic British-built presidential palace for a swearing-in ceremony of his newly elected government.

BJP’s loss, Third Front’s gain

Submitted by Hardnews on March 9, 2009 - 18:06

For the BJP, its breakup with the BJD will erode its bargaining power with other NDA allies

Rakhi Chakrabarty Delhi, Hardnews

The 11-year-old alliance between the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal snapped on Saturday. This could well be the game-changer, as CPM general secretary Prakash Karat put it.

For one, it makes the going for BJP tough and dims hopes for the NDA to come to power at the Centre. But, it has helped resurrect the idea of a Third Front.

Kashmir: 10 Million Dead Phones and No One to Say ‘Hello’

How does a place look like when 10 million mobile phones and their talkative owners are shut down forcibly for a month and more? How does the place look like when concertina wires are used to block the movement of people to their schools, colleges, offices, courts, hospitals and to playgrounds? When the markets are shut endlessly and the economy has been totally destroyed? When 8 million people stay indoors from fear of arbitrary detention and the stares of impersonal, armed paramilitary forces? 

Then, truly speaking, can this place be called normal? 

EDITORIAL: Godse in their Mind

In the final instance, both Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, and terror-accused, Pragya Singh Thakur, represent the essence and inner soul of the RSS-BJP. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who currently call the shots in the government and the party, are quintessential examples of how the hardline operates with not even a pretence of either inner-party democracy, or belief in secular pluralism of the Indian Constitution. The typical bigoted and abusive troll or bhakt, who have no sense of  post-independent India’s history, is thereby the fundamental scaffolding of this party.