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Bengaluru: Local favourite Bengaluru FC will lock horns with arch-rivals and last year’s runners-up Kerala Blasters FC for a semifinal berth of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL)at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Friday.

Ironically, opposition parties in India were further divided by the outcome of Assembly elections in three Northeastern states, not to mention the Sagardighi seat by- election in West Bengal. In broad terms, the Left parties and the Indian National Congress (INC) fared much better than their strong regional challengers like the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

India has the most number of gangsters-turned-politicians and one of them is Atiq Ahmed of Prayagraj, who is petrified he will go the way of Vikas Dubey, another gangster of the same neck of the woods, who was killed after the police jeep bringing him to Uttar Pradesh from Madhya Pradesh overturned en route and Dubey was shot dead by the cops “while he was attempting to escape”.

Getting Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia arrested might have been thought of by Modi-Shah duo as masterstroke to politically finish AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal to prevent their emergence as chief challenger to BJP and its leader Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha Election 2024, but the turn of events is indicating it to be one of the biggest political mistakes so far.

Eulogy of senior BJP leader B S Yediyurappa as the strongest and tallest political figure from the Lingayat community by the prime minister Narendra Modi early this week at a public meeting certainly is an ominous indicator of the political development that would entail in the near future in Karnataka.

The latest GDP figures show that the Indian economy is slowing down. The last quarterly figures indicted national income grew by 4.4%, which was lower than in the preceding two quarters.

The decisive battle is coming closer. In this battle the very idea of India is at stake. The forces, which control political power since 2014, are adamant to prepare the ground in their favour. They have mobilized all their resources to win the battle once again. The ideology of fascism from its very inception has proven its ruthlessness while facing the challenges. From Hitler to Modi, its basic traits are the same aggressive manifestation of racial pride and unconditional subservience to the big capital.

We are in the Ides of March. And like Caesar’s wife, all holders of top positions in India should be above suspicion. Shouldn’t that apply to the Prime Minister of India? It’s a thought. Why should anybody get a free pass, spared the rigmarole that applies to every Indian citizen, just because he/she can claim privilege by dint of his/her position?

Actor-singer Shruti Haasan first stepped into a recording studio when she was six years old. It was to sing a few lines of composer IIayaraja’s song. ‘Porti Paadadi Peney’ for her father Kamal Haasan’s magnum opus, Thevar Magan (1992). Then, she clung to her father’s hand, butterflies in her stomach. That is when she saw a red heart stickler on the microphone. That heart comforted her and gave her confidence that she would not make a mess of it all. Since then, she has always associated the recording studio with kindness and love. “it will always for ever remain an encouraging memory for me,” says Haasan, who has just returned to Mumbai after her shoot for The Eye, her international project with Mark Rowley.

“Up the ante” is a common tactics resorted to by some players in betting games, in which stakes are raised too high for the opposing players in the hope to win the game. What is Modi-Shah duo has been doing for quite some time is almost the same in respect to the Lok Sabha Election 2024. They are raising the stakes too high for the political parties in opposition in every possible way – whether it is financial resources, making them defensive through cases and arrests, or keep them divided through carrot and stick policy.