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It is a Mani Shankar Aiyar habit to startle. The ‘Congress veteran’ is an amalgam of both politician and diplomat. And “respecting Pakistan” is an Aiyar trait. Now, Aiyar’s “respect for Pakistan” is tinged with known fear. Aiyar says “Respect Pakistan or they'll drop atom bomb”. When was the last time Pakistan dropped an “atom bomb”? Aiyar is the veteran on the bomb squad, he will know.

Veterans of Trinamool Congress and BJP have locked horns in Burdwan-Durgapur-Asansol industrial belt of Bengal once the most go to place for a job seeking engineer or a manual labourer. A low voter turnout is not unlikely in these constituencies on May 13 -in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state. After years of cohabiting in the neighbourhood of closed Public Sector Units(PSUs) and once blue chip private sector enterprises, many voters feel no matter who is elected, this area once known as "Ruhr of Bengal" is long past its salad days.

Each strand of political praxis is informed by a political philosophy which analyses the world around us, especially, in modern times, its economic characteristics. On the basis of this analysis, the particular political philosophy sets out the objectives which have to be struggled for, and the political praxis informed by it carries out this struggle. The objective may be difficult to achieve, more difficult in certain contexts than in others, and this difficulty may act as a hurdle for political praxis; but this does not constitute a crisis for that political philosophy. The sheer difficulty of achieving an objective does not constitute a crisis. A crisis of a political philosophy arises when it has an internal contradiction, when the objective it puts forward is logically in conflict with some other feature in which it believes.

Elections to half the seats in the Lok Sabha have been completed with the third phase of polling being over on May 7. This has provided enough experience and time to assess how the Election Commission (EC) has gone about superintending the conduct of a free and fair poll. The verdict in this matter can only be that it has failed badly.

How long it takes to listen to the victim’s tearful cries? That too when she is a mother of a four-year old, dares to plead to the demons for her life as her death could be the death of her child too. Their assent to it has been conditional. “Disrobe yourself or die.”

If the noblest could be compared with the plebeian, the infinite with the infinitesimal, the dignified with crass, then the underlying sentiments expressed by Sam Pitroda were in the same veins as Rabindranath Tagore’s great poem “Bharat Tirtha”. All this hyper reaction by the BJP leaders including the Prime Minister calling Pitroda as ‘ racist’ ignores the very basis of what he actually said. He was correct in his sense of history , but the presentation was a bit defective.

Politics in Haryana underwent a considerable change before the withdrawal of nomination on May 9 for the Lok Sabha Election scheduled in the penultimate phase VI on May 25. Election campaign would start from tomorrow in a backdrop of change of BJP’s chief minister on the eve of election on March 12, split in NDA making the allies BJP and JJP apart, and only less than two months after Nayab Singh Saini government in the state reduced to minority after desertion of three independent MLAs withdrawing their support on May 7.It is certainly ominous for BJP, since the party aims to win all the 10 Lok Sabha Seats from the state which it had won in 2019 Lok Sabha election, because it can’t afford loss of any seat if the target set by the Prime Minister has to be achieved.

Narendra Modi’s two latest remarks — first hitting out at Rahul Gandhi over Sam Pitroda's 'skin colour' comments, and second charging Ambani and Adani with buying Rahul’s purported silence — have caused furore in the political circles. Not only have they shaken the trust level of the top leaders of the RSS and BJP, these also underscore significant dimensional change in Indian national politics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi couldn’t have been more thrilled than when Indian Overseas Congress head Sam Pitroda spoke. On May 8, Modi feigned anger and outrage and gave Indians reason to feel divided after Sam Pitroda did what he thought was an honest classification of Indians and Modi declassified, i.e., separated Indians into racist cliques and slots by pointing out the alleged divisive agenda of the Congress in Sam's assessment. By evening, Sam had resigned from his post and the entire lot of Indians was talking in scattered bites, and in bits and pieces.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress in Kerala suffered a severe legal as well as political setback when the vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram rejected the petition filed by party MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan seeking a probe against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter Veena on the allegation that they had received a monthly payment from the Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL) in return for favouring operations of the company.