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First Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- First Post
Kazakhstan bans face coverings in public, new law endorses 'national' clothing
The law says clothing that 'interferes with facial recognition' will be banned in public, with exemptions for medical purposes, in adverse weather conditions and at sporting and cultural events read more Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a law to ban people from wearing clothing that covers their faces in public, joining a list of central asian, Muslim-dominated countries to restrict forms of Islamic dress. The law says clothing that 'interferes with facial recognition' will be banned in public, with exemptions for medical purposes, in adverse weather conditions and at sporting and cultural events. However, the legislation does not mention any particular religion or religious dress that the ban has been imposed on. Earlier, Tokayev had hailed the law, saying that it would empower Kazakhstan's ethnic identity, a majority-Muslim country and former Soviet republic. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Rather than wearing face-concealing black robes, it's much better to wear clothes in the national style,' he was quoted by Kazakh media as saying earlier this year. 'Our national clothes vividly emphasise our ethnic identity, so we need to popularise them comprehensively,' added Tokayev. How have face coverings become contentious? Although the face ban has been seen as a progressive step by the government in Kazakhstan, a case in 2023 suggests that citizens of the country do not support such bans. That year, more than 150 schoolgirls in the Atyrau region refused to attend classes in protest against a hijab ban. Similar incidents were reported in other southern regions. Authorities stated that the situation was resolved following consultations with parents; however, uncertainty persisted over the extent of the restrictions, particularly whether they applied to the hijab. 'This principle must be strictly observed in all spheres, including education. School is, first and foremost, an educational institution where children come to gain knowledge. Religious beliefs, on the other hand, are a choice and a private matter for each citizen,' Tokayev said at the time, highlighting Kazakhstan's secular identity. Which other countries have banned face coverings? Several Central Asian countries with Muslim-majority populations have enacted bans on face coverings in recent years, citing security concerns and efforts to preserve secular national identities. Apart from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan have all introduced restrictions targeting garments such as the niqab, burqa, and paranja, which obscure the face. These measures often apply to public spaces and government institutions, with officials arguing that such attire is foreign to local cultural traditions and could hinder public safety or facial recognition. With inputs from agencies
India Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
How victorious Congress, Pinarayi's party are reading Nilambur bypoll verdict
The Nilambur bypoll victory has set the Opposition Congress in Kerala in a jubilant mood. This is the first time the party has snatched a ruling-front seat in the Left Democratic Front's (LDF) nine-year term since the Congress and the United Democratic Front (UDF), which it leads, the victory in Muslim-dominated Nilambur is a promising development in the run-up to assembly elections next year. The win has shown the party is capable of putting factionalism behind, uniting its cadre and building a cohesive the CPI(M), whose candidate M. Swaraj lost by over 11,000 votes, had banked on a vote-split from a widening gap between the Muslim religious body Samastha Kerala Jem-Iyyathul Ulama and UDF constituent Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the Congress stepped up its campaign on the ground and cornered the Pinarayi Vijayan government on sensitive issues. For instance, the escalating human-animal conflict in Nilambur, located in the Western in the past, the Congress could put up a united face and the IUML actively joined the poll campaign despite its leadership having reservations about the winning candidate Aryaden Shoukath. 'The Congress has reasserted its position for the first time in its nine-year-long history of being in the Opposition. Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan took a bold step by denying P.V. Anvar the Nilambur seat despite the IUML leadership favouring his candidature,' said political analyst S. resigned as Nilambur MLA in January after facing the heat for alleging that additional DGP M.R. Ajithkumar was involved in gold smuggling. Ajithkumar is widely considered as enjoying the trust of the Vijayan government.'Had the Congress yielded and made Anvar its candidate, the victory would have gone into the latter's account. But with a clean win with its own candidate, the Congress can now face the local body polls in December on a confident note,' said as the Vijayan-led LDF is eyeing a third consecutive term in Kerala next year, the Congress can turn things around with a 6 percentage point higher vote-share than in 2021 (38.8 per cent).For the CPI(M), the Nilambur result is an alarm bell against any complacency. 