Kumartuli or Kumortuli is located in the northern part of the city of Kolkata . The locality is a traditional habitat of the potters for nearly three hundred years. The potters or the artisans or the artists settled here during the restructuring of the Kolkata colonial region by the British East India Company . Earning a livelihood by making earthen pots and utensils first they gradually shifted to the making of the idols of Gods and Goddesses for various festivals round the year. With increasing demand and quality of their creations over time the artisans became famous and Kumartuli came to be known as the hub of idol makers supplying thousands of idols, particularly of Goddess Durga , to whole of the state of West Bengal and to NRIs of around 90 countries across the globe. At least three months before Durga Puja , the biggest festival of West Bengal and one of the biggest across Eastern India, more than five hundred workshops come alive with hyper activity day and night. Fir...
While the opposition political parties of India have been clueless about what to stand for and how to stand for, the ruling political party with its huge majority or a brute majority have been getting used to rushing through the bills in Parliament of which the prime example had been the Three Farm Laws in 2020 pandemic times (had to be repealed last month due to sustained opposition by the farmers) along with other examples, especially after the party’s second landslide in 2019. ‘Rushing through’ essentially means getting the bills passed in a hurry with mostly voice votes rendering ‘debate’ a mere formality. Yesterday, Monday the 20 th of December 2021, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill-2021 was passed by the Lok Sabha without any debate despite strong opposition to the move. Today, the Bill has also been passed by the Rajya Sabha amid an opposition walkout, and with the Presidential assent being only a formality this move to link the Aadhaar Card to the Voter ID is set to become a...