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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The dreadful Nipah has staged a comeback. But the State is better prepared this time.

Undoubtedly, it was a rightist takeover. One may even call it a different type of ‘coup d’état’ that has happened in India. It took place in a most calculated manner over the course of time. It was so massive that its magnitude was beyond the expectations of the master-brains and stage managers of the Sangh Parivar. They were also working out strategies to meet the exigencies that may arise, in case of a hung Parliament. But the verdict was so decisive that the BJP/ NDA needed no helping hand to form a government of their absolute choice. In place of BJP’s 282 in 2014 elections they could win 303 seats in 2019. The NDA tally has grown from 336 in 16th Lok Sabha to 353 in 17th Lok Sabha.

A massive mandate is no license for indifference or callousness in governance towards social crises, like the unprecedented labour force participation crisis haunting Indian women. The next one month in the run-up to the presentation of the full budget on 5 July by Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman would have to show whether this message has sunk in with the Modi Government 2.0.

The post May 23 political situation is settling down in the country. The saffrons are reigning supreme and the non party seculars and liberals who argued hard before the 2019 Lok Sabha poll against the second coming of Narendra Modi, are lying low. It is BJP and Hindutva all the way in the Indian polity right now. The immediate fall out of the massive victory of the BJP is the leadership crisis in the principal opposition party the Congress and the split in the gathbandhan with the BSP supremo Mayawati announcing that the BSP will go alone now without any tie up with the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav. SP has also responded by indicating that the party will go solo in the coming by polls to the eleven assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh in the coming month.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

In a significant decision, the Bombay High Court upheld the constitutional validity of Section 376E, IPC, which prescribed death penalty for persons convicted of repeat offence of rape, i.e., if a person who had a previous conviction of rape or gang rape is again convicted of any of the offences of rape under IPC, such person can be punished with imprisonment for life, or with death.

Even after facing a huge debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, it seems that Congress party is not getting the lessons right. Party president Rahul Gandhi, who was very much sure about PM Narendra Modi's defeat, offered to resign from the post taking responsibility for the fiasco — only to be rejected by the Congress Working Committee. Instead to keep the Gandhi dynasty at the helm of the party, Congress party re-elected Sonia Gandhi, who earlier had taken a backseat to give way to her son — Rahul Gandhi, as the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. According to sources, CWC has authorised Sonia to choose the party's leader at the Lok Sabha.

Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar is on the mission to float a new alliance. The present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has lost its relevance for him as it ceased to serve his political and personal interests. So far the ally, the BJP, promoted and endorsed his desire, the alliance was germane.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., took his fight against corporate greed and inequality into the den of the most anti-union retailer in the nation on June 5 —Walmart. Appearing on the floor of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Rogers, Arkansas, Sanders blasted executives and owners for paying what he called “starvation wages” and lent his support to Walmart workers’ campaign to secure a seat on the board of directors.

Bengalis and Malayalis have always prided themselves for their so-called ‘intellectual superiority’ and political maturity. Both societies have shared a past that brought them wholesome praise for their achievements in social, cultural and political spheres. The left-leanings of the two societies and their respect for democratic values have almost become legend. In fact, Kerala has had the unique distinction of voting the world’s first communist ministry to power through the ballot.