'We are identifying factors that caused our defeat and will take redress measures. The LDF won the assembly polls in 2016 and 2021 on merit. Our government in Kerala has ensured good governance. Setbacks like these (Nilambur) give us more insight as we march forward,' A. Vijayaraghavan, CPI(M) politburo member and a leader involved in the Nilambur campaign, told INDIA the moment, the CPI(M) leadership is sending out signals of weathering the Nilambur storm as it discusses ways to counter the Opposition and scale up welfare delivery in the months leading to the assembly elections. But in the Congress's scheme of things, if not an outright storm, the political wind already looks poised to change Vijayan's move to appoint Ajithkumar as the next DGP of Kerala fizzled out after his name was excluded by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in a meeting held on June 26. The UPSC shortlisted three senior IPS officers for the DGP's post—Nitin Agarwal, road safety commissioner of Kerala; Ravada A. Chandrasekhar, special director at the Intelligence Bureau; and Yogesh Gupta, director general of Kerala Fire and Rescue to India Today Magazine- Ends
Hans India
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Kaliganj bypoll results show Hindu votes consolidating behind BJP: State party leaders
Kolkata: Despite losing the Kaliganj Assembly by-election in Nadia district, senior BJP leaders in West Bengal claimed on Tuesday that booth-wise polling trends indicated a growing consolidation of Hindu votes behind the party. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the booth-level data revealed a clear divide -- BJP candidate Ashish Ghosh performed poorly in Muslim-majority booths, while he led in most Hindu-dominated ones. 'In the Kaliganj bypoll, the BJP candidate received either single-digit votes or failed to cross 50 votes in most Muslim-dominated booths. In contrast, the BJP was ahead in nearly all Hindu-majority booths,' Adhikari said on Tuesday. 'This unity of Hindu voters will pave the way for the rise of Hindutva politics in Bengal,' he added. Adhikari asserted that Hindu unity was essential for political change in the state. 'If Hindus remain divided, attacks on them will continue in places like Mothabari, Murshidabad, and Maheshtala. But if Hindus unite across Bengal, a political shift is inevitable in 2026,' he said. BJP state general secretary and former journalist Jagannath Chattopadhyay supported Adhikari's claim with statistics. Citing polling data, he said that the BJP's support among Hindu voters in Kaliganj had steadily increased over recent elections. 'Kaliganj has approximately 1,07,846 Hindu voters (43 per cent) and 1,44,932 Muslim voters (57 per cent). Of the 1,85,664 votes polled in this by-election (73 per cent turnout), around 71,000 were cast by Hindus -- a turnout of 69 per cent among Hindus. Our data show that BJP's support among Hindu voters rose from 70 per cent in the 2021 Assembly polls to 72 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and now stands at over 74 per cent -- the highest ever,' Chattopadhyay said. However, Trinamool Congress candidate Alifa Ahmed, who won the seat by a margin of over 50,000 votes, rejected the BJP's narrative. 'The people of Kaliganj have once again shown that there is no place for communal politics in West Bengal. Voters from all communities supported us,' she said.
Time of India
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Congress alleges gerrymandering in JMC delimitation exercise
Jaipur: Congress party members have raised allegations of manipulation in the ongoing delimitation exercise of the merged Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC). The accusations primarily centre around the Kishanpole assembly constituency, where party members claim the process has been designed to fragment minority and specific caste vote banks to benefit the BJP. The delimitation committee has significantly reduced the number of wards in the Kishanpole zone from 21 to 12, raising concerns among Congress members. Currently a Congress stronghold with 11 out of 21 councillors, party officials argue the new arrangement would limit their winning potential to just four or five seats. Yunus Qureshi, former secretary of the Congress party's minority cell, highlighted specific instances of alleged manipulation. He pointed out that the committee's final draft shows haphazard ward formation, with overlapping boundaries that appear designed to split Congress vote banks. Qureshi cited the example of Ward 56, where selective merging with areas from Wards 55 and 63 has allegedly been done to create an artificial electoral balance favouring the BJP. The impact on minority representation appears particularly significant. Abdul Khan, a senior Congress councillor from JMC Heritage, noted that the number of Muslim-dominated wards has been reduced from 33 to just 15 in the new arrangement. Currently, there are 30 Muslim councillors in JMC Heritage and three in JMC Greater from the Congress party. The reduction in the total number of wards is expected to intensify internal party conflicts during candidate selection, with Congress potentially having to sacrifice around 50 prospective candidates. "Congress is already infested with infighting. The infighting would increase when the party finalises the list of candidates, sacrificing at least 50 prospective candidates," said councillor Khan. ADM (II) Jaipur, Ashish Kumar, confirmed that the final draft of the delimitation map is currently undergoing clerical corrections and will be finalised by the state govt within the next few days.
