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With pre Lok Sabha poll campaigning yet to begin all over India, divisive religious polarisation has already reached unforeseen levels in Assam. Initially, state Chief Minister Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma set the pace in his public speeches , aggressively announcing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Hindutva agenda.

We observe a strange phenomenon everyday, so strange that its strangeness goes generally unnoticed. Government spokespersons from the prime minister downwards go on repeating ad nauseam that India is the most rapidly growing major economy in the world today, that it will soon become a 5 trillion dollar economy, and that it has overtaken China in terms of the growth rate of the gross domestic product. And yet the same government spokespersons claim that the government has no money to pay for the old pension scheme for government employees, let alone for a proper universal non-contributory pension scheme for the millions who spent their working years as employees in the unorganised sector.

The legendary Kolkata based music maestro Ustad Rashid Khan's untimely departure to the way of all flesh is not only an occasion for mourning for all those who love music and life. It cuts a link between the traditional and modern space; style was the man who had also brushed the gaps between different styles of Indian classical music.

The mega event that is made out of the construction of Ram temple by replacing Babri Masjid in Ayodhya should not lead us to forget the basic fact. And that is despite the Supreme Court’s mandate, the upcoming temple at the site of the mosque has no historical foundation, nor was it a part of Hindu consciousness till 1949. As early as in 1855, there was a feud between Bairagis living in Hanumangarhi and the Muslims. The important dimension of Hanumangarhi episode (1855) is that it indicated the absence even at that time of any linkages between Babari Masjid and Janmasthan in Hindu psyche. Although the Bairagis captured the Masjid in which Muslims had taken shelter, they did not occupy it or advance any claim to it. Instead they retreated to Hanumangarhi instantaneously. It is also important that during the course of the enquiry by the court of Awadh, no Hindu had mentioned the earlier existence of a temple at the site of the Masjid.

Hinduism is a religion, but Hindutva is politics. Former is rooted in religiosity, but the later in hate politics as practiced by RSS-BJP clan. ‘Jai Sri Ram’ had been a religious and pious expression in Hinduism, but RSS-BJP clan has been misusing this as a tool against their opponents to tease and provoke, and to malign everyone opposing their hate politics. Now the world is witnessing how even the consecration of Ramlala, a most pious and religious event in Hinduism, is being defiled by injecting hate politics in it. RSS-BJP clan is bent upon playing their Hindutva politics and their leader Narendra Modi, who is our Prime Minister on oath of ‘secularism’, will be violating his own oath to inaugurate the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22, 2024.

After fiddling with the Indian economy for years, Raghuram Rajan, former governor of Reserve Bank of India, finds himself in a kind of Hamlet moment. Rajan had observed that India would be lucky to reach a 5% growth rate during the current fiscal year. He was heaped with criticism for his pessimism and downside projections.

So far the RSS and BJP have been working on their plan to rupture the social relation between Hindus and Muslims, but now in the wake of the consecration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22 differences have cropped up among the Hindus between those believing Sanatan ideology and the devotees of BJP’s line of political Hindutva.

It was a judgment that was eagerly awaited by many who saw it as a litmus test of whether the diminishing flames of hope in the judiciary’s ability to deliver justice would be snuffed out or would burn brighter. These hopes had been considerably diminished on August 15, 2022 when they saw 11 perpetrators of heinous crimes against humanity being garlanded and feted as ‘sanskari brahmins’ when they left jail as free men granted remission by the Gujarat government. This was happening just when the prime minister was holding forth from the Red Fort against those who did not protect the security and honour of women.

Air dashing of the Enforcement Director Rahul Navin just around midnight on the fourth day of the attack on the team of his sleuths investigating alleged ration distribution scam in West Bengal is not only meant to boost the morale of his men; instead it has got multiple dimensions.

Geopolitics and guidance from the US Federal Reserve may not be the only factors that determine the performance of gold in the New Year. The Indian and other elections slated for the year may also be determinants.