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New Delhi: Promising young hockey striker Mumtaz Khan says to represent the country at the International level is a dream come true for her adding" everyone wants to represent India and win a medal for the country, and I am no exception."

Penny wise pound foolish, is a well-known adage, applied to someone trying to save a penny while remaining ignorant of greater loss in that event. The Congress dithering over supporting AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal and his government in Delhi against the Delhi ordinance brought by the Union Government led by PM Narendra Modi reminds us about the adage, as it is reflected in the discourse within the Congress over the issue treating it as merely a political issue between the BJP and AAP in which Congress needs to defend its political interest.

As a fresh spell of mob violence on the night of May 28 shattered the fragile truce between warring non tribal Meitei community and the Kuki tribe in Manipur, official policy failures at several areas could be readily spotted.

One of the first things Prime Minister Narendra Modi did soon after assuming office nine years ago was dismantling the Planning Commission with a legacy of 65 years and set up the Niti Aayog in January 2015. Even as the chief minister of Gujarat earlier, Modi had some ideas for a stronger Centre-State relationship and reforms. He hoped that Niti Aayog would strengthen this relationship.

Bairan Biswas, the lone Congress legislator from Sagardighi, Murshidabad, defecting to Trinamool Congress does not send a signal of unity in the coming days. The defection comes just ahead of a crucial meeting of Opposition parties at Patna to set the stage for an anti-BJP front in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It also marks a new low in West Bengal politics which has been value-based over the decades, till hordes of TMC leaders defected to BJP before 2021 Assembly elections, only to return shamefaced in ashes and sackcloth.

LUCKNOW: BJP has launched massive public outreach program from May 30 for a month in all the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in view of the general elections next year. The public outreach programme is part of the national program of the party to celebrate nine years of PM Narendra Modi in the office.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi bounced back from the brink and the opposition parties are together and singly to blame for the comeback. The Karnataka assembly election loss should have been the final nail as far as Modi was concerned, his Waterloo! But not three weeks later, Modi was larger than life, both overseas and at home, strutting the stage.

Rajasthan politics is turning more complex with infighting within both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP. Infighting in the Congress came into limelight more sharply than the BJP, because Congress leader Sachin Pilot had given ultimatum to launch statewide agitation against CM Ashok Gehlot if his demands were not met by May 30. Infighting in the BJP is presently relegated into the background, a factor due to which BJP had lost the Vidhan Sabha Election 2018 in the state.

In one stroke, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the basic character and image of India from being a symbol of pluralist, secular state having democratic, social, cultural and political ethics to a country exemplifying Brahminical culture and Hindutva ideals. Though India would continue to be regarded as a republic, Modi’s action of May 28, has conversely altered its emphasis and image.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has probably never faced such a situation as it is now to engage in a positive diplomacy with the world’s three warring super powers — the US, China and Russia. India is getting increasingly trapped in the international power tussle following the Russia-Ukraine war. The growing Chinese influence on Russia and a simultaneous US pressure on India threaten to impact India’s time-tested friendly relationship with Russia. India has so far maintained a reasonable distance from the US-NATO-Russia-Ukraine conflict over the latter’s sovereignty. India’s increasing trade with Russia is discomforting the western powers. Russia continues to benefit from a network of partners and allies that includes Belarus, China, India, Iran and South Africa. But, with the time passing by, Russia is becoming increasingly dependent on support from China. Will such developments fracture in due course the India-Russia ties as China is regarded as India’s No.1 enemy?