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Will it take a Caravan – such as the one closing in on the United States border with Mexico – of Ayyappa devotees to convince Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that there’s more to the Sabarimala issue than just gender-justice? For, it appears the governance-style of ‘benign rulers for life’ seems to have rubbed off on Pinarayi during his foreign visit to garner support and funds to build a ‘Nava Kerala’, with justice for all, most of all women of all ages.

Brazil heads to the polls on October 28 for the second round of what has perhaps been the most volatile and unpredictable election campaign since the country’s military dictatorship ended in 1989. The run-off is between the far-right Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad who is the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) candidate. Bolsonaro had a commanding lead of more than 16 per cent over Haddad in the first round.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative, later renamed as BRI, is feared to be a cobweb for debt trap for developing and emerging nations. China woos small and weaker nations with infrastructure loans and when their debts are not paid, it captures their land and resources of these nations. There is little room for debt relief under the Chinese terms of development loan. So far, eight countries have fallen prey to debt trap. They are Djibouti, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao, Maldives, Mongolia, Pakistan and Montenegro, according to a study by the Centre for Global Development.

Ram Leela celebrations during the ten-day long Dussehra festivals that culminated in demon Ravan burning ritual at Dhobi Ghat, Chaura Phatak near Amritsar (Punjab) on October 19, 2018 evening where speeding Jallandhar-Amritsar DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) train crushed to death 62 people and injured over 70 persons was an avoidable tragedy that could not have happened.

Morning, we found, it was a night of the long knives. But was it actually the night of the scorpion? It was raining allegations of corruption and the scorpion was in the house. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in danger of being Rafale stung and there was no antidote other tan to scramble the jets and do a purge of the blue-eyed and the red-eyed along with other eyes. One CBI officer called Bassi was told to take the bus to Port Blair, Kalapaani!

LUCKNOW: It is becoming clear that smaller parties can cause damage to all possible alliances and force new alignments for 2019 Lok Sabha elections in UP.

Come December. It can be the cruellest month for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party BJP. If the present trends continue and the Congress and the other opposition parties can meet the electoral challenge of the assembly polls in the five states-Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana, the results on December 11 might be devastating for the saffron forces. If the BJP loses MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the ant- BJP forces will be getting such a momentum that the most powerful government of the BJP at the centre will be converted into a lameduck one.

For the first time in Central Bureau of Investigation history, the top-dog and second top-dog in the CBI are engaged in an ugly dogfight, each snapping at the heels of the other, leaving it to the imagination as to who is Honest George Washington – CBI Director Alok Verma or CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana? To complicate matters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was drawn into the controversy and his brag “Na Khaunga Na Khaane Doonga” slipped a disc.

It’s been 18 months since France was rocked by the crushing victory of the pro-European Union Emmanuel Macron and his new political movement in the presidential and legislative elections last year. That victory delivered a body blow to the two established parties—the conservative Les Republicains and the Socialists—and, despite an ultimately poor result, cemented Marine Le Pen’s arch Eurosceptic, anti-immigration Front National, rebranded Rassemblement National (the National Rally), as a major political force. The only shimmer of hope was Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose uncompromising anti-austerity message saw for the first time in decades a radical left force outflanking the Socialists in the presidential poll.

Lynching and urban naxals have the same ideological background. While lynching was resorted to by the RSS and its frontal organisations to terrorise Muslims, Dalits and other minorities, traditionally anti-saffron and secular forces, the phrase urban naxal is the latest weapon designed by the RSS to frighten the progressive voices.