NEWS

Much before the British, Marwaris like Hiranand Sahu, Manik Chand, and Madhab Rai, who got the title of ‘Jagat Seth’, dominated the trade sector in West Bengal and its adjoining states like Bihar and even expanded their wings to Dacca (now Dhaka, in Bangladesh).

Such was their clout that Robert Orme, historian of the East India Company, termed Madhab Rai the richest man in the world in 1744.

Since then Marwaris and later Gujaratis have continued to hold sway over Bengal’s trade sector and most of them are settled in and around Bhabanipur, which is going to witness a high-voltage electoral contest on September 30 with chief minister Mamata Banerjee one of the candidates. A sizable number of such communities are also settled in Burrabazar – one of the biggest trade hubs in India.

Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday said that chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s "ill-tempered rant" against proves that he is rattled after being told not to demonise the peaceful and patriotic farmers of Punjab.

“The chief minister is bending over backwards to dance to the tunes of BJP just because that party had bailed him out of his intra-party crisis by using the threat of central agencies against the Congress MLAs who had rebelled against him. The whole world knows that Capt Amarinder Singh is BJP’s “swatantar fauji” in the Congress and that he is doing everything to keep his real bosses happy," Badal said.

Harsimrat Kaur was commenting on what she called the outbursts of an embarrassed chief minister who had been caught going against the interests of farmers just to return the favours the BJP had been doing towards him.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (September 15) unveiled the new logo All India Mahila Congress on their foundation day in New Delhi. 

At the foundation day ceremony, Gandhi said that the ideology of the Congress was completely opposite of the BJP-RSS and stressed that only one of the two ideologies can rule the country. 

Slamming the saffron party and RSS, the Congress leader said they are "fake Hindus" who use religion for their benefit, PTI reported. 

Ram Nath Kovind will be the third President of India to address a special session of Himachal Pradesh assembly after former presidents Abdul Kalam and Pranab Mukherjee, Speaker Vipin Singh Parmar said on Tuesday.

Kovind will be addressing the special session of Himachal assembly on September 17 at 11am to mark the golden jubilee of statehood.

Addressing a press conference here, Parmar said 93 sitting and former MLAs besides 11 sitting and former MPs will attend the one-day session. He said after President’s address, a felicitation ceremony for present and former MLAs will be held at the Library Hall of the assembly.