India Today
18-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Why all Kerala roads lead to Nilambur today
Just 10 months ahead of the assembly election due in April-May next year, Nilambur voters will choose their MLA in the bypoll on June 19 and the results will be declared on June 23. When the three-week-long poll campaign concluded in the evening of June 17, both the rival alliances—the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF)—claimed they would be victorious by a margin of 10,000 ruling CPI(M) has fielded M. Swaraj, a senior youth leader from the constituency, against Congress leader Aryadan Shoukath, son of veteran Congress leader Aryadan Muhammed, who represented Nilambur for 34 years. P.V. Anvar, who resigned as MLA after rebelling against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI(M), and was a two-term independent MLA before becoming the state convenor of the Trinamool Congress, is also in the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP has fielded a Christian, Advocate Mohan George, to test the waters with the Christian minorities in the Muslim-dominated constituency. The NDA is likely trying for communal polarisation by wooing the Christians—around 20 per cent of the Nilambur voters—into its has 2.32 lakh voters on the list and whoever gets around 73,000 votes will emerge as the winner. 'Swaraj will win by over 10,000 votes,' says V.P. Anil, CPI(M) district secretary. 'Nilambur will vote for the developmental politics that the Left government is promoting.' The Congress, for which winning the bypoll is important for political survival, offered associate membership in the UDF to the Jamaat-e-Islami's political outfit, the Welfare Party. Meanwhile, CM Pinarayi, who led the poll campaign from June 14 to 16, has said his party 'doesn't want votes from communal parties such as the Social Democratic Party of India, the political outfit of the banned Popular Front of India, or the Jamaat-e-Islami that supports the Congress'. Pinarayi tagged the radical Islamic outfits as 'politically untouchables for the Left'.advertisementThe LDF is determined to retain Nilambur also because its former independent legislator Anvar resigned after hurling serious accusations of corruption at the Chief Minister's Office and additional DGP M.R. Ajithkumar, who handled law and order, and was removed from the post following the meanwhile, is negotiating with the Indian Union Muslim League and their opponents, the Samastha Ulama organisation, the largest Sunni scholarly outfit with the most support among Kerala's Muslims. He met Samastha president Jifri Muthukoya Thangal on June 17 at Malappuram.'The UDF had an upper edge in the constituency since Anvar revolted against the CPI(M), but the Congress could not exploit this advantage after the former MLA repositioned himself in the contest as an independent candidate,' says Firoz Usman, a Nilambur resident. 'If Anvar polls around 25,000 votes, the LDF candidate will win with a 5,000-vote margin as the CPI(M) has a solid vote bank of 33 per cent. As Anvar has 20,000 loyal voters, if he trades his votes to the UDF at the last minute, the Congress-led alliance will win.'Indeed, while the Anvar factor will likely turn the Nilambur bypoll into a thrilling political encounter, the CM's campaign focused on the merits of welfare-driven governance. The Congress made an attempt to expose the government's shortcomings with a road show involving Priyanka Gandhi, who represents Wayanad—a constituency that includes the Nilambur assembly segment—in the Lok Sabha. The Rahul factor was missing, though. When the results are declared on June 23, it would indicate the party's chances in 2026 as well. And if the Congress loses the assembly polls, Pinarayi will get a straight third term in to India Today Magazine
