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An angry Ghosh claimed that 'goons were deployed' to disturb the meeting A day after the  Jana Andolan Party   activists protested against his visit in Kalimpong, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh was on Thursday heckled, his party workers were roughed up and his meeting had to be aborted midway in hill town Darjeeling. An angry Ghosh claimed that "goons were deployed" to disturb the meeting, and blamed the Binoy Tamang faction of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for "roughing up" BJP activists. He also hinted that the instigation for the "attacks" could have come from "Kolkata" in an indication to the Mamata Banerjee government. There were two incidents of protest against the BJP leader, who was first shown black flags and 'go back' posters by another hill-based outfit Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) on his way to Darjeeling. Later, there were protests and demonstrations at the Bijoya Sammilani which he at...

Mounting a blistering attack on the Left, the Uttar Pradesh CM said it was its nature to grab power at gunpoint   The BJP on Wednesday fielded  Yogi Adityanath  as part of its campaign against the killing of saffron activists allegedly by the ruling CPI-M in Kerala, where the firebrand Hindutva leader accused the Left party of promoting “jihadi terrorism” Mounting a blistering attack on the Left, he said it was its nature to “grab power at gunpoint”. The saffron-robed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also raked up the contentious issue of ‘Love Jihad’, accusing the Kerala government of not taking steps to check the “dangerous trend”. Leading the ‘Jan Raksha Yatra’, a day after BJP president Amit Shah launched the party’s 15-day campaign for “people’s protection”, Adityanath said Kerala occupied an important place in the Sanatan Hindu tradition, and wondered how the “foreign ideology” of Communism entered the state. “The CPI(M) raises slogans about se...

In 56 years, Indian income up 21 times, but progress slower than China, Malaysia Latest Current Affairs   : In the 70 years since independence, India has made most progress in improving life expectancy, literacy, but has been slower in improving the level of income, and reducing infant mortality rates when compared to five other nations. On the eve of   Independence Day 2017   , we compared the progress India has made in improving income, health, education, and in preserving its forests, to five countries–China, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Korea and Brazil. Why we chose these countries We chose China because it had roughly the same per capita income in 1960 as India did. Our analysis showed that even though China and India are constantly compared, until now, China has outperformed India across most wealth and health indicators. We looked at South Korea to get a sense of how India performed compared to a country that has gone from being a developing...

When Indian Army soldiers conducted surgical strikes, they had help from an 'eye in the sky' The 28-hour countdown operation of the PSLV-C38/ Cartosat-2   series satellite mission started on Thursday at 05:29 hours IST. This comes after the Mission Readiness Review Committee and Launch Authorisation Board cleared the countdown on Wednesday. Current Affairs   : The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up to launch its Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation along with 30 co-passenger satellites. Isro's workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), will carry these satellites into orbit. The rocket is scheduled to take off from the Sriharikota space port near Chennai at 9.29 am on Friday. The rocket will carry the 712 Kg Cartosat-2 series satellite and 30 co-passenger satellites, together weighing about 243 Kg at lift-off, into a 505 Km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit. Also Read :   Isr...

Pakistan won the Champions Trophy cricket final on Sunday by defeating India by 180 runs Current Affairs   : Pakistan Army has mocked India after the country’s resounding victory in the   Champions Trophy   cricket final, sharing photos of celebrations in restive Balochistan with a caption “To whom it may concern’. Lay off”. After posting photos of Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa with victory sign and soldiers dancing over Pakistani triumph over India at the Oval, military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor shared pictures from Balochistan where people were celebrating the victory. “And this is Our Balochistan. ‘To whom it may concern’. Lay off,” he wrote along with photos. The pictures were apparently in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech last year in which he had raised the issue Pakistan’s atrocities on people of Baluchistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Ghafoor also posted a video showing people in Srinag...

Pratap Simha, BJP MP from Mysuru, compared her to dreaded gangster Dawood   The campaign of   Gurmehar Kaur   a Kargil martyr’s daughter, against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Monday drew controversial reactions from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders with Union minister Kiren Rijiju wondering who was “polluting” her mind and another comparing her with wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim. Pratap Simha, BJP MP from Mysuru, tweeted, “At least Dawood did not use the crutches of his father’s name to justify his anti-national stand.”     His tweet came as Kaur’s campaign went viral online with her photograph in which she said, “Pakistan did not kill my father. War killed him.” To mock her, Simha also posted a photograph showing Dawood with the message, “I didn’t kill people in 1993. Bombs killed them.” Rijiju also took to Twitter to take a dig at her. “Who’s polluting this young girl’s mind? Strong armed forces prevent a war....

PMO stamp in Cabinet rejig Among many political, administrative and ideological messages in the changes in the council of ministers that Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  carried out, the most important was the unambiguous stamp of his office. The sweep of influence of the Prime Minister’s Office in Tuesday’s rejig was rarely witnessed in the past three decades. In expanding this influence of the central government, the PM was assisted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah. The changes in the Cabinet worked at several levels. They were definitely done with an eye on electoral compulsions —  Dalits  and Other Backward Classes found increased representation. New ministers were inducted from states that are either electorally crucial for the  BJP  (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat) or are going to polls in the near future (Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh). Also, alliance building was kept in mind. Allies like...

Assam: How BJP learnt from past mistakes and Rahul Gandhi let it slip In Assam, the Congress might blame its defeat on a 15-year anti-incumbency. However, it was worsted as much by the effective strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the nonchalance of its Vice President Rahul Gandhi in retaining talent. A more audacious leader could have tried harder to keep Himanta Biswa Sarma and his group of rebel legislators in the party. After he quit the Congress last year, Sarma bitterly spoke about how   Rahul Gandhi   would show more interest in petting his dog than focus on the discussion at hand when Sarma met him over several meetings in 2014-15. In contrast, the BJP leadership had an eye on the Assam Assembly polls ever since it won seven of the 14 seats and 37 per cent vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. BJP chief Amit Shah underlined the importance of the victory on Thursday. He said it was a huge achievement for the party as Assam is a border state,...