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After a record delay of almost a fortnight Madhya Pradesh will have a new ministry headed by Dr. Mohan Yadav. The ministry was given final touches by the party high command. Twenty eight Ministers took oath on Monday. Three including the Chief Minister took oath earlier. Thus the total strength of the ministry is now 31. The Chief Minister did a balancing act of caste and region.

LUCKNOW: Congress Party and RLD have launched their separate yatras in Uttar Pradesh to be in a position to strike a hard bargain on seat-sharing with the Samajwadi Party. This, because the Samajwadi Party insists it has the sole privilege to apportion seats to smaller parties and those which have lost their standings, real or imaginary, with the electorate, like the Congress, for instance.

Two and a half months have passed since Oct 7 and I have written before that the Hamas attack was to bring the Palestinian issue back to the attention of the world. That objective has been achieved, at the cost of a heavy toll of Palestinian deaths. The breach of international laws and unprecedented humanitarian crisis created by indiscriminate killing of more than 20000 innocent civilians, including more than 8000 children, widespread destruction of houses, schools, hospitals and infrastructure, brings almost worldwide condemnation against Israel.

China’s Xi Jinping, running the third five-year term as the all-powerful President of the People’s Republic, is 70. Vladimir Putin, aspiring to become Russia’s President for a fifth six-year term next year, is 71. The National People’s Congress chose Xi’s appointment without any opposition. The vote for Xi was 2,952 to 0. With Alexei Navalny, the most prominent Russian opposition leader, barred from contesting the forthcoming election due to prior criminal conviction, Putin is expected to romp home at the presidential election scheduled for March 15-17, 2024.

Even as the civil war rages on in Myanmar, there is fresh concernamong GOI circles regarding a somewhat disturbing report in the Sri Lankan media, stating that some Indians were being “held” as prisoners in what have been described as “terror camps” in the strife-torn country.

The United States-led multinational naval force to safeguard and secure sea traffic in the Red Sea against attacks from Houthi rebels seems to be greatly weakened even before it started operating fully. Just a few days after the launch of "Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG)," France, Italy, and Spain backed out and this, when the force was expected to consist of warships from over 10 countries.

Many unsavoury incidents are taking place. The list is quite long. What stands out is that every incident owes its birth to the RSS move to communalise and polarise the democratic structure and its functioning and weaponise the administrative institutions and apparatuses. Four days back the Army had picked up 15 civilians from Topa Peer, a village in Kashmir, for questioning and the bodies of three of them, bearing injury marks, were found near an encounter site. The remaining 12 persons have been admitted to different hospitals in critical conditions.

The shipping industry is keeping its fingers crossed till the Gaza-Houthi triggered crisis in Red Sea-Suez Canal areas lasts. The duration of the current situation is what matters. A temporary disturbance – a perceived bump in the road – and the industry may cope. But, if it lasts, with container vessels forced to divert around the Cape of Good Hope, and the inaccessibility of critical ports will add to the strain.

In contradiction to the claim of the Modi government of improvement in the labour market, latest Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data pertaining to the formal sector shows a downturn. Quality jobs generation declined sharply by 16.7 percent in October 2023 compared to the September figure, a 7-month low. The number of new monthly subscribers of EPF declined to 772,084 in October from 926,934 in September, and 757,792 in March 2023.

The vaulting ambition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to overturn existing structures is the hallmark of his nearly 10 years at the helm. Take the case of the three new laws that have replaced three colonial-era laws and the authoritarian streak in Modi sticks out like a sore thumb.