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The main message from the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi Assembly elections is stark. The Congress stands routed and faces further decline. The Bharatiya Janata Party has made impressive gains, which indicate a likely upturn. And the Aam Aadmi Party has made a spectacular debut in Delhi. None of this augurs well for the ruling United Progressive Alliance.

The gay rights issue has come at an inconvenient time for the BJP. Just when it wanted all attention to be focussed on Narendra Modi’s development agenda with its “progressive” overtone, the controversy about homosexuals being criminals has revived the question of the party’s regressive ideas.

New Delhi: India and the League of Arab States come closer by effecting two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) relating to new format for cooperation and an executive programme dealing with specific issues.

If the Congress party is afraid of taking steps to legalise gay sex, why did its president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi criticize so vociferously the Supreme Court ruling criminalizing homosexuality? Even law Minister Kapil Sibal had been on the same page with the party leadership on the judgement day. Isn’t Home Minister and senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde’s ‘no’ to promulgation of ordinance to approve same sex relationship is a betrayal of the sentiment expressed by his party supremo? What made the party do a sudden somersault of its earlier position?

Kolkata: With only months to go for the next Lok sabha polls, three parties are feeling upbeat - the BJP, the Trinamool Congress(TMC) and the aspirant Aam Aadmi party(AAP).

With the inflation data out, there is instant expectation that the Reserve Bank o9f India will now raise interest rates in its review meeting on December 18. The inflation rate has picked up pace for sure and inflation in Nomver is estimated at 11.24% against 10.17% in October. To say the least the pace is fast and the jump is larger. Hence, the expectation is that the Reserve bank will come out with more of the same remedies, that is, a hike in interest rate.

With chances of a hung Lok Sabha almost a certainly, both the Congress and the BJP have been looking for trustworthy allies before and after the parliamentary elections slated in May, 2014. Over the years the NDA has shrunk from 24 constituents to four. As the ruling UPA is getting weak day after day, its allies are also looking to new pastures. The crushing defeat in four states—Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan—has forced the Congress to fast-track its decision on forging alliances in different states, keeping in view the coming Lok Sabha elections.

New Delhi: With polls due in Bangladesh early next year, India has chosen to take a neutral attitude to the violence in Bangladesh following the execution of the Assistant Secretary-General of Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Quader Molla. Even though Hindus have been a target of attack at places, India has put the onus on Bangladesh Government to “peacefully resolve the Issue” instead of being seen as interfering in the internal affairs of that country.

New Delhi: India has told Afghanistan that its proposed Border Security Agreement (BSA) with the United States is crucial for peace and stability in the region.

New Delhi: India on Friday summoned US Ambassador Nancy Powell and lodged a strong protest against what it has called the 'unacceptable treatment' meted out to one of its high-ranking diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and handcuffed in public in New York on Thursday for an alleged visa fraud.