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The Brexit negotiations having stumbled in Brussels after late-night talks with EU officials the British politics is passing through a bind. Both the treasury and opposition leaders are unable to comprehend what political line they should follow in the matter of Brexit. At a time when complete confusion grips the British politics, a labour parliamentarian Yvette Cooper has come up with the suggestion to delay Brexit if Prime Minister Theresa May cannot get her deal through Parliament by a specified date. Interestingly this idea of Cooper has received the support of 15 ministers, including three cabinet ministers.

The recent India-Pakistan military exchanges post-Pulwama attack on the CRPF jawans has led to a significant shift in the way India would deal with terrorist attacks from across the border. The pre-emptive strike by India to demolish the terrorist camps in a place like Balakot has been swift and has caught Pakistan on the wrong foot. In the exchanges that followed, Pakistan surprisingly decided to return India’s fighter pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman unconditionally and urging India to settle differences with peace talks. Two things stand out in this whole saga. Experts have analyzed these and other associated developments from various perspectives. However, two issues which are yet to be understood with clarity are: a) the timing of the Pulwama attack and b) the unexpected and so-called extension of the olive branch of noblesse proportions from Pakistan.

More the war danger deepens in South Asia, more the anti-war peace activism also grows in proportion. Today, such a peace activism has come to the fore as the foremost arena of democratic activism in India as well as internationally. This inevitably brings up the question as to what the role of the labour movement is in this peace activism.

Now, if we can forget war, we can get on with life and with the general elections. That is a thought which is not the pitch because war makes a stronger pitch to make all the correct noises to win elections. Watching and listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is proof. He’s up first light of the day and thereafter it’s a daylong diatribe against rivals who are demonized for not giving a thought to “our armed forces.” It’s as if the entire opposition is “anti-national” and the BJP alone is in the trench with the “jawan.”

Tribal lands have always been for grab. On March 4 the tribals observed Bharat Bandh in protest against their evictions from their own land and accused the state governments of helping the big business in their attempt to grab their lands.

They are fighting on semantics now. The Bharatya Janata Party and the Congress. Whether Pulwama was an “accident” or an attack. It is a deliberate attempt to confuse, to make a ‘Baat Ka Batangad’, some would say. An “accident” when it’s planned is an attack. But who will tell that to Congress stalwart Digvijay Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Digvijay Singh called Pulwama an “accident” and invited attack.

Poll issues have changed overnight after the Pulwama terror attack on February 14 and India’s subsequent retaliation. It is clear now that all the earlier issues like Rafale scam, jobs, rural crisis etc. have taken a back seat to the terror narrative which presently gives an advantage to the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Whether it will give them votes is a different question.

Pregnant in the din over demands for proof of kill and statements that patriots shouldn't ask for proof, whether or not targets were struck or only trees were uprooted, is the conduct of the media both sides of the border. Sections of the Indian television news media have turned ‘warmongers’, studio warriors demanding Pakistan be taught a lesson, giving fodder for their Pakistani counterparts to pit India’s militaristic intentions with a ‘peaceful Pakistan’ narrative.

Talk of impeaching GOP President Donald Trump for “high crimes and misdemeanours,” to quote the U.S. Constitution’s language, is heating up in Congress – if not in all of the country – yet.

BHOPAL: Controversial statement by former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh and by two states cabinet Ministers have come handy to the BJP to launch a fierce attack on the Congress.