Anti-CAA-NRC stir: From PhD scholar to homemaker, women lead big protest in Ranchi.

Source – indianexpress.com

A homemaker left her ailing in-laws behind at home, a businesswoman locked up her stationery shop, and a doctoral student missed her class. All of them went to Ranchi’s Doranda Urs Maidan — along with 70,000 others — to protest against the new citizenship law, the National Population Register (NPR), and the proposed NRC.

Jharkhand has seen several anti-CAA protests — the ‘Samvidhan Bachao, Desh Bachao’ gathering at the Maidan on Saturday was the largest in the state so far. Professor Rizwan Ali, one of the coordinators of the event, said more than 30,000 of the protesters were women.

A woman who identified herself as Rani Parween held up a sign that said, “Humein chain se jeene do, kala kanoon wapas lo (Let us live in peace, take back the black law)”. She said she had joined various protests against the CAA earlier, but had made extra effort to be present on Saturday.

“My in-laws are ailing, and need constant attention. However, this protest was very important for all of us — not just because (Prime Minister) Modiji’s intention is to discriminate against one religion, but also because it is against humanity. I had to leave my in-laws at home and lock the door from the outside to come here,” she said. Parween, a homemaker, said she would attend all protests in the city.

By the afternoon, the protest ground was teeming with women from all strata of society. Nushi Begum, who came with her husband and their daughter who studies in Class 7, said they had decided to keep their shop closed to be able to attend the protest. “Hum kaagaz kyon dikhayein? Hum isi ke virodh mein aaye hain. (Why should we show papers? We are protesting because we are forced to do so),” she said.

Her daughter, Sanya Sarah Hayat, held the Tricolour in one hand and a sign in the other: “Tanashahi nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi (We won’t allow dictatorship).” She said: “People are divided, we are constantly getting messages on social media on this issue.”

Near a group of protesters singing the now signature Aazaadi song, Ranchi University PhD scholar Arma Mazhar stood holding a sign that read: “Hum documents se nahin, dil se Hindustani hain (We are Indians by our hearts, not by any documents).” She said that she had also joined a protest at Firalyal Chowk in the city earlier.

Next to Arma stood a woman who said he has a small shop that makes bags. “In WhatsApp messages, television reports, and phonecalls, we are being reminded every day about this issue. The entire family is tense. Agar ab nahin karenge protest to kab karenge (If not today then when else will we protest)?” she said.

Nigar Sultana, who runs a computer coaching centre in Doranda, said she had downed shutters to make it to the protest. “Atal Bihari Vajpayee was better than Modiji. We only pray that they follow his (Vajpayee’s) path. We have been trying to spread awareness on this black law that Modiji has brought,” she said.

Nigar said women like her had come out in the streets to protect the Constitution, and that she would be part of the indefinite protest near Haj House, Kadru on the lines of Shaheen Bagh in Delhi beginning Monday.

MS Dhoni Has a Practice Session in Ranchi, Getting Ready For Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy Clash With Uttarakhand.

Source – india.com

Former India skipper MS Dhoni was seen practising in the nets a day after he was omitted from the list of players to have been awarded the BCCI Central contract for 2019-20.

A video of Dhoni has surfaced on social media where he can be seen batting in the nets.

In the nets, he looks confident as he comes down the track and plays the ball with a straight bat. He then takes his guard again and rocks back onto the back foot and defends the ball.

In all likeliness, he will play for Jharkhand in their next Ranji Trophy clash against Uttarakhand.

“I will be honest… I thought there will be a bit of rustiness as Dhoni has not trained for quite some time,” said Jharkhand coach Rajiv Kumar.

“The last time we had spoken, he had said that he would start in January and here you go. He is a man of his words and it came as no surprise that he was out there training with the guys just like any other regular Jharkhand player. But what surprised me most was how he middled almost every ball, be it in the pacer’s net or the spinner’s net. He even took throwdowns just like a player going through the batting drills does,” he added further.

He would also feature in the Indian Premier League later this year for Chennai Super Kings where he will lead the side. “People keep saying when will he… how long will he play, etc. He will play. I can assure you. He will play this year. Next year he will go the auction; he will be retained. So there is no doubt in anybody’s mind,” confirmed vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, owners of CSK N Srinivasan at and event.

UPSC in mind, JEE Main 2020 topper Parth Dwivedi wants to work for nation’s development.

Source – indianexpress.com

JEE Main 2020: “I will work for the nation’s development, maybe as a civil servant or as a researcher”. Unlike most of his peers, JEE Main 2020 topper from Rajasthan Parth Dwivedi is keen on pursuing higher education in India and not abroad. Parth topped the JEE Main from Rajasthan along with nine others, who scored perfect 100 percentile this year. The 17-year-old aims to pursue Computer Science from IIT Bombay.

