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As Justice K.M. Joseph retired on June 16 this year, it is worth reflecting on the significant impact he has made on the Indian judiciary through his judgments. From quashing the President’s rule in Uttarakhand to taking a tough stand against hate speeches, Justice K.M. Joseph has left an indelible mark on the history of Indian judiciary.

Cobbled together way back in 2016 before Assembly elections in West Bengal, poll alliance between Congress and CPI(M)-led Left Front is on a downslide. While neither of the front read CPI(M) leaders nor their Congress counterparts will admit it, there are clear signs that the bond that held two political ideologically divergent outfits close has loosened.

BJP led Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly become vindictive against the opposition, and to such an extent that it amounts to punishing even the poor people who happen to vote the BJP out of power. Karnataka is a latest example where ruling BJP suffered a humiliating defeat, and now Centre has stopped to sell rice to the state under open market sale scheme, even at the rate of Rs34 per kg the state is willing to pay.

This column has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi all possible names including those bordering on the ‘libel’. So far, Alhamdulilah, Modi hasn’t let the wolves on the column. But it is a fact that wringing Modi in the Press Freedom grinder wouldn't make a difference to Press freedom in nine years of Modi’s India. Yet the International Press Institute (IPI) has asked US President Joe Biden to read the riot act to Prime Minister Modi for curtailing Press freedom during Modi’s State visit.

Manipur burning has become emblematic of the divisive politics of the BJP in the North East. Only four months ago, in February, Narendra Modi had crowed about the success of the BJP in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland elections in the North East. He claimed Christians in the North East are accepting the BJP.

Even in the early months of 2023, many political analysts were sceptical about the possibility of a broad opposition unity. The BJP was almost sure that this exercise would end up as a non-starter. Some of its leaders went to the extent of ridiculing the very idea of such a unity. Even the people who support the necessity of a political change were disappointed by the slow pace of the whole process. But one party in the country, unhindered by all the negative currents around, was consistently campaigning for the realisation of this great idea. That party was the Communist Party of India.

New Delhi: Spearheaded by Manika Pal, T Sports Club of India won a bronze medal in the Asian Women’s Handball League championship in Almaity, Kazakhstan.

Governance in India today is driven by a relentless aggression of the executive which has reduced the legislature to a loyal instrument of law making. Any corrective measure coming from the judiciary is being disdainfully discarded through executive ordinances. The media, the fabled fourth pillar of democracy, has effectively been refashioned as a willing ally whose job has become to advocate and amplify the agenda of the government and function as an advertisement medium for the supreme leader. The separation of powers and the institutional checks and balances that have been crucial to the survival of constitutional democracy in India over the last seven decades today stand badly dented and damaged.

Narendra Modi was shunned by the U.S. in 2005. But he is no more a pariah. The same US, but now under the presidency of Joe Biden, is rolling out the red carpet for Modi, who will become just the third world leader (after France’s Emmanuel Macron and South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol) to be invited for a state visit and dinner, the highest of diplomatic receptions typically reserved for only the closest of allies.

The Narendra Modi government has been making big noise over the country’s progress in the world competition ranking. A 21-point jump in the first three years after Prime Minister Modi assumed power in 2014 had given the government a great public relations handle, which the fans of the new dispensation exploited to the hilt. But that spectacular show seems to have been neutralised in the years that followed. In fact, according to the IMD 2023 World Competitiveness Ranking, India has slipped a point from 39th position in 2017 after five years. The IMD rankings generally tally with those of the World Economic Forum.