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Two East and Northeast Indian states — Assam and West Bengal — have largely failed to secure significant investments from domestic or foreign private sector in recent years. Assam is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while in neighbouring Bengal, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was re-elected to power for the third term in 2021.

By no stretch of imagination, India is replete with much good news. Of course, the landing on the moon of a Indian spaceship did the nation proud, but there is a huge distance between the scene of this triumph of Indian science and the masses.

West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee may not have missed the mark when she predicted the other day that the Modi government might advance the next Lok Sabha elections. She even hinted at December this year. But for the China map issue, which is forcing itself into the national debate, thanks to a Rahul Gandhi, who apparently is never tired of raising the issue, all indications validate Mamata’s assessment.

A whole lot of important people are in two minds; perhaps, even indifferent. This is what comes to mind when thinking of Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party, which used to be a Dalit powerhouse till a decade ago but has since lost its political mojo. So much so, other parties today have the luxury of dismissing and even considering Mayawati and her BSP dispensable. Just like Maharashtra heavyweight Sharad Pawar who says having BSP in the INDIA fold does not make any sense because Mayawati is very much a BJP stooge.

The shocking incident of a seven-year-old Muslim boy being slapped by his classmates on the order of the teacher taking the class must not be seen as an isolated event. That the school is a small private one in a remote village in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh cannot be a reason to treat this bigotry as an aberration.

In the name of Hindutva, deterioration of law and order situation is taken to unprecedented limits, which has been witnessed by the country only rarely. Fascism has entered in a new garb. With hands covered in gloves, politics is made to overshadow the Constitutional restrain, and dehumanize the multicultural ethos we stand for. It appeared in its true colour when the Central government refused to drop Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh despite the total breakdown of law and order in the state.

I have seen an array of foreign secretaries (FS) during my career as a diplomat, some talented, some mediocre, and some undeserving, says Pawan an ICS-turned politician. But as a personality, there was perhaps none as colourful and competent as Jyotindra Nath ‘Mani’ Dikshit. What set him apart was his imitable sense of humour and his expansive personality. Short, rotund, but agile, he was FS from 1991 to 1994, and later security advisor in Manmohan Singh’s government (2004-05). He died in 2005 of a heart attack when he was only 68.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government in the State has said an emphatic ‘No’ to the total expenditure (TOTEX) model for the rollout of pre-paid smart electricity meters in the State.

Union Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has strategized further the mechanism of the States/Union Territories (UTs) for combating growing cyber crimes across the country. However, tackling the cyber crime successfully still remains a challenge on account of several reasons including lack of awareness among people as well as institutional, technological, and administrative weaknesses.

As the leaders of the INDIA alliance prepare for their third meeting in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1 to take forward the decisions taken at the last conclave in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18, one issue that should figure most prominently in their minds is how to project the new narrative of the India alliance to challenge the three pronged strategy of Narendra Modi - Nationalism, Hindutva and welfare measures, especially for the OBC’s.