According to Parth, his mother’s selfless service to the nation as a police officer inspired him to work for the country. “I grew up seeing my mother’s tireless service for the nation. Whether it is early morning or late at night, my mother was always dedicated to the service,” said the topper.

Parth’s mother Neeti Dwivedi is an Additional SP in Lucknow Police and father Bineet Dwivedi is an Indian Railway Service (IRAS) officer.

Regarding his preparation for JEE, Parth said he followed the tutorials provided by Allen Career Institute, Kota, and appeared for the mock test series. For textual references, Parth followed the Physics book by HC Verma, IE Irodov and Maths book by Sen and Ghosh.

 JEE Main 2020 topper Parth Dwivedi with his parents Neeti Dwivedi and Bineet Dwivedi

Though Parth is delighted about his performance, his sole focus is now on JEE Advanced. “The JEE Advanced tests a student’s concepts, speed, and accuracy. I will continue with the preparation of JEE Advanced along with boards,” the topper said.

The JEE Advanced is scheduled to be conducted on May 17, 2020. The National Testing Agency (NTA) will release the rank after the April exam. For candidates who appeared in both the sessions, the best score will be counted in preparing the rank, as per the rule of NTA.

The marks obtained are converted in percentile score. The marks obtained are converted into a scale ranging from 100 to 0 for each session of examinees.

IBPS Clerk Mains Exam Analysis 2020 (19 January – All Shifts): Questions Asked & Difficulty Level.

Source – jagranjosh.com

IBPS Clerk Mains Exam Analysis 2020 is provided here of the exam held on 19th January in different shifts. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted the IBPS Clerk Mains 2019-20 exam across various exam centres of India. Lakhs of candidates appeared for the exam to fetch IBPS Clerk Recruitment 2019. As per the feedback shared by the candidates, the difficulty level of the exam was ‘Moderate to Difficult’. Candidates were able to attempt around 115 – 130 questions out of the total 190 asked in the exam. Have a look at the detailed exam analysis and review of the IBPS Clerk Mains 2020 exam below and know the types of questions asked and their difficulty level. 

In IBPS Clerk Mains 2019-20 exam, candidates were asked 190 multiple choice questions from four sections Reasoning and Computer Aptitude, Quantitative Aptitude, General English and General/Financial Awareness. Candidates were allotted a total of 160 minutes to attempt the IBPS Clerk Question Paper 2020. There is a negative marking of 1/4th marks of each wrong answer marked by candidates. Those candidates who succeed in obtaining the IBPS Clerk Mains Cut off 2020 will be declared as pass in the exam.

Here is the detailed and subject-wise IBPS Clerk Mains Exam Analysis 2019-20. Know the types of questions asked in the exam and their difficulty level.

IBPS Clerk Mains Exam Analysis 2019-20 (Overall): 19 January 2020

SectionsNo. of MCQsGood AttemptsDifficulty Level
Reasoning & Computer Aptitude 5027-32Moderate-Difficult
Quantitative Aptitude 5031-36Moderate
General English4029-33Moderate-Difficult
General/Financial Awareness5028-34Moderate
TOTAL190117-130Moderate-Difficult

Quantitative Aptitude

TopicNo. of QuestionsDifficulty Level
Data Interpretation – Pie Chart + Tabular + Profit & Loss DI, Caselet20Moderate-Difficult
Arithmetic – Train, Profit & Loss, Time & Work, Mensuration, Age, Average, Boat & Stream20Moderate
Data Sufficiency5Moderate
Approximation5Moderate
Total50Moderate

Reasoning & Computer Aptitude 

TopicNo. of QuestionsLevel
Puzzles  – Blood Relation based, Circular based, 20Moderate-Difficult
Alphanumeric Series5Moderate
Coded Direction5Moderate
Data Sufficiency5Moderate-Difficult
Coded Inequality5Moderate
Syllogism5Moderate
Coding-Decoding3 – 5Moderate
Total50Moderate-Difficult

General English

TopicNo. of QuestionsLevel
Reading Comprehension 18Moderate-Difficult
Fillers5Moderate
Error Detection5Moderate
Cloze Test6Moderate
Sentence Rearrangement6Moderate-Difficult
Total40Moderate-Difficult

General/Financial Awareness: Moderate Level

A total of 50 questions were asked from General-Financial Awareness section. Questions were based on Static GK and latest Current Affairs of national & international importance. The following questions were asked in the IBPS Clerk Mains exam:

Theme of National Book Fair

Bank Rate linked with Repo Rate

Important Days

Questions related to Reserve Bank of India

Military Exercise between India & USA– Tiger Triumph

National Science Congress 2020

Forest Cover of India

India’s UNESCO Heritage City

International Atomic Energy Agency

MUDRA Scheme

Jharkhand Vikas Morcha pleases BJP, keeps out rebel MLAs from panel.

