Author: Priya Saha

With a population almost as big as that of Brazil, keeping power in the bellwether state would give the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a boost in its bid for a third successive victory at nationwide parliamentary polls due by 2024.Defeat in Uttar Pradesh, or in any of the other three states it holds that also stage elections this month, would add to pressure on the Hindu nationalist party amid criticism of high unemployment and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.”If the BJP loses, especially in UP, that will be a big setback,” said Rahul Verma, a fellow at New Delhi-based…

Activist talk show host Samantha Bee recently had two women on her TBS show ‘Full Frontal’ who argued that “a small minority of religious people are basing laws that will affect my body on the idea that at conception the fetus has a soul.” The women were responding to the Mississippi law that would make it almost illegal to have an abortion after 15 weeks, unless a medical exemption arises. The women argue that a small majority of religious people are basing this law on the idea that “at conception the fetus has a soul.” They argue that since the…

The tour between Bangladesh and South Africa will consist of a three-match One-Day International series and two-match Test series across four venues from 18 March to 12 April 2022. READ | WHEN ARE THE PROTEAS NEXT IN ACTION? SET YOUR ALARM CLOCKS! SuperSport Park will host two of the ODI matches, with the third taken by the Wanderers, while the coastal cities of Durban and Gqeberha will take on the Test fixtures. The tour is of great significance for the hosts, as both series count for vital points in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League and the ICC World Test…

The row has drawn in Malala Yousafzai, the campaigner for girls’ education and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who survived being shot aged 15 by a Taliban gunman in her native Pakistan in 2012, who asked Indian leaders in a tweet to “stop the marginalisation of Muslim women”.Local media reported last week that several schools in Karnataka had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and students.Hindu students mounted counter-protests, flocking to schools in recent days in support of the ban, forcing the Karnataka state government to shut schools and colleges…

Ethnic minority people in plain land have been facing eviction from their homelands in the name of development projects and conservation of dams, eco-parks, protected areas and reserved forests, speakers said at a seminar on Wednesday. The seminar held in an auditorium of Mohammadpur in the capital organised by Indigenous Peoples Development Services. European Union’s head of delegation in Bangladesh Charles Whiteley, former chairman of National Human Rights Commission professor Mizanur Rahman and archbishop Bejoy ND Cruze were among the speakers at the seminar. Shohel Hajong presented a keynote as president of IPDS and Sanjeeb Drong, among others, spoke at…

India’s southern Karnataka state has ordered schools and colleges to shut for three days, after protests erupted in response to some schools refusing entry to students wearing the hijab.The controversy comes as opposition parties and critics accuse the government at federal and state levels of discriminating against religious minorities and running the risk of stoking violence.The Karnataka High Court is considering a challenge to the ban.What sparked the protests in the first place?A government-run all-girls high school in the coastal city of Udupi last month barred Muslim students from entering classrooms while wearing hijabs, a headscarf used by Muslim women. The students began camping outside school…

China and South Korea have become embroiled in a cultural appropriation row after a woman appeared at the opening ceremony of the Beijing winter Olympics wearing traditional Korean dress.The Chinese embassy in Seoul defended the decision to include a participant wearing hanbok, describing her as a representative of the country’s dozens of ethnic groups.Her appearance sparked anger among many South Koreans, who denounced it as another attempt by China to claim parts of Korean culture – including its national dish, kimchi – as its own.The embassy described the woman as a member of the joseonjok – an ethnic minority with…

The group of potential successors to Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi, who blew himself up during a US operation to capture him in Syria last week, includes one commander whom Washington and Baghdad declared killed last year, the Iraqi officials said.The death of Quraishi, 45, was another crushing blow to IS two years after the violent Sunni Muslim group lost longtime leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar raid in 2019.Quraishi, an Iraqi, never publicly addressed his fighters or followers, avoided electronic communications and oversaw a move to fighting in small devolved units in response to intense pressure from Iraqi and US-led…

In a shot in the arm for the Assam government’s purported strategy to “secularise” madrasas in Assam, the Gauhati High Court has upheld the Assam Repealing Act 2020. In a judgment delivered on Friday February 4, 2022, the HC said, “… we uphold the validity of Assam Repealing Act, 2020 and the subsequent executive orders and communications of the Government,” but put on record an important clarification. “We must clarify at the very threshold that the changes brought about by the above legislative and executive action of the State are for the “Provincialised Madrasas” alone, which are Government schools. This is…

As many as 4,844 foreigners have been granted Indian citizenship in the past five years, the government told the Lok Sabha Tuesday. In 2021, the government granted almost three times the number of Indian citizenships compared to 2020, the House was informed. According to the data, 817 foreigners were granted Indian citizenship in 2017, 628 in 2018, 987 in 2019, 639 in 2020 and 1,773 in 2021. “The citizenship of India is governed under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Citizenship to eligible foreigners is granted by registration under section 5, by naturalization under section 6 or by incorporation…

 Added on February 9, 2022  Other View By: Hafizur Talukdar A columnist has recently raised a valid question through a column titled “why does Pakistan lag behind Bangladesh?” The column appeared on 1st February this year in a Pakistani ‘English Daily’. Bangladesh’s economy has been highly praised in the Pakistani media. The article, published in the media highlighted the issue of robust and resurgent economic growth of Bangladesh despite being identified as a bottomless basket. I read the column thoroughly multiple times. I thought deeply about why did Pakistan lag behind Bangladesh in the last fifty years. Then I tried…

Article by: Makbool Javaid, Partner – Simons Muirhead & Burton | Published: 8 February 2022 Makbool Javaid, Partner – Simons Muirhead & Burton 7 February 2022 The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a progressive think tank, has published a report stating that people in ‘working class jobs’ have been around twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those in ‘middle class jobs’. And those in the lowest paid occupations have experienced a mortality rate five times higher than those in the highest paid occupations. Policy decisions during the pandemic mediated the way in which work shaped health. The…