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Hemant Soren looked every bit of the son of soil in a white kurta-pyjama and red ‘gamcha’ around his neck — a departure from the ‘smart casual’ western attire that he usually sports—as he arrived at the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha on February 5 to take part in the vote of confidence for the Champai Soren government. The proceedings were necessitated by Hemant’s resignation as chief minister just before his dramatic arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on the night of January 31 in connection with the alleged irregularities in a land purchase in Ranchi.

Even before the results for the two parliamentary seats were formally made public, the message was moving around the British political and social circles that Conservatives are set for losing Wellingborough and Kingswood, supposed to be their safe seats. A deeper look into the reasons would make it clear that the outcome could not be construed as defeat for Tories or a win for Labour. Instead, it is a manifestation of no-trust in the policies and style of functioning of the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is running circles around the Bharatiya Janata Party. Around the Modi government. Around the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Even around a court. Pinning Kejriwal to an ED summons for questioning in the Delhi liquor scam case is proving to be impossible. But more than frustration, there is admiration for the manner in which Kejriwal has been giving the BJP boast “Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai” the short-shrift.

The realisation that Saudi Arabia is not Qatar may seem obvious, but it has significant meaning for the lessons rights activists and others draw from the Qatar World Cup as they prepare for a Saudi-hosted tournament in 2034.

India is gearing up for an ambitious schedule of up to 30 space missions over the next 15 months, highlighting its plans for a substantial increase in both civilian and commercial space endeavours.

The latest Supreme Court judgement declaring ‘Electoral Bond Scheme’ unconstitutional, has established beyond doubt that every election held since implementation of this scheme in 2018 was subject to manipulation by use of unconstitutionally collected money to distort level playing field for political parties and candidates and to influence electorate so as to election did not remain free and fair, and PM Narendra Modi was the chief beneficiary.

The “Dilli Chalo” march by the farmers is not merely a long-walk to urge the Narendra Modi government to meet their demands, primary being law on minimum support price for crops and loan waivers. Instead, it personifies the biggest class conflict between the corporate sector embodying the capitalist economy bourgeoning under Narendra Modi’s right-wing government and the land-owning peasant class.

Amidst the standoff at the many border crossings that open up the doors to Delhi, Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Dallewal spoke of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “rising graph” and the Congress defended him his right to air his political views and not be labelled “anti-national” for that. The Bharatiya Janata Party couldn’t be happier, so long as it related to Modi’s popularity. The 'Modi graph' remained in circulation for the better part of the day and night on February 15.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A protracted legal battle is in the offing between the Kerala Government and the Centre with Kerala’s talks with talks over the issues of fiscal federalism having failed to achieve a breakthrough.

In The Junius Pamphlet written from jail in 1915, Rosa Luxemburg had said that the choice before mankind was between barbarism and socialism. Liberal opinion would contest this, arguing that the barbarism that marked the two world wars and the period in between was unrelated to capitalism; indeed the liberal tendency that comes to the fore under capitalism, it would claim, fought against the barbarism of that period. Capitalism, it would assert, has been characterised by the ascendancy of humane values to an unprecedented extent, as the post-war years have shown.