Source – newindianexpress.com

Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) firmly moved towards merger with BJP keeping out dissident MLA’s Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey out of prominent posts in the newly constituted working committee on Saturday. “Only those who are in support of JVM Chief Babulal Marandi on the issue of merger with BJP have been inducted,” sources said, adding “The merger is likely to take place by month-end.”

Yadav and Tirkey are, however, members of the 151-member working committee. In the last working committee, which was dissolved after the recent Assembly poll debacle, one of the oldest party members and Poreyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav was assigned the post of Principal General Secretary.

Notably, Yadav was in Marandi’s Cabinet in 2000 when Jharkhand was carved out as a separate State from Bihar with Babulal Marandi as its first Chief Minister. Yadav, who has been representing Poreyahat for around two decades, left BJP in 2006 when Marandi formed his own party JVM (P). 

“JVM (P) is all set for merger with BJP. Reconstituting the working committee is the first step forward in this direction,” said a party functionary requesting anonymity. Marandi, a former RSS leader, who resigned from his job as a teacher to work for the organisation was given a to contest Lok Sabha elections in 1991 and 1996 and proved to be a giant killer defeating JMM Chief Sibu Soren in Dumka in 1998.

The victory boosted Marandi’s profile and he was inducted in the Union Council of Ministers by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Attack on Visva-Bharati students: 1 arrested from Jharkhand.

Source – indiatoday.in

One more person was arrested from Jharkhand on Sunday in connection with an attack by a group of students on another near a boys’ hostel of the Visva-Bharati university campus last week, police said.

Sulav Karmakar, a student of the history department of the central university, is the third person to be arrested in connection with the incident that left several men injured on January 15.

Karmakar was picked up from Godda in Jharkhand, police said.

Two TMCP leaders – Achintya Bagdi and Saber Ali – had been arrested earlier for their alleged involvement in the assault on Left-leaning students on January 15.

The attack took place a week after BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta was heckled by Left-leaning students after he came to deliver a lecture on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on January 8.

An SFI leader of the university had alleged that the attackers said the assault was a fallout of the demonstration the Left students held during Dasgupta’s visit to the campus.

Dasgupta, Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and others had to remain confined for around eight hours to a building of the central university outside which hundreds of Left-leaning students staged a sit-in, accusing the politician of promoting hatred among communities.

The Visva-Bharati on Friday set up a 3-member panel to probe the alleged confinement of the politician and the incident of assault.

2 dead in Darbhanga, Samastipur during Bihar govt’s programme.

Source – indiatoday.in

At least two people died in Bihar while taking part in a human chain organised by the state government on Sunday. While one person died in Darbhanga, another death was reported in Samastipur of Bihar.

The deceased have been identified as Mohd Daud and Reshma. It is suspected that Mohd Daud and Reshma, who were part of the human chain, died of heart attacks.

The human chain was organised to showcase the Bihar government’s environment conservation drive besides social reform measures like prohibition and campaigns against dowry and child marriage.

Mohd Daud was a 55-year-old government teacher who died while taking part in a human chain organised by the Nitish Kumar government, officials have said.

He died in Keoti police station area close to the Runway Chowk where he fell ill and collapsed. Daud was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Hospital sources said the deceased had suffered a cardiac arrest though it was not clear whether he was suffering from heart disease.

He taught at an Urdu medium secondary school and the district education officer has been instructed to look into the incident and take necessary action.

Bihar: People May Be Tired of Nitish, but a BJP CM Unlikely to Solve Problems.

Source – thewire.in

Last week, prominent Dalit BJP leader in Bihar Sanjay Paswan in an interview with the Indian Express claimed that people of Bihar are now “tired” of Nitish Kumar and need a chief minister from the BJP. “What I have gathered from my extensive tours in nearly 20 districts of the state is that people are now tired of Nitish Kumar. The state now needs a BJP CM, be it is Sushil Kumar Modi, Nityanand Rai, or anyone else,” Paswan, a and a Member of Legislative Council (MLC), told the newspaper.

BJP’s state spokesperson Nikhil Anand was quick to intervene, saying the remarks were Paswan’s personal views. Meanwhile, Janata Dal United (JDU) spokesperson and state information and public relations minister Neeraj Kumar said, “After Amit Shah made it clear that NDA would contest the elections under Nitish Kumar, there is no meaning in Paswan’s statement.” Indeed, on Thursday, while addressing a rally in Vaishali district of Bihar, Shah reiterated that the NDA will contest the next assembly election (due later this year) under the leadership of Kumar, adding the CM will be the face of the alliance.

