My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Elections. in India's 1st Elections website Home » Blog » Growing Show of Unity by Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar Ahead of Bihar Elections Growing Show of Unity by Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar Ahead of Bihar Elections By Deepak Parvatiyar August 28, 2015 5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes In Bihar where election results have a definite stamp of casteist politics, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s own caste, Baniya has miniscule presence contributing just a little over one per cent of the total votes. Kejriwal is conscious of the caste equations. He had indeed flaunted his caste to woo the influential Baniya community during the Delhi assembly electio...

Elections. in India's 1st Elections website CENTRE STATES RESULTS GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES OF INDIA FOR VOTERS WHAT'S NEW Home »   Blog »  Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit 2015 Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) Summit 2015 By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 24, 2015 5.00/5 (100.00%) 1 vote In November 19 last year, Narendra Modi’s day long stopover at Fiji while returning home from Australia after attending the G20 summit was not just the first ever visit to the tiny Asia-Pacific island nation by any Indian Prime Minister in 33 years, but had also preceded a three-day visit of the tiny island country by the Chinese President Xi Jingping. Modi had then signed 15 bilateral agreements with Fiji on a wide range of subjects including trade, agriculture, health, sports. Significantly, he had then also attended a specially convened “mini-summit” meeti...

Elections. in India's 1st Elections website Centre States Results Government Ministries of India For Voters What's New Home » Blog » PM Narendra Modi’s UAE Tour: An Analysis PM Narendra Modi’s UAE Tour: An Analysis By Deepak Parvatiyar August 21, 2015 5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes A warm hug with the Crown Prince of United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi, selfie with the UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and finally his no-nonsense message to Pakistan from Arab soil, “We have raised our voice against terrorism in unison from this soil. This is significant…” In no uncertain...

Elections. in India's 1st Elections website Centre States Results Government Ministries of India For Voters What's New Home » Blog » Will Modi’s Rallies and Promises Lead to Electoral Gains for BJP in Bihar? Will Modi’s Rallies and Promises Lead to Electoral Gains for BJP in Bihar? By Deepak Parvatiyar August 20, 2015 5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes The Narendra Modi juggernaut was set rolling in Bihar after his five high-voltage election rallies in the poll-bound state. The prime minister’s no-holds-barred campaign – he being the mascot of the party like in four of the previous five assembly elections since he became the PM –...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s I-Day Speech By Deepak Parvatiyar August 18, 2015 (Published in elections.in) If Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden Independence Day speech last year was meant to break the monotony of convention – to give an unambiguous message of change to the countrymen from the nation’s biggest stage. However, his second address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort this year was a mix of stock-taking exercise and the roadmap ahead. Just at a time when much is at stake for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the ensuing Bihar elections, and where again Modi is the front, the Prime Minister’s thrust on issues concerning farmers’ welfare in no uncertain terms addressed the electorates in agrarian Bihar. Consider that the Prime Minister devoted almost one-tenth of his speech to the farmers. A very significant announcement was the changing the nomenclature of the ‘Ministry of Agriculture’ to the “Ministry of Farmer Welfare’ – “Agricultural growth is as important ...

Understanding the GST Bill Impasse By Deepak Parvatiyar August 17, 2015 (Published in elections.in) On the completion of the first year of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was upbeat about creating history – “We are in the process of creating history by bringing about the most important indirect tax reform - the GST (Goods and Services Tax)”, he had told media persons on May 22. However, the government’s plans of creating history went awry because of the logjam in the monsoon session of Parliament over ‘Lalitgate’ and ‘Vyapam’ scams. (refer to  http://www.elections.in/blog/was-bjp-a-lenient-opposition-as-compared-to-congress/ ). The delay in the implementation of GST now threatens to derail the reform process in no uncertain terms. The Government had set the April 1, 2016 deadline to roll out the GST regime. Little surprise, therefore, that once the monsoon session of Parliament ended in a virtual washout on August...

Politics of India on the 69th year of independence By Deepak Parvatiyar August 14, 2015 Published in elections.in (http://www.elections.in/blog/politics-of-india-on-the-69th-year-of-independence/) The nation celebrates its 69th Independence Day on August 15. This is the second time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi unfurls the national flag at the historic Red Fort. This reminds me of his first appearance at the Red Fort as Prime Minister last year when he delivered a highly acclaimed speech from its rampart to spell out his vision of ‘Make In India’, ‘Digital India’, and ‘Clean India’. He announced scrapping of the Planning Commission of India that was thereafter replaced by NITI Aayog. He urged the Members of Parliament to adopt villages as part of his Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna. They did sound like the “mantra’ to emancipate Indian society from poverty and class divide. Yet the most significant of Modi’s announcements was a call for a 10 year moratorium on commu...