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Vasco, Goa: Two late goals in a span of five minutes broke Bengaluru resistance as Hyderabad came from behind in dramatic fashion to draw 2-2 in the Hero Indian Super League at the Tilak Maidan, Vasco, on Thursday.

Was what happened in Red Fort, Delhi on January 26 comparable to what happened on January 6 in Capitol Hill, Washington DC? In Delhi and in India, it’s being talked of as if the farmers’ protests warped into insurrection and that the fullest punishment should be meted out to the “guilty” with the full force of the law. Strangely, the person shouting from the top of his lungs for the immediate arrests of “farmers’ leaders” is none other than the guy who was recently bailed out by the Supreme Court with Justice DY Chandrachud declaring that ‘We must send a message today to the high courts as well: Please exercise your jurisdiction to uphold personal liberty.”

It was really a historic moment for BJP on March 3, 2018, when the party — which was hardly even visible in the state just some years ago — was able to dethrone the 25-year-old CPI(M) led Left Front government in Tripura. The saffron party — aided by prime minister Narendra Modi’s personal popularity — highly benefited from the strong anti-incumbency generated by the 25 years of CPI(M) rule. There were high expectations from the people of every corner of the state.

The self proclaimed disciple of famous socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar has preferred to follow in the footsteps of his rightist autocratic friends.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected India’s GDP to grow by 11.5% in 2021-22. If that happens, India will be the fastest growing among major economies of the world. This would be a good augury for the budget for next fiscal, which is just a few days away. One can expect that the revenues should show some buoyancy from the second half of the year.

THE kisan tractor march on Republic Day in Delhi was a remarkable and unique mass action. At no time had the capital of India witnessed such an extraordinary protest which involved over one lakh tractors and tens of thousands of people. There may have been bigger rallies in the past but not such a massive protest action.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mastered the art of promising moon to the distressed Indians. Addressing a meeting in Kolkata to celebrate the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Modi said that “Today the world is seeing India in a new avatar, from LAC to LOC, wherever anyone is trying to pose any challenge to the territorial sovereignty of the country, is given a befitting reply”. He said that Netaji would be satisfied and proud to see this new self reliant India.

HANOI: With only 35 recorded deaths, Vietnam has managed the coronavirus pandemic better than almost any other country on earth. And, unlike other nations, where mass unemployment and recession are the norm, Vietnam’s economy is actually growing. That’s the context in which the week long 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) opened here on January 26.

Protests do not really seem to win many victories for any side today. Even though the government agreed to finally hold back farm laws for a year and a half, farmers refused to back off on their demand for repeal. Dissenters were convinced that the state was quietly digging in its heels, though it officially offered to push a ‘pause’ button.

Some fanatics are striving for the entire the post independence era of decades to establish hegemony of the Indian religion and in the process have been hammering at Indian culture that outlived every other culture for the past four thousand years. The Indian culture is democratic in concept and most tolerant in nature. It did withstand not only several splintered sects that emerged from it but also emergence of two other religions twenty four hundred years ago. The original concept prevailed in the ultimate as it was not the forced concept. Anyone can adopt or move away from it.