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Hurling charges of corruption past and present to catch one's political opponent off guard in a poll battle has been a time honoured practice with Krishnanagar Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal being no exception. But the charge doing the rounds is one whose origins can be traced to a battle in a mango grove of Plassey in 1757 where forces of Bengal's last sovereign ruler Siraj-ud-daula lost owing to treachery to a contingent of English and Indian soldiers in the payroll of traders better known as East India Company.

On last Friday Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Microsoft co-founder, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, came together at the former’s residence in Delhi in a free-wheeling and insightful exchange on a range of topics that was as diverse as it was intriguing and thought-provoking—the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the importance of Digital Public Infrastructure, and the ‘Namo Drone Didi’ scheme.

The Israeli Defense Forces struck a Palestinian Islamic Jihad command center in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balahon Sunday. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in no mood to listen to US requests to steer clear of Rafah, an enclave on the Egypt-Gaza border, where upwards of a million Gazans have taken up residence in hundreds of tents, and which, Israel says, is the last refuge of the Hamas scoundrels and, therefore, requires an essential and urgent clean-up.

Despite assurances of a more lenient rule following their ascent to power, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which is also known as Taliban (Pashto for “students”) have intensified restrictions on various aspects of women's lives. Women in Afghanistan face a multitude of constraints, including exclusion from leadership roles, limitations on education and employment opportunities, and restrictions on travel and access to public spaces, such as bathhouses, gyms, and parks, without male accompaniment. They have been barred from accessing restaurants with garden spaces in Herat province.

WASHINGTON: Just two days before instructing his United Nations ambassador to abstain and allow a Security Council ceasefire resolution to pass, President Joe Biden signed a budget package that permanently cut all funding for UNRWA—the organization responsible for distributing most food, water, and shelter aid in Gaza—and simultaneously approved $3.8 billion of fresh cash for the Israeli government.

Extortion from business and corporate by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government for the ruling BJP has already been exposed recently, after the names of the donors and receiver political parties that were kept secret under Electoral Bond Scheme, had to be published under the direction of the Supreme Court of India. Many of them were found to be intimidated by Central investigating agencies, who under panic, donated huge funds to BJP, and even bought protection from the government which included pardon.

In an unprecedented move, over 600 lawyers penned a letter to the Chief Justice of India, raising alarms about a ‘vested interest group’ allegedly attempting to influence the judiciary’s decisions, particularly in cases involving political figures and corruption. This letter has garnered significant attention, not least because of the Prime Minister’s endorsement, which he framed as a critique of the opposition’s tactics, labelling it as ‘vintage Congress culture’.

Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher who was himself a victim of fascism, had linked the ascendancy of fascism to the failed proletarian revolutions that had preceded it. He had of course Germany in mind, where, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution, there had been several attempts to effect a similar revolution. These attempts had failed, leaving the proletariat exhausted, and divided in its loyalty between the Communists and the Social Democrats, who in turn had been rendered irreconcilable by the spilling of the blood of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and many others under the latter’s rule. All this made it easier, when the economic crisis of the 1930s erupted, for the fascists to seize power on the basis of the support provided by monopoly capital, especially a new stratum of monopoly capital that had sprung up.

America again is poised for a rematch between President Joe Biden and ex President Donald Trump in the presidential election of November 2024. Voters in 15 US states and one territory weighed in at the primary polls on March 5 or super Tuesday, clearly indicating the rematch .It would be the first re- match between a current and a former president since 1892 and also the face off in the first presidential rematch since 1956. And to many Americans it will be the least inspiring election as both the candidates are disliked by majority of the voters, according to opinion polls, for different reasons. It’s like “choosing between a hedgehog and a porcupine."

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Enforcement Directorate, flush from what it perceives to be a ‘successful’ campaign against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has set its sights now on Kerala.