Should President's Rule Be Imposed To Create Telangana?

By M H Ahssan / INN Live

Contrary to the prevailing opinion, in this country, new state formation has never been smooth. Nor were the procedures exactly similar. Each state formation was unique and had followed a different sequence of steps.

The only thing common to all the state formations so far in Independent India has been the rigid applicability of Article 3 in its truest sense, where Parliament is given the supreme authority to carve out states irrespective of the opinion of the involved State Assemblies.

While the NDA followed a convenient procedure in the creation of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in 2000, where the state assemblies initiated the demand for separation, such a procedure is neither legally mandated nor is constitutionally prescribed and deviates from most other prior state formations. 

'Lakhs May Die If High Magnitude Quake Hits Himalayas'

By Sudheer Sharma / Delhi

Over eight lakh people may die if an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale occurs in the seismically-active Himalayan states from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, National Disaster Management Authority's vice chairman M. Shashidhar Reddy has warned.

The entire Himalayan belt is seismically very active and during a short span of 53 years between 1897 and 1950, four major earthquakes, (Shillong -1897, Kangra -1905, Bihar-Nepal -1934 and Assam -1950) exceeding magnitude 8 on the Richter scale occurred in the region causing vast devastation.

Focus: Sidhu Quarantined By BJP After Attack On Akali Dal

By Harmeet Singh / INN Live

Once considered to be among the BJP’s most popular and articulate legislators, Navjot Singh Sidhu, the BJP MP from Amritsar, is increasingly becoming an embarrassment for the party.

The cricketer-turned-politician recently took on the Akali Dal leadership, putting the SAD-BJP alliance in the state at risk while jeopardizing his own position in the party.

Where Are The 'Missing Girls' Of Lakhimpur In Assam?

By M H Ahssan / INN Live

On an average, 40 girls disappear from this district in Assam every month. INN tracks how it has emerged as the new hub of human trafficking.

With its tea gardens and paddy fields, Assam’s Lakhimpur district, located between the Brahmaputra and Subansiri rivers, is a picturesque place. But this pleasant picture hides a chilling reality.

Analysis: Who Will Become PM Of India in 2014?

By Rajinder Puri / Delhi

Despite the damaging allegations against  Narendra Modi and  Amit Shah leveled by the senior imprisoned Gujarat police officer DG Vanzara, the BJP remains unfazed. Party spokespersons are brazenly belittling the charges and consider them to be of no consequence. BJP sympathizers privately opine that the exposure will help  Modi by generating a tremendous sympathy wave for him on account of being persecuted by the Congress. Although there are still seven months to go before the general election expected in May 2014, pre-poll speculation has never been higher. As things are at present there is a strong anti-incumbency mood in the nation. BJP the main opposition party is naturally bracing itself for a great victory.

One Woman Dies Every Hour In India, 8500 Dowry Deaths

By Bismah Fatima / Hyderabad

One woman dies every hour due to dowry related reasons on an average in the country, which has seen a steady rise in such cases between 2007 and 2011, according to official data. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures state that 8,233 dowry deaths were reported in 2012 from various states. The statistics work out to one death per hour. 

The number of deaths under this category of crime against women were 8,618 in 2011 but the overall conviction rate was 35.8 per cent, slightly above the 32 per cent conviction rate recorded in the latest data for 2012. The number of dowry deaths in the country has seen a steady growth during the period between 2007 and 2011. While in 2007, 8,093 such deaths were reported, the numbers rose to 8,172 and 8,383 in 2008 and 2009 respectively. In 2010, 8,391 such deaths were reported, according to the NCRB.

The Telangana Prophecy: Will More States Mean Conflict?

With the government clearing Telangana as India's 29th state, long-standing demands for separate states in other parts of the country have gained fresh momentum. This could be a foretelling of many more states to come, but would that necessarily augur ill for the unity of India? Noted historian Ramachandra Guha shares his thoughts.

Earlier in August, the UPA government decided to give the nod to India's 29th state Telangana, predictably setting in motion a spate of debates across the country.

Special Report: Personal Laws: A Muslim 'Reality Check'

By M H Ahssan / INN Bureau

Fragmentation of religious authority, greater debate and dissent within communities, and increasing literacy and awareness among women have transformed the landscape of personal laws and made the old debate over a uniform civil code largely irrelevant. 

In July 2013, Mumbai’s first Sharia Court was set up. Contrary to the images this might convey, this particular Sharia court is for women, will be run by women and was set up by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Aandolan (BMMA).

Focus: On VHP’s Yatra Eve, Uneasy Calm Engulfs Ayodhya

By Akhilesh Kapoor / Ayodhya

There is an unsettling calm in the lanes and bylanes of Ayodhya. Less than twenty four hours before the chaurasi kos yatra – the religious procession which has pitched the state government against the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) – the holy town is far emptier than expected on a Saturday.

SEBI Searches For Office Premises In Srinagar, Shimla

INN Advertising Desk

Capital markets regulator Sebi has begun search for office premises in Srinagar and Shimla as part of its plans to move closer to the investors and market entities operating from the two northern states.

Sebi plans to take the premises in both the cities on lease for up to nine years and it is looking to make these local offices operational in the current fiscal itself.

The offices are being set up as part of the regulator’s stated objective to enhance its physical proximity to the investors and market intermediaries by establishing a presence closer to their doorsteps in different parts of the country.

Analysis: Why Is ‘Incredible India’ Such A Poor Show?

