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Janata Dal (S) must have compulsions for wanting an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party for the 2024 general elections. For the record, the BJP, too, will not look askance at a tie-up with the Janata Dal (S). At this point in time, and right up to general elections 2024, neither party is in any manner of speaking better placed than the other. The results of the Karnataka assembly elections saw to it that both had an upper hand!

If indications from the think-tanks closer to the BJP are to be believed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team of advisers are processing a number of options to ensure that the newly set upfront of the anti-BJP parties – INDIA – does not get the advantage of the joint campaign and seat-sharing arrangement formulate data the just concluded Bengaluru conclave of the 26 opposition parties.

July 18, 2023 proved to be significant in recent political history of India, especially in the last decade since advent of BJP leader Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India in 2014. The opposition alliance I.N.D.I.A was formed with 26 political parties, while NDA was able to gather 38. All is number, said the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, in the context of explanation of existence of the world, but the numbers 38 and 26 in India now is politically confusing.

There is always a chance that justices may ask to be recused from a case involving a Congress luminary because there is no saying which justices’ father, mother, uncle, grandfather, grandmother wasn’t affiliated with the hoary old party? Just like Justice B R Gavai who offered to recuse himself from the Modi defamation case with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the receiving end of fulminations levelled against him including his disqualification from the Lok Sabha where he represented the Wayanad parliamentary constituency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again mouthed empty shallow words before the people of India when he said, “Today, when I have come among you and am standing near this temple of democracy, then my heart is full of pain, full of anger. The incident that has come to the fore in Manipur is a shameful one for any civilised society”.

A hundred year old Henry Kissinger, met with the Chinese president and supreme leader of the country, Xi Jingping, this week although the latter did not meet US cabinet members of Biden administration recently. Kissinger was reportedly received in the same diplomatic guest house in Beijing where the former was received on his first visit in 1971.

In Assam, an intriguing political situation prevails after the announcement of new draft proposals for the long awaited delimitation of state Assembly/ Parliamentary constituencies. Apparently, even major sections of majority Assamese people (whose mother tongue is Assamiya) are upset about some provisions in the controversial official draft circulated by the state Election Commission.

The cornerstone of USA’s Indo- Pacific geopolitics has been the hope that India could act as a pro-Western counter-balance to China—a notion emphasized since Bill Clinton’s visit to Delhi in 2000 and consistently supported by every subsequent US president, regardless of party affiliation. This strategic belief was evident during Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Washington, where he was warmly welcomed and defence technology deals usually reserved for close allies were extended to India, solidifying the strong bilateral relationship and reinforcing India’s significance in America’s geopolitical calculations.

Indian politicians and commentators have rallied in defence of anti-migrant sentiment in Europe to forge alliances and undercut criticism of Hindu nationalism that targets minorities, foremost Muslims.

Even his blind bhakts were getting worried. But, it’s okay. Finally, his laryngitis has spoken. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn’t lost his voice. And he hears the noises around him. By now even the EU Parliament must have heard the good news. Aside from the despicable one that Prime Minister Modi covered up for the horrific happenings in Manipur with his horrendously inappropriate “maunvrat”.