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Home Minister Amit Shah’s legislative package in relation to the country’s criminal law system, hailed by his ruling party as pathbreaking, has more symbolism than real reform and even includes a good measure of deception.

‘Quit India’ anniversary on August 9, 2023 saw a massive mobilization of workers and farmers across the country against the ruling establishment led by PM Narendra Modi. CTUs and farmers’ unions said it the beginning of a “united struggle of non-cooperation and defiance to anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policy of the Centre.”

Morgan Stanley in its recent review portrayed India as the most attractive destination for foreign investment in Asian emerging market. It upgraded India from 6th position to top in the region. Macroeconomic stability and faster growth in the post COVID years were reasons. India proved resilient to global volatility, stoked by US recession and Ukraine war. Global analysts were upbeat with India emerging as the next global destination for FDI, in contrast to China and South East Asia’s eroding prominence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally opened his mouth on Manipur violence in Lok Sabha on August 10 to reply the no-confidence motion brought by the opposition INDIA alliance, but only to expose himself to be sanctimonious – talking piously and giving assurances – in the backdrop of inaction and ‘complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in the state’ as Supreme Court of India has observed. Same is the feeling of the people of Manipur who have still been suffering.

One misses Atal Behari Vajpayee sometimes. When price of tomatoes is going through the roof, we hardly hear any of those ringing metaphors. No one is turning puns on tomato prices as effectively as Vajpayee had once done on onion prices.

To multitudes, nothing beats the scare more than the one that he’ll be in the Lok Sabha in 2028 fighting yet another no-confidence motion and looking for yet another prime ministerial term. As if India’s electorate couldn’t have more of him. As if two Modi stints weren’t enough with another one waiting in the wings. Can the Opposition alliance ‘I.N.D.I.A’ put a stop to the rampaging Narendra Modi?

As India’s growth story becomes a staple of global developmental discourse, Indian voters are reacting to this new reality. Voters’ expectations from the government are no longer limited to basic requirements of roads, electricity and water. The demands of voters have moved up the Malthusian hierarchy, seeking the material conditions that will allow them to lead their lives on their own terms.

Ecuador will vote for a new President and a national assembly on August 20 this year. Indications from the opinion polls just ten days before polling suggest that the Left wing candidate Luisa Gonzalez belonging to the party of former president Rafael Correa, is leading as against the seven other candidates belonging to other parties and the groups belonging to the right.

Pakistan's opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested and jailed by a lower court order, reportedly in a cell with C-Class facilities. The court found the 70-year-old leader guilty of concealing gifts he received during state visits abroad as the Prime Minister between 2018 and 2022. Imran Khan is the chairman of his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which translates into Pakistan Movement for Justice. Following his conviction and jail, Pakistan's election commission banned Khan from contesting elections and holding public office for five years. His legal team is preparing to appeal the lower court verdict in the higher court, and he may get some relief – a bail or a stay on the lower court ruling.

Cynical and cranky, director William Friedkin who died on August 9 at the age of 87 was in fact a mensch who gave many of our most beloved actors their big breaks. Whether it was playwright Jason Miller (Father Karras in The Exorcist) or amateur fellow Chicago native William Petersen (Agent Richard Chance in To Live and Die in L.A.), Friedkin trusted his instincts, ignoring studio bigwigs, all in the pursuit of gritty authenticity. He shot his murder-mystery film Cruising in actual gay “leather bars” across New York City, securing permission from the owners — mobsters, mostly. In these scenes, all of the background actors double as real-life BDSM patrons out for a good time.