By M H Ahssan / INN Bureau

INN on why the world holidays elsewhere. India is spectacular. This fact has been impressed upon the world for a decade now by the slick ‘Incredible India’ advertising campaign. It’s all there on video, on billboards, on the sides of buses. The latest commercial features a smiling young woman practising yoga in the desert; boating on the Dal Lake; riding a vintage motorcycle in Ladakh; drinking fresh coconut water in Kerala; using one of our world-class airports; making earnest conversation at the Golden Temple; zorbing, paragliding, snowboarding, rock climbing and mountain biking; getting an oily massage at a luxury spa; drinking lassi in the blue city of Jodhpur; jostling onto a crowded bus in Kullu; swimming with an elephant; gawping at rhinos and tigers; playing chess in Varanasi; disappearing in clouds of coloured powder on Holi. All the while, during this hectic itinerary, she works on that most distinctive of Indian gestures: an ambiguous head-waggle.

Focus: How 'Gehlot' Is Handing Over 'Rajasthan' To BJP?

By M H Ahssan / INN Bureau

The Rajasthan CM is trying his hardest to surmount multiple challenges to win in November. With less than five months to go for elections to the 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly, the contest to rule the desert state for the next five years is boiling down to this: Will Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot beat the trend and be the first incumbent in four elections to retain power in the state? Or will the dapper Vasundhara Raje, who has been in political wilderness for five years, pack enough punch to be the proverbial comeback kid?

'Public Money, Private Agenda - Same Road, Same Ditch'

By M H Ahssan / INN Bureau

Projects that don’t exist, repeat expenditure on ones that do. MPLADS is a free fund for our MPs. Over the years, Indian MPs have become a pampered lot. Although the need for an enforceable code of conduct for MPs was felt six decades ago, Parliament never got down to drafting and enforcing such a code and to lay down an ethical framework for the conduct of parliamentarians. However, there was no such lethargy when it came to expanding the privileges of MPs.

Anxious to keep MPs happy, every government has done its bit to widen their perks and privileges. The launch of MPLADS and the increase in the annual allocation per MP from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore is probably the most obvious example of how MPs are pampered.

Why Amartya Sen Is Right On India’s Education System?

By Vivek Kaul / Delhi

It has become fashionable these days to criticise Noble prize winning economist Amartya Sen. But there is nothing wrong with the points that Sen makes on the Indian education system and its weaknesses, in his new book An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, which he has co-authored with his long time collaborator Jean Drèze.

Several surveys conducted over the years have clearly shown the low level of learning among a wide number of students that prevails across the length and breadth of India. Drèze and Sen cite a few such surveys in their book.

Why The State Of India’s Primary Education Is Shocking?

By Dr. Shelly Ahmed (Guest Writer)

Do you expect a steady migration of students from government to private schools and a rapid fall in quality of education in a country where education is a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right? Then, that is the story of rural India, where 70 percent of the country’s population live. Its present and future generations are in a royal mess: poor families are spending a lot of hard-to-find cash to get half-baked education for their children.

Analysis: 'Escaping The Telangana State Trap'!

By Rajinder Puri / Delhi

Congress General Secretary  Digvijay Singh raised media expectations to fever pitch by asserting that the Congress Core Committee meeting on Friday would take its final decision on granting separate statehood to Telengana. But the meeting ended with a whimper. He lamely announced that the Working Committee will later discuss the issue.

The Congress dilemma is understandable. The party’s supreme leader  Sonia Gandhi in the pursuit of narrow intrigue against  Jagan Mohan Reddy recklessly committed her party to a separate Telangana in order to counter him.

Sketch: Bollywood's Anupam Kher On Success And Failure

By Nazia Siddique / Sharjah

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher tells INN how dealing with failure before his career took off was the key to his success. He's made more than 450 movies, won numerous awards and is one of the most respected and recognised stars in Bollywood and Indian cinema. Anupam Kher, 57, can add chairperson of the Censor Board of India and the National School of Drama to his long and varied CV, but - as he tells during an interview in Dubai, - 29 years ago, he was sleeping rough and on the verge of giving up his dream of acting.

The year was 1983 and Anupam, a relatively unknown 28-year-old graduate, was struggling to get a foothold in the fiercely competitive Bollywood film industry.

'No Politics Of Sycophancy Nor Personality Work In 2014'

By Rajdeep Sardesai (Guest Writer)

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, on Babasaheb Bhosale being made Maharashtra chief minister in 1982 when AR Antulay had to resign in the wake of the cement scandal, which perhaps best illustrates the Congress ‘culture’ of power sharing.

Shocked by the surprise appointment of Barrister Bhosale, a senior Congressman summoned the courage to ask Indira Gandhi why she had chosen a political non-entity with no mass base to the high profile post. “Well, the very fact that he is a political novice with no mass appeal makes him the perfect choice!” was Mrs Gandhi’s sharp response.

A Poverty Of Self-Knowledge: What Uttarakhand Reveals?

By Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Guest Writer)

Disaster exposes ways in which our social self-knowledge has not kept pace. Whatever one's views on the myth that moving the Dhari Devi idol unleashed nature's fury on Kedarnath, the story is a perfect metaphor for the faultlines the tragedy in Uttarakhand exposes. According to one version of the myth, the idol is in two parts, the head located at Dhari Devi and the base at Kalimath. For the devout, the important thing is that the head and the base need to be aligned on a particular axis, with the head and feet matching directionally. 

Commentary: Why Uttarakhand Is Crumbling?

By V. K. Joshi (Guest Writer)

The holy shrine Kedarnath is very much in the news. It witnessed one of the worst natural disasters in the recent years. On the morning of 16th June, 2013, as per the newspaper reports, there was a loud explosion in the Gandhi Sarovar, about four km upstream from Kedarnath. Thereafter a huge mass of rocks and mud and water began engulfing the whole valley. The mudslide was so powerful, that it did not spare anything in its wake.