View Articles

Narendra Modi is not known for speaking rationally. This time he has faulted in the matter of raking up Uniform Civil Code. While justifying his stand, he said that the country cannot have two laws: one for Hindu and a second one for the ‘other’. By ‘other’, he obviously hinted at Muslims. But in his ebullience to target Muslims, he forgot that Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and other communities too have their own family laws. The most important demographic he patently ignored is of the Adivasis. It would have been correct if he had said that India couldn’t have a dozen personal laws.

Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, two states ruled by the Congress are scheduled to go polls before the year is out. Also, both with a leadership problem at the state level! Those were the similarities till a couple of days ago when the Congress high command, after years of ignoring the infighting in Chhattisgarh, sat down with the warring duo and hammered out a truce that hopefully will last till after the assembly elections are held and the Congress trumps.

As the campaign for the panchayat elections is in full swing in West Bengal murmurs of divided opinion have arisen in BJP's state unit over the choice of a candidate in the coming Rajya Sabha elections in the state. The polls to the Upper House are scheduled to be held on July 24 in the state. BJP with its around 70 MLAs is in a position to send one member to the Rajya Sabha. So long, BJP had never any member in Rajya Sabha from the assembly quota in Bengal.

The outcome of the Modi visit to the United States has made one thing clear – India has become more cemented to the United States in a strategic and military relationship.

If Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's detractors have often labelled her political actions to be sans rhyme or reason, she always had the last laugh. Kicking off TMC's panchayat poll campaign from north Bengal is a case in point.

On September 6, 2019, the aspirations of more than a billion individuals were reliant on a mission that was on its way to the dark side of the Moon—an area that is perpetually shrouded in darkness. Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander was travelling to its destination more than 384,400 km away from Earth. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission control experienced a change in atmosphere to one of gloom when the spacecraft went missing. Now, close to four years later, India is about to make another attempt.

If cars and sports utility vehicles can win general elections, then Bharat Rashtra Samithi President K Chandrasekhar Rao is already the Prime Minister! KCR, as he is called, led a convoy of 600 cars & SUVs into Maharashtra on Monday and made jittery a clutch of top Maharashtra politicians. Why, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned KCR in his UCC-Pasmanda speech in Bhopal! Fact is, KCR is out in the open mounting his own challenge to the Prime Minister and the BJP, and to hell with opposition parties' conclaves!

Even the fragrance of the pleasant words that were bestowed upon Narendra Modi before his departure from the United States had faded, the Indian prime minister had to taste the bitter bite of American anger at some of his cabinet ministers and senior BJP leaders unleashing online harassment of journalist Sabrina Siddiqui, who at the press meet at White House had dared to ask Modi an uncomfortable question. Siddiqui had asked: “Mr. Prime Minister, India has long prided itself as the world’s largest democracy, but there are many human rights groups who say that your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics… What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other religious minorities in your country and uphold free speech?”

There is jubilation all over in BJP circles and the Indian media after the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to United States, where he got a rousing welcome. This is no doubt a landmark bilateral visit which has laid the foundation for taking Indo-US relations to a new high. India is looking for technology and United States is looking for a large market in a slowing global economy and strained Sino-US relations. It is therefore interesting to note how China sees this Indo-US relations that has been put on high pedestal now in the emerging geo-politics.

The standard definition of crony capitalism is the existence of an economic system characterised by mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials. Going by this, at least two major decisions this week are India-centric, though with linkages to domestic as well as international. The International Cricket Council ICC), over which the Indian Board of Cricket Control (BCCI) has virtual tutelage, thanks to the latter’s clout over the game on account of its status as the body controlling the sport in the world’s biggest cricket playing nation, has selected Ahmedabad as the venue for the inaugural as well as the final matches along with the event’s most sought after match between India and Pakistan.