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LUCKNOW: With the spectre of the grand disaster that the Lok Sabha 2019 election turned out for the grand old party, the Congress has finally woken up from the shock-induced stupor and has already started working on “Mission 22” to prepare for the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

KOLKATA: A clash between junior doctors and relatives and friends of a patient who died in the government-run NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on June 10 night has brought the entire public health care system in West Bengal to a grinding halt. Doctors in all government hospitals in the State have gone on strike demanding adequate police protection for their safety. The strike has brought the medical fraternity all over the country in support of their West Bengal brethren.

On Wednesday morning, Bernie Sanders tweeted his support for former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, imprisoned since April of last year on flimsy corruption charges. Sanders was responding to bombshell exposés published by the Intercept last Sunday documenting collusion between the chief prosecutor and the presiding judge in Lula’s case. That judge, Sergio Moro, consistently maintained that his handling of Lula’s case was entirely apolitical — even after he was appointed minister of justice by Lula’s opponent, the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. That pretense has now been discredited by the Intercept’s reporting.

BHOPAL: On the eve of completion of six months of his government Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has suggested an unique formula to defeat BJP’s design to destablise his government. In a letter addressed to Sonia Gandhi, Kamal Nath has requested her to facilitate six vacancies in his cabinet. This can be done if three factional leaders ask their two nominees each to voluntarily quit the ministry. The three factional leaders are Digvijaya Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath himself.

The last general election has had one beneficial fallout. It has set at rest some myths and the unreal expectations of at least two political prima donnas. One fanciful idea that has been given a decent burial is that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra represents a new Indira Gandhi with her dazzling beauty and popular appeal.

From presidential hopefuls to peace groups to 86,125 people signing an anti-war petition – so far – the latest Iran war threat concocted by President Trump has ignited a firestorm of criticism and opposition.

The word socialism is on everyone’s lips these days. On the far right, President Donald Trump, worried about the threat of higher marginal tax rates and health care for all, roars that “America will never be a socialist country!”

Creating the image of a victim of the conspiracy and machination of the BJP is not going to help reclaim the situation for West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. The situation arising out of post doctor—patient party clash simply reinforces the image of a beleaguered state waiting for major surgical strike.

Analysts are discounting the sudden spike in the price of oil after two tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Iran as a knee-jerk reaction and insisting that it warrants no change in the price outlook, which is negative for the producers.

The BJP has acted wisely in asking its party leaders to refrain from toppling Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. The BJP leaders of these states were guided by the strong attack made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah during the abrasive campaigning against the non-NDA chief ministers like Mamata, H D Kumaraswamy of Karnataka and Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal. Modi and Shah had even said that many opposition leaders were ready to switch sides.