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LUCKNOW: The victory of RLD in Kairana Lok Sabha seat and SP in Noorpur assembly seat sets the tone for 2019 Lok Sabha polls for the Opposition parties to pull together. The UP verdict is a clear indication of the shape of things to come if a coalition of SP, BSP, RLD, Congress and other smaller parties were to take on BJP, which swept the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 getting 73 out of the total 80 seats and again in the 2017 assembly polls getting 320 assembly seats.

Looks like come mid-2019 Modi will be out on the mat, memories of Jakarta 2018 fading. The one-time Prime Minister will then remember his many foreign trips and the diaspora will sing a hosanna with tears in their eyes. Madison Square Garden will continue to host large crowds but not like the one at which RajdeepSardesai got roughed up because he stepped out of turn and asked the wrong question about Narendra Modi.

The broadest-ever international conference in India on Karl Marx – ‘'Karl Marx-Life, Ideas and Influence: A Critical Examination on the Bicentenary' (16-20 June, 2018) under the aegis of the Asian Development Research Institute will take place in Patna, the capital of one of India’s most economically backward states. Its significance lies in the state’s heritage, built by several historically famous peasant struggles. Bihar was once the citadel of the Communist Party of India, later that of CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation group.

On the eve of Karnataka election, waiver of farm loans was one of the major election promises. Now, Chief Minister H.D.Kumaraswamy wants to fulfill his pre-poll promise and has even threatened to resign if he cannot fulfill his promise. As has been seen time and time again, the concept ‘farmers first’ provides political mileage. With more than 55 percent of Indians earning their livelihood from the agricultural sector, it comes as no surprise that political parties like to place their bets on farmers' cause. However, the real benefit to the farmers won't come from loan waivers. We studied responses to farmer distress in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan (Farmer Distress: An Analysis of Intervention in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, India Consensus Report, 2018). Of the two states, farmer distress appears more pronounced in Andhra Pradesh, which has one of the highest national rates of farmer suicides, at 47 self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 population between 2010 and 2012. Nationally, between 2012 and 2015, over 10,000 farmers committed suicide.

The writing is on the wall. It is now obvious that a united opposition can defeat the BJP. As much is clear from the Kairana and Noorpur by-election results which are a continuation of the anti-BJP trends noted earlier in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

Pranab for President is less exciting than Pranab all set to address an RSS convocation. The former President will be in Nagpur on June 7. And the Congress is fuming. Congress leaders cannot believe it. They can’t digest it. They can’t take it. They won’t take it. Pranab once called the RSS a ‘venomous snake’, so why is he willing to drink the poison now, does he have an antidote?

Since a parliamentary coup took place in 2016 against elected president Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian democracy has been under threat. October’s presidential election offers a way out of the political crisis, but the country’s most popular candidate has been arrested without material evidence against him. Brazilian democracy is still at stake.

Keralites woke up to a black Sunday on May 27 that witnessed a murder of unspeakable brutality. One should have thought that such a despicable act would not happen in an enlightened state like Kerala, which boasts a high literacy rate and developmental indices that match those of the most developed countries.

BHOPAL: Mandsaur will turn into a Kurukshetra from June 1 onwards when various farmers’ organisations will launch a ten-day agitation to mark the first anniversary of the farmers’ agitation, which took a violent turn culminating in the killing of six persons last year. Brisk preparations are being made by farmers’ organisations for the success of the state-wide protests.

General elections in Bangladesh will be held by the end of this year. The constitutional requirement is that the elections be held between October 31, 2018 and January 28, 2019. This time the elections will be held in conditions that are different from those that obtained in 2014. Then the biggest opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Begum Khaleda Zia, boycotted the polls because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League refused to have the elections conducted by a caretaker government. The boycott helped the League immensely. It entered Parliament with a huge majority.