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The fear of losing the electoral battle has turned the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi fraught and in his desperation to retrieve the ground he had forgotten his political stature and aura and has stooped low to the level of using unpleasant jibes against the young RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. The trends in the first phase of assembly poll in Bihar held on October 28, have unnerved the BJP leadership. Prime Minister is resorting to attacks on the opposition alliance, leader Tejashwi mentioning issues which have nothing to do with the burning issues of the day.

While analysing the features of fascism in the Italian context, Antonio Gramsci had pointed out that grounds were prepared even before the dominating forces unveiled themselves. The various democratic structures were slowly taken over. Uniformity was imposed on culture replacing its multiplicity. Efforts were made to influence the psyche of people and either win them over or do away with opposing sections. To get rid of any divergence, there were attempts made to directly eliminate them taking extreme positions or slowly usurp the hegemony manoeuvring all the way.

Ankhi Das, whose claim to fame has been publicly supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi while steering public policy at the social media behemoth, Facebook, unproblematically asserting that “likes can get you votes” on May 17, 2014 (a day after Modi-led NDA won the Lok Sabha elections), — has quit her job. Her stepping down has come in the wake of strong questioning from the parliamentary panel about Facebook’s role in promoting hate speech peddled by ruling party apparatchiks, and after her interventions in favour of BJP legislators were exposed by international publications such as Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal, creating massive global backlash against Facebook’s unscrupulous methods putting profit above ethics.

Ankhi Das, who through her own interpretation of her role as public policy director of Facebook in India gave a tinge of saffron to the social media giant’s blue colour scheme, has finally exited the India operations. She has been with Facebook since 2011, when Mark Zuckerberg’s outfit had not grown much beyond a start-up.

New Delhi: Putting behind dismal 2019-20 PGA Tour season, ace golfer Anirban Lahiri feels that he is back on the course and is in good form this season.

The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) that has taken shape in Jammu & Kashmir augurs well for democratic politics and the future fight for safeguarding the constitutional and democratic rights of the people of J&K.

In mid-September, the Bar Council of Delhi issued a notice to the Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan asking him to explain why it should not initiate disciplinary proceedings against him under Sections 24A and 35 of the Advocates Act, 1961. The notice specified that it was concerned with his tweets on the judiciary and his conviction for contempt of the Supreme Court. By invoking Section 24A, the Bar Council seems to imply that Prashant Bhushan is guilty of an offence involving moral turpitude and the reference to Section 35 indicates that the Council finds it necessary to enquire into the alleged ‘professional or other misconduct’.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which in recent times has suffered severe crisis of credibility and faith in the eyes of the people has suffered yet another shattering blow with the Maharashtra government withdrawing general consent for operations within its territory. Before Maharashtra four other states have also withdrawn consent. Obviously this should worry the CBI and the onus is on the agency, not its masters, to ensure its credibility.

The border dispute between Tripura and Mizoram refuses to die down. Early this year the Centre signed a pact with the stakeholders, which also included the two state governments, to permanently settle the 34,000 Bru refugees in Tripura. The Brus, known in Tripura as Reangs, are the second largest tribal community in the state after the Tripuri community. The pact was hailed by many — as it was viewed as an end of the 23 years old issue, which has been the cause of major dispute between Tripura and Mizoram.

With exactly a week until Election Day 2020, Trump’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, has now been installed, taking the seat previously held by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As voters nationwide line up hours in advance to cast a ballot or request a mail-in ballot in an unprecedented electoral uprising, Barrett’s confirmation by the U.S. Senate has tipped the scales of ‘justice,’ cementing a 6-3 conservative majority High Court. The Republican Party and Trump now possess a solid advantage, which could have an immediate impact on the hundreds of voting rights lawsuits still floating in legal limbo across the country.