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Cockroach Janta Party may have begun as satire, but its popularity has exposed something far more serious than a passing joke on the internet. The response it has drawn from government functionaries suggests that the ruling establishment is less disturbed by the humour itself than by the possibility that the satire has found a willing audience. That audience is not laughing merely because the idea is absurd. It is laughing because the absurdity feels familiar.

After its victories in the elections in Assam, Puducherry, and West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become highly emboldened. Particularly in West Bengal, where Mamata Banerjee had a strong government in place, few had expected the BJP to come to power with such overwhelming strength. Due to the weak presence of the Left forces, the electoral contest was largely reduced to a direct battle between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

From the ethereal grace of Madhubala and the timeless magnetism of Hema Malini to the meteoric rise of Alia Bhatt and Rashmika Mandanna, Bollywood’s relationship with its heroines has changed dramatically. Once upon a time, leading ladies ruled the silver screen for decades.

BHOPAL: Halfway through its term, the BJP Government of Madhya Pradesh has begun appointing chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of state-run corporations, boards, authorities, commissions and committees.

The Indian television soap opera industry — once the undisputed emperor of household entertainment — is now fighting the most difficult survival battle in its 40-year history. From the days when entire streets fell silent during Ramayan and Mahabharat on Doordarshan to the age of algorithm-driven binge watching on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and ZEE5, Indian television has undergone a dramatic economic and cultural transformation.

Annoyed by the voice of the voiceless cockroaches on Social Media platform X, the Union Government of India led by PM Narendra Modi got their account banned in the country. Thanks to the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s one of the comments on May 15, 2026, that had triggered the voice, that was ultimately suppressed by the government that goes on trumpeting the world over that India is the mother of democracy.

More than three months have passed since the historic general elections in Bangladesh on February 12 this year leading to the installation of the BNP government in the country headed by Tarique Rahman. PM Narendra Modi’s warm congratulations to the Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and later Indian external affairs minister Dr. S. Jaishankar’s talks with the visiting Bangladesh foreign minister Khalilur Rahman last month brought about some easing of the earlier bitter relations. But unfortunately, this gesture on the part of India has not been immediately followed.

India’s rupee is not merely depreciating. It is sending a warning flare about the structural weaknesses of an economy that spent two decades celebrating growth while postponing the harder questions of economic resilience, industrial depth, and external vulnerability.

Geopolitical conflicts affect the lives of people who hardly have any role in initiating the conflict. The ruling class of conflicting nations engage in wars and the burden of the disruptions caused in the process is asymmetrically imposed upon common people. The national leaders of Israel and the US decided to attack Iran out of desperation as both could sense a decline of their control over the Middle East. According to official statements it was to salvage the Iranian people from the tyranny of Islamic rule. They didn’t succeed. Instead, the US and Iran are caught in a quagmire that does not have an immediate solution.

The Indian government today is trying to present the danger arising from the growing tensions in West Asia and the Hormuz Strait as the biggest cause of the economic crisis. An atmosphere is being created as if India’s economic difficulties have suddenly arisen because of some external war. Whereas the truth is that the crisis visible today is the result of the economic and strategic policies of the last one decade. Hormuz has only fully exposed this crisis; the real crisis is that economic model which has made India import-dependent, corporate-centred, and strategically weak.