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BHOPAL: As the Assembly poll dates are coming nearer, the electoral scenario has become more complicated. One month ago it was thought that the poll battle will be fought between BJP and the alliance of Congress, BSP and SP. The hopes of such a united front were dashed with BSP leader Mayawati’s decision to join hands with Ajit Jogi, former Congress chief minister of Chhattisgarh who has floated a new party after severing ties with Congress. Since Jogi has floated an anti-Congress front, chances of BSP joining hands with Congress in Madhya Pradesh have disappeared. Moreover, Mayawati has also released a list of 22 BSP candidates who will fight the Vidhan Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Mayawati has also announced that her party proposes to contest from all the 230 Vidhan Sabha seats and BSP will not have any alliance with congress in Madhya Pradesh in coming assembly elections.

Social activist Rahul Eshwar says he will lay out a mile-long ‘human carpet’ to welcome #RightToPray feminist antagonist Trupti Desai if and when she lands in Kerala to worship at Sabarimala. “She will have to step over our chests to reach Ayyappa,” he keeps telling Malayalam TV news channels, adding it will not be easy for Trupti. “The Supreme Court will not be there to help her.”

LUCKNOW: BJP and the Yogi Adityanath government are unnerved by the dent in image caused by country-wide reaction to killing of Apple executive Vivek Tewari by a policeman in the night when he failed to stop his car in the state capital on Friday night.

Tanusree Dutta and Nana Patekar is an 'item' though it will take a subpoena to make them admit that they are joined at the hip even if it’s to snipe at each other while failing to find allies. They are a couple because they happen to be India’s and Bollywood’s first #MeToo adversaries with Nana in the dock and Tanusree in the prosecutor’s role, aided and abetted by the new standard that says accusation is guilt.

The Supreme Court representing the highest judiciary of the country played a glorious role last month in expanding the frontiers of democratic and human rights and also facilitating the process of taking further forward looking measures for ensuring justice accessible to the poor and the marginalized sections of the Indian society. Justice Ranjan Gogoi who took over as the new CJI on October 3 has aroused great expectations amongst the civil society and the legal community about imparting a new edge to the liberal spirit of the Indian constitution and making the process of justice more peoples friendly. The base has already been built by the outgoing CJI Dipak Misra in his judgments given in the last two months and his observations along with the dissent notes given by Justice D Y Chandrachud opens up big possibilities for furthering the cause of liberty and freedom of expression in the Indian society by effectively tapping the potential enshrined in the spirit of Constitution.

So close to the tenth anniversary of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers, India’s own Lehman moment had arrived, almost.

Judging the judge is a difficult task. Should one only go by the judgments written by the judge or by her actions in strengthening or weakening the institutions? Sometimes, they overlap; sometimes they don’t. Looking at Chief Justice Dipak Misra’s tenure for more than one year (28th August, 2017 to 2nd October, 2018), one feels an overwhelming sense of loss: loss of institutional integrity, loss of judicial independence, and an overall, loss of public faith in the Supreme Court of India.

The 133-year-old Congress party in its heydays would have shuddered to think of a day that it would have to resort to crowd funding to augment its finances. The cash-rich party, which had been in power for 49 of the 70 years since Independence, is facing an unprecedented funds crunch due to various reasons. It has reached a bottom now with the party launching a 40-day booth committee fund raising programme from October 2. The Congress leadership has appealed for funds tweeting: "The Congress needs your support and help. Help us restore the democracy which India has proudly embraced since 70 years by making a small contribution." Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor even tweeted then that there should be no embarrassment in accepting the facts.

Can’t get over the fact that Swami Ayyappa is no longer entitled to his brahmacharya; that the caveat ‘celibate for 41 days’ doesn’t hold anymore for the Ayyappa devotee. The majority judgement that crucified Lord Ayyappan was a verdict on brahmacharya. The case before the top court was not of gender-inequality, it was about age-restrictions, which the wise justices chose to ignore.

Millions these days are getting the feeling ‘stop the world, I want to get off.’ The poisonous binaries – far left versus far right, caste versus untouchable, Hindu versus Muslim, right to pray versus prepared to wait and women up against men — do not make the world a wonderful place. Most of all the stunning hypocrisy of politicians, who thrive on conflicts and refuse to acknowledge there are consequences.