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WASHINGTON: White House National Security Adviser John Bolton has been kept out of any discussions related to the ongoing US-Taliban negotiations because his opposition to diplomacy has irritated President Donald Trump, US media reported.

Protests and rallies being planned with admirable speed by the People’s Assembly and allies will see significant turnouts up and down the United Kingdom in coming days.

Vote bank politics has become a common practice for the political parties of the country — cutting across ideologies. In India, secularism means that everyone has the right to practice and follow his/her religious principles — unlike the European version which means separation between the state and the Church. Although, the reality is that today the idea of secularism has just become a piece of paper with the political parties exploiting it for appeasing their own vote banks. The recent comments of union minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar that the mindset of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has changed after its victory from Wayanad is really distasteful.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Pala in Kottayam district is not an assembly constituency that luxuriates in its obscurity. It has all pretensions to national and international attention. The constituency’s unique selling point (USP) is the fact that it was represented by Kerala Congress(Mani) chairman, K. M. Mani for 54 years -a world record. A by-election has been necessitated by the passing away of the veteran who bestrode the constituency like a Colossus.

BHOPAL: All is not well in Madhya Pradesh Congress. Followers of various factional leaders are openly holding out threat that if their boss is not appointed as the President of the state Congress they may resort to other options. Most vociferous are the followers of Jyotiraditya Scindia. Many of them have gone to the extent of saying that they along with hundreds of followers may resign en mass if Scindia is not chosen for the top organisational post. At present Kamal Nath holds both the posts – Chief Minister and PCC Chief.

In apparent irony when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was talking about creating commercial banks capable of servicing a five-trillion dollar economy, the quarterly GDP growth figures showed a further dip.

Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik in an interview to the Hindustan Times published on Friday has totally ruled out any dialogue with the mainstream political parties of Kashmir for bringing about an early solution of the lockdown in the valley which began on August 5.Malik said there will be no dialogue with the mainstream political parties or the separatists. He elaborated his approach by saying political dialogue is important but ‘we would engage with the Kashmiri civil society’. The interview is full of scorn and banter against the mainstream leaders like Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah and the impression has been given that the Government will look for the chosen people in Kashmir for a political dialogue ignoring the mainstream political parties.

National Theatre of USA’s The Lehman Trilogy, showing in theatres around the world, is a brilliant, tragic cautionary tale—that needs to come with a warning label!

RBI’s transfer of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government of India is not likely to clear financial mess of the country that has been created by the Modi-led NDA since 2014. The extent of the economic and financial crisis is far worse than the gift of the RBI which is 1.25 per cent of the GDP in 2018-19.

After presenting a budget of newly elected government, Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had to take back most of the recommendation made in the budget particularly about taxing super rich and financial transaction. All the tall claim made during budget presentation with bravado – had to be forgotten as there is massive economic slowdown.