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With the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) having been disaccredited by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the second consecutive year in May 2024, on account of lack of pluralistic balance in its composition and staff to represent a diverse Indian society including religious and ethnic minorities and the UNHRC deferring India’s NHRC accreditation for the second year in a row, it is now learnt that this decision could now affect India’s ability to vote at the UNHRC and some United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) bodies as well. The latest United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report released on October 2, 2024 on rampant human rights violations and the NHRC’s failure to intervene to perform its constitutional duties to protect, defend, preserve and uphold human rights of people of India indicates its dysfunctional status.

Haryana assembly election the result of which came out on Tuesday, has sprung up great surprise belying almost all political projections and analyses predicting Congress to wrest power from the BJP. However, Congress met a serious setback and the BJP spectacularly gained. It marks the reversal of political fortune, which shows strategic excellence of the BJP and its leadership on the one hand, while Congress setback marks the need of the party learning some lesson from it.

The Bharatiya Janata Party lost the Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections. The National Conference-Congress alliance romped home victorious. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah announced Omar Abdullah will be the next Chief Minister. The Valley had voted enormously for the NC-Congress alliance. Almost as if there's no tomorrow. Jammu's Hindus gave the BJP a face-saver. But not to the extent the BJP expected. The Congress could have improved the NC-Congress tally in the Jammu region.

Pakistan is on the boil. Clashes breaking out between security personnel of the country and former prime minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) once again pose a threat to the law and order situation in the perennially troubled nation.

KOLKATA: In September every year, when the progress of the south-west monsoon is usually well-established and heavy rains in several districts of West Bengal’s southern part cause floods, chief minister Mamata Banerjee performs her ritual of blaming Damodar Valley Corporation for the “man-made floods” and holds DVC responsible for hurting the state’s interest by its oft-repeated practice of reckless release of excessive water from its dams.

NEW YORK: One year ago, as Israel launched its massive war on Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the U.S. government was fully aware its ally was embarking on a campaign that would end up with Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders charged with war crimes. And yet, as the whole world has seen, that advance knowledge did nothing to deter the Biden administration from arming and aiding the genocide that has been perpetrated since.

Monday October 7, 2024 marks the completion of one year of the Israel-Palestine war which started with the brutal attack on the citizens of Israel by the militant Palestine group Hamas and the more severe retaliation by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the complete annexation of the Gaza area along with ethnic cleansing by the forces of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the following months with the active assistance of the high tech arms and equipment by the Western nations led by the USA.

The government’s latest policy to allow the export of non-basmati white rice could not have come at a more appropriate time as farmers are getting ready to harvest the country’s most important autumn crop, rice. In the absence of proper storage facilities in the country, the surplus needs to be either sold at a discount in the domestic market or exported to earn a decent price. India is expected to set a new rice production record during the current year.

The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir conducted its first assembly elections in a decade. It showcased the peaceful embrace of democracy by its people last week after decades of militancy. These polls were held after the bifurcation of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh on August 5, 2019, following the revocation of Article 370. The BJP claimed that the move was necessary to tackle separatism, enhance economic development and fully integrate the region into the country.

S Jaishankar's tenure so far as External Affairs Minister reminds many of us of our fears and failure to do something with our lives. Imagine a Foreign Minister of India and he hasn’t done anything of import to solve the India-Pakistan jigsaw. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tutelage, EAM S. Jaishankar has been mostly preparing the ground for Modi to carry forward his "foreign" agenda. There is no denying that Modi is India’s “Super EAM” and S. Jaishankar, with all his foreign policy wonk experience, did not get the chance to repair India’s ties with Pakistan.