However, it would be a mistake to believe that there is no substance in what Paswan actually claimed. It is a fact that the Bihar CM, unlike in previous elections, is facing an anti-incumbency sentiment. He is not as popular as he used to be a few years ago. In conversations with several observers of Bihar politics and visits to the state in recent years, I sensed growing resentment amongst people about Nitish Kumar’s rule. His image of Sushasan Babu (the Man of Good Governance) is no longer intact. This is something that he, his party and the BJP’s leadership are acutely aware of.

Signs of Kumar feeling under-confident can be also noticed in his party changing its slogan recently. It can be recalled that in 2015, ahead of the assembly elections, the JDU’s slogan was, “Bihar Mein Bahar Hai, Nitish Kumar Hai (Bihar is blooming, there is no alternative but Nitish Kumar)”. The slogan became very popular and played an important role in his return to power. However, in September last year, the slogan was changed to “Kyun Karen Vichar, Theek To Hain Nitish Kumar? (Why have second thoughts, what is wrong with Nitish Kumar’s rule?)”.

There is a marked difference in the tone and tenor of the slogans. The earlier slogan clearly indicated confidence, claiming there is no alternative to Nitish Kumar as far as the chief ministership of the state is concerned. The latest one, on the contrary, hints that Kumar and his party may be lacking confidence and acknowledges that people may be having second thoughts and that he is no longer invincible.

The BJP and other allies of the NDA also know this well and are hence trying to put pressure on him, albeit indirectly. Last year, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan also hinted that Nitish will be the face of the alliance, unless the BJP decides to bring in a different captain. Hence, the latest statement by the BJP leader should be seen in that context.

Reasons for Nitish’s declining popularity

There are several reasons for Kumar’s decreasing popularity. In recent years, several cases of misgovernance have surfaced. This includes, to name a few, Srijan scam, Muzaffarpur shelter home case, death of more than 100 children due to encephalitis, rise in crime in recent years and massive floods in several parts of the state, including the capital. These events have shattered Brand Nitish, the image of a leader who rescued Bihar from the “dark ages” and provided much needed good governance.

As with anywhere else, the media plays an important role in shaping a politician’s image. Local media and journalists played a crucial role in both portraying Nitish as popular and abled leader over the years and also now holding him responsible for the aforementioned events. However, in recent years, unlike his previous regimes, Nitish does have a similar level of control over local media. There was a time when “journalists in Patna often refer to Nitish as Bihar’s editor-in-chief instead of Chief Minister”. As per a report, nobody wanted to annoy the state’s ‘editor-in-chief’ even if the truth flew in their face and hence stories of alleged misrule in the state went unreported.

Assuming that people are really tired of Nitish Kumar, the question then is if a Sushil Kumar Modi or Nityanand Rai – or any other BJP leader for that matter – can provide a pro-people government? The answer is: a state government headed by a BJP leader is unlikely to be any different from the current one. There are two main reasons for this. The foremost reason is, barring a few years, the BJP has been an integral part of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the state since 2005. Sushil Modi is perhaps the longest serving deputy CM of Bihar. Unlike parties like LJP, the saffron party has been a prime partner of the Bihar government and cannot absolve itself from the ‘misrule’ of the Nitish government.

The Jharkhand experience

Moreover, even if the BJP is voted to power with a clear mandate or have an upper hand in the government, there is no guarantee that it will act differently. Clues can be found in the way the BJP ruled in Jharkhand, where the party recently suffered a bad defeat due to its ‘anti-people policies’. During the 2014 assembly elections, the party argued that the people of Jharkhand are disillusioned by lawlessness, corruption and bad governance first during the regime of Madhu Koda and then Hemant Soren. If the BJP is given a clear mandate, it will bring development to the state, the party said. The people did so, voting in the BJP-led alliance. But the way the government functioned, forced the voters to unseat the BJP five years later.

Under Raghubar Das, anti-Adivasi and pro-corporate policies were brought in Jharkhand. Those who tried to protest and resist the policies were branded ‘anti-national’, charged with sedition and jailed. Incidents of mob lynching also increased in the state. Death due to hunger became a common phenomenon. Apart from tribals, Dalits and minorities, other sections of society also suffered. All this irked a large number of voters. So much so that five-time MLA and sitting CM Das lost his traditional seat. Moreover, Das’s former cabinet colleague levelled serious charges of corruption against him.

Today, the situation in Bihar is not very different from Jharkhand in 2014. While it would be a mistake to think people are not tired of Nitish Kumar, the bigger mistake would be to think that a BJP regime will solve the problems the state faces. That’s because the party and its leadership have been part of the problem equally. Denying that is nothing but cheating the people of Bihar.