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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was the wrong guy at the wrong place. He should have been an American speaking to a house of US legislators. And to think that modern-day Indians make such a hue and cry about free speech. What about Nitish Kumar’s right to free speech? After all, what was his crime? He wasn’t lying; he only spoke what was in the book, maybe not verbatim, but the gist of the truth explained – connecting sex education with population dynamics. Spoken in a classroom, students would have asked for clarifications, adding stretches of their own imaginations, and gone on to the next class without raising ruckus like the BJP MLAs of the Bihar assembly did after Nitish Kumar taught them the nitty-gritty of population growth and sex education.

Frightened of the tremendous impact of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s state caste census on the impending Lok Sabha polls, the saffron ecosystem has come up with a plan to launch a sub-caste census well before the general election starts. This arrangement, according to a think-tank of the RSS, will snatch the initiative from Nitish and would also help win over a large section of the OBC and EBC communities who were feeling neglected.

Looking at the data and studies done across the world, it appears that the Infosys founder N Narayana Murthy when he said that in India youth should work for seventy hours a week, he was ignoring a reality: working hours in India are amongst the longest globally.

The Supreme Court’s displeasure with the way the Centre is using its agencies to suppress criticism or force adversaries into submission is finding expression at increasing frequency.

Once again, the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has proved that his bête noire Narendra Modi could not match his political craftsmanship and administrative acumen. Though the middle class bhakts of Modi claim that he has perfect understanding of the time, when to strike and how to mutilate his opponent, the Tuesday move of Nitish to release the socio-economic data of caste census sends a clear message that he has more incisive understanding of the importance of both inclusiveness as well as political timing.

As Israel grieved in the aftermath of the October 7 tragedy, where more than 1,400 citizens lost their lives due to the actions of Hamas terrorists, US President Joe Biden visited Tel-Aviv to pledge American support. However, during an appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden also emphasized the need for caution. He drew parallels to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, where there was a mix of seeking justice and making mistakes.

Portugal may face another national elections early next year as the Prime Minister of the ruling Socialist Party government Antonio Costa resigned on Tuesday November 7 after the police arrested the PM’s chief of staff and allegations were galore about the involvement of the PM office in huge cases of corruption in the government.

As Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Election campaigns reach its mid-way, with only a week left for campaigning, Congress seems to have emerged even stronger than previously expected just one week ago, or even likely to perform better than in the last election held in 2018.

The Bharatiya Janata Party despairs that the opposition INDI-Alliance is dividing Hindus into caste to rob the BJP a chance at victory in the five states’ assembly elections. The moral high-ground the saffron party took by championing a casteless Hindu society, however, does not fetch votes in enough numbers to win elections. Besides, the caste-virus is impossible to eradicate. So it does not come as a surprise that the BJP has shed its moral and ethical skin and is hyperventilating from which caste should the next Telangana Chief Minister come from?

Gershon Baskin may be one of the few sane voices left on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Baskin speaks with authority when he denounces the Israeli assault on Gaza as a war crime and Hamas for its brutal October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,400, primarily civilian, Israelis.