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A little over a month ago Democratic Party leadership was gripped with the idea that president Joe Biden might not be the best candidate to represent their party in the Presidential race against Donald Trump, with many dreading what they thought could be a landslide loss up and down the ballot in November 5 elections.

The squabble between Rahul Gandhi and Union minister Kiren Rijiju over the lack of representation of backward classes and tribals in beauty pageants has accorded a bit of glamour to the debate surrounding castes. Rahul’s remark, might seem trivial at first glance, but on closer scrutiny, it turns out to be a calculated move by the Congress party to bring the issue back to the forefront of national politics. No wonder, Kiren Rijiju, the leading Rahul-baiter in the Modi cabinet, has joined issue with the Leader of Opposition.

The BJP’s plan to hijack the mass upsurge of the common people in Kolkata, especially women seeking justice for the rape and murder of the young doctor of R G Kar Medical College, has finally failed. The 12 hour bandh in Bengal called by the BJP on Wednesday August 28 in protest against the alleged ‘police atrocities on the protesters on Tuesday who organize march to Nabanna, the secretariat of the state government, flopped as the normal life continued excepting some small incidents.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut is facing greater heat in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly after the BJP pushed her under the bus for talking out of turn on the farmers’ agitation which rankles as one of the most abject U-turns of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his second prime ministerial term. The BJP doesn’t want to be reminded of Modi losing face.

Dynastic politics have been the bane of many countries in South East Asia. Indonesia is in the throes of political unrest as thousands of protestors have taken to the streets as President Joko Widodo prepares to hand over his reins to his successor, Prabowo Subianto in October this year.

France’s parliamentary elections went better than expected for the Left. While polls predicted victory for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, her defeat in the July 7 runoff votes was a relief for the left-wingers who rallied against her. Their Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance took 193 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, against 166 for President Emmanuel Macron’s allies and 142 for Le Pen’s supporters.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s advice to government-controlled banks to launch special drives to step up deposit mobilization to catch up with the demand for loans may give a wrong impression that the public sector bank (PSB) management does not know the basic principles of banking. How can a PSB mobilise enough deposits when their interest rates on fixed deposits (FDs) vary from as low as 4.50 percent to 5.50 percent? Small banks and finance companies offer nearly double the rates for FDs. The maximum FD interest rate offered by these PSBs, with the exception of Bank of India, for a period varying from seven days to 10 years is 6.5 percent. After income tax deduction at source, the return on FDs from most PSBs could be around anything between 4.05 percent and 5.85 percent.

Industrialist Anil Ambani has been barred from the securities market for a period of five years for perpetrating what SEBI describes as a 'fraudulent scheme' that led to diversion of funds from a group company. SEBI's move, ostensibly a robust response to alleged fraudulent practices involving the diversion of funds from Reliance Home Finance, stands in stark contrast to the regulatory leniency observed in cases involving other influential business conglomerates. This discrepancy has triggered perceptions of selective enforcement, particularly given the broader context of crony capitalism and the intricate ties between major business figures and the government.

The war of supremacy that has been raging inside the saffron ecosystem, for quite time between the RSS leadership and the Gujarat Lobby led by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, came out for the first time in public domain with Modi-Shah duo withdrawing the list of the candidates chosen by them for the J&K assembly election.

Whoever thought the low-profile Sunita, wife of Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, would emerge as an acceptable leader in the Aam Aadmi Party? Her increasing involvement is particularly significant after her husband has been jailed for a liquor scam since March 21 this year.. She has become a crucial link between her husband and the Party.