Culture Connoisseur Badge Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment. More about badges | Request a badge Washingtologist Badge Washingtologists consistently post thought-provoking, timely comments on events, communities, and trends in the Washington area. More about badges | Request a badge Post Writer Badge This commenter is a Washington Post editor, reporter or producer. Post Contributor Badge This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story. More about badges | Request a badge Post Recommended Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post. You must be logged in to report a comment. You must be logged ... Continue reading →
Banerjee, in an interview with The Washington Post, accused her Marxist political opponents — a mainstream political party that supported India’s coalition government from 2004 to 2008 — of conspiring with Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, who have fought an armed insurrection against the state for decades.Their ultimate aim was to kill her, she said, sketching out a plot implicating Pakistan’s military intelligence agency and backed by funds from several foreign countries.“Now they are working together, Maoists and Marxists, just like cousins,” she said.Banerjee took power in her eastern Indian state in 2011, ending 34 years of communist rule there. While she remains popular among many poor people in West Bengal, her intolerance of dissent has alienated many members of the middle-class intelligentsia.Earlier this ... Continue reading →
The government cannot afford to rebuild the schools, officials say. Meanwhile, the bombings persist. Najeeb Ullah, 17, attends a school outside Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that has been targeted twice — once by a suicide bomber three years ago, when it was being used by paramilitary forces fighting insurgents, and more recently while he was taking an exam. He has traumatic recollections of that blast. “I was scared, as well as other students in the examination hall, and I feel fear even recalling that in school,” the 11th-grader said. No one was killed.Experts are alarmed at the school bombings, especially because the adult literacy rate in Pakistan is 55 percent, according to a U.N. Human Development Report last year.In Pakistan, the right to free education ... Continue reading →
Culture Connoisseur Badge Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment. More about badges | Request a badge Washingtologist Badge Washingtologists consistently post thought-provoking, timely comments on events, communities, and trends in the Washington area. More about badges | Request a badge Post Writer Badge This commenter is a Washington Post editor, reporter or producer. Post Contributor Badge This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story. More about badges | Request a badge Post Recommended Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post. You must be logged in to report a comment. You must be logged ... Continue reading →
Culture Connoisseur Badge Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment. More about badges | Request a badge Washingtologist Badge Washingtologists consistently post thought-provoking, timely comments on events, communities, and trends in the Washington area. More about badges | Request a badge Post Writer Badge This commenter is a Washington Post editor, reporter or producer. Post Contributor Badge This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story. More about badges | Request a badge Post Recommended Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post. You must be logged in to report a comment. You must be logged ... Continue reading →
The 57-year-old Banerjee — determined, resolutely populist and hardworking, yet eccentric and intolerant of dissent — holds the balance of power in India’s coalition government and has used that political might to huge effect. Time after time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s efforts to introduce economic reforms have foundered because of Banerjee’s opposition. Time magazine recently listed her among the world’s 100 most influential people, and 25 out of 50 CEOs surveyed by a leading Indian newspaper last week said she was the biggest stumbling block to economic growth.Banerjee is the personification of a fundamental change that is transforming Indian politics: the declining vote share of the country’s two main political parties and the rising influence of regional parties.To some, she also personifies a fear that ... Continue reading →
The 57-year-old Banerjee — determined, resolutely populist and hardworking, yet eccentric and intolerant of dissent — holds the balance of power in India’s coalition government and has used that power to huge effect. Time after time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s efforts to introduce economic reforms have foundered because of Banerjee’s opposition. Time magazine recently listed her among the world’s 100 most influential people, and 25 out of 50 CEOs surveyed by a leading Indian newspaper last week said she was the biggest stumbling block to economic growth.Banerjee is the personification of a fundamental change that is transforming Indian politics and will have a crucial bearing on this country’s future: the declining vote share of the country’s two main political parties and the rising influence of ... Continue reading →
