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The political tremors emanating from Congress setback in Haryana assembly polls , was immediately felt in Maharashtra, since its current Vidhan Sabha is to expire on November 26, 2024, election for which is likely to be announced by the Election Commission of India anytime soon. Congress being one of the three major constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra, the party’s losing a winning election battle in Haryana deeply affected its chief ally Shiv Sena (UBT) prompting them to criticise Congress for the lapses while Congress itself is clueless as its allegation “Congress has been made to lose, party has not lost” suggests.

The question is not “Did ‘Brand Modi’ and ‘Modi Magic’ win Haryana for the BJP?” The question is “Who won Haryana for Modi’s rehabilitation?" Consider this: Congress candidate Mamman Khan won from Muslim majority ‘Nuh’. His victory margin was more than one lakh votes, the highest in these Haryana elections. Khan’s Nuh had seen a communal conflagration a year ago. Khan’s constituency is in the Muslim-majority Mewat region. The BJP candidate stood no chance.

LUCKNOW: Enthused by the success in Haryana assembly polls, BJP is all to play aggressive backward and dalit card to dent in PDA base of Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav. There is a realisation in BJP after Lok Sabha polls, Hindutva alone can not ensure good number of seats and caste factor should be given importance to reach out to the voters in Uttar Pradesh.

In the history of Indian bilateral defence cooperation with other countries since Independence, our armed forces had and continue to have good relations with some dodgy undemocratic partners. The most egregious of them in the past was Saddam’s Iraq, which just gassed the inhabitants of Halabja and inflicted regular pogroms on the Marsh Arabs and the Kurds. Nearer home, to name just one, is the so-called pragmatic relationship with the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military junta, that leaves a trail of death, rapine and pillage across the non-Burman ethnic areas.

Indian screen is not the ideal place for dusky beauties. Yet Rekha (none would recognise her as Bhanu Rekha Ganeshan) has held her sway over it for decades together.

With the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) having been disaccredited by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the second consecutive year in May 2024, on account of lack of pluralistic balance in its composition and staff to represent a diverse Indian society including religious and ethnic minorities and the UNHRC deferring India’s NHRC accreditation for the second year in a row, it is now learnt that this decision could now affect India’s ability to vote at the UNHRC and some United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) bodies as well. The latest United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report released on October 2, 2024 on rampant human rights violations and the NHRC’s failure to intervene to perform its constitutional duties to protect, defend, preserve and uphold human rights of people of India indicates its dysfunctional status.

Haryana assembly election the result of which came out on Tuesday, has sprung up great surprise belying almost all political projections and analyses predicting Congress to wrest power from the BJP. However, Congress met a serious setback and the BJP spectacularly gained. It marks the reversal of political fortune, which shows strategic excellence of the BJP and its leadership on the one hand, while Congress setback marks the need of the party learning some lesson from it.

The Bharatiya Janata Party lost the Jammu & Kashmir assembly elections. The National Conference-Congress alliance romped home victorious. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah announced Omar Abdullah will be the next Chief Minister. The Valley had voted enormously for the NC-Congress alliance. Almost as if there's no tomorrow. Jammu's Hindus gave the BJP a face-saver. But not to the extent the BJP expected. The Congress could have improved the NC-Congress tally in the Jammu region.

KOLKATA: In September every year, when the progress of the south-west monsoon is usually well-established and heavy rains in several districts of West Bengal’s southern part cause floods, chief minister Mamata Banerjee performs her ritual of blaming Damodar Valley Corporation for the “man-made floods” and holds DVC responsible for hurting the state’s interest by its oft-repeated practice of reckless release of excessive water from its dams.

The government’s latest policy to allow the export of non-basmati white rice could not have come at a more appropriate time as farmers are getting ready to harvest the country’s most important autumn crop, rice. In the absence of proper storage facilities in the country, the surplus needs to be either sold at a discount in the domestic market or exported to earn a decent price. India is expected to set a new rice production record during the current year.