All posts tagged: Deras

BJP’s blueprint for Punjab polls: Deras, Akal Takht, digital outreach | Political Pulse News

BJP’s blueprint for Punjab polls: Deras, Akal Takht, digital outreach | Political Pulse News

A crack team working under BJP national president Nitin Nabin’s direct supervision, renewed outreach to thousands of deras across Punjab through the RSS-BJP network, and a campaign centred on drug abuse, law and order, national security and Central welfare schemes are expected to form the core of the BJP’s electoral strategy for Punjab, sources said. Key questions, however, remain unresolved ahead of the 2027 polls. These include whether the BJP will revive its alliance with former partner the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which broke ties with the party over the now-repealed farm laws in 2020, and how it plans to engage with the Akal Takht. Sources said BJP Nabin’s recently concluded three-day visit to the poll-bound state has laid the groundwork for what is likely to be the party’s most focused Punjab campaign in recent years. “The party’s work on Punjab began immediately after the West Bengal Assembly election results were announced last month. Outreach to deras, which influence a significant section of voters in the state, is already underway. The party will soon launch …

Manjula Narayan picks her favourite reads of 2025

Manjula Narayan picks her favourite reads of 2025

From insightful explorations of the peculiarities of the Indian Internet in Anurag Minus Verma’s The Great Indian Brainrot to Rudraneil Sengupta’s The Beast Within, a police procedural set in the National Capital Region, there were many superb reads across categories this year. Which is why I’m not even attempting to pick a single favourite book of 2025. Learning to Make Tea for One by Andaleeb Wajid (Speaking Tiger) Ghee Bowman’s The Great Epinal Escape about hundreds of soldiers of the British Indian Army breaking out of a prison camp in France, dodging the German army, and trudging 100 km to freedom in Switzerland, recovers a brilliant shard of history. “It’s really interesting for me as a historian to ask why is it that this particular event has been pretty much forgotten until now,” the author said on the Books & Authors podcast. Then, there is Santosh K Singh’s The Deras; Culture, Diversity and Politics on the varied character, caste and class affiliations of the deras of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal. The book also looks at …