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West Bengal CPI(M) is in a bind following a considerable section of its rank and file cosying up to their BJP counterparts. The reason is neither an ideological meltdown or desertion for fished or loaves but a desire for survival in the face of apparently overwhelming onslaught of Trinamool Congress activists.

Reports have been doing the rounds that Rahul Gandhi was planning a short break from the Bharat Jodo Yatra to mark Christmas. BJP spokespersons have been asking with sly grins what if Rahul Gandhi took a Christmas break and went to Bangkok? This, even as the ruling party was getting perturbed as the yatra ate up the miles, relentlessly leaving the BJP out of popular imagination.

China’s new COVID-19 outbreak threatens the rest of the world. Mathematical models predict one million or more deaths by early 2023, within 90 days from now. Epidemiologists estimate 60 per cent of the population of China and 10 per cent of the world are likely to be infected. This new crisis could shake the world, and India too cannot escape it, as we already experienced after Wuhan outbreak three years ago. Sudden spurt in new infections have also been noticed in Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and the US.

A relatively disappointing year-end and a possible less dramatic interplay between inflation and central bank intervention globally have India’s domestic gold trade keeping its fingers crossed over what could happen in 2023.

In a vibrant democracy, critique of policy a) makes for a) better policies, and b) helps correct mistakes as they occur. Official spokespersons will always argue that the government is doing the best under given circumstances. But today, the world is changing so fast that mistakes will occur because the past may not be a guide for the future. Further, full information is not available even about the present. So, policies are made in an uncertain environment, leading to heightened risk of policy failure. Democracy provides the self-correcting mechanism when mistakes occur.

Narendra Modi’s visit last week to Northeast region in public perception is meant to give a major thrust to the development projects in the region, but the main axiom behind this move has been to make nationalism the primary election agenda in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Kisan Garjana Rally organized in Delhi Ramleela ground on Monday by RSS-affiliated farmers’ body Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) against the ruling establishment led by Narendra Modi might have inflicted a chilling sensation into the Modi-Shah duo’s spines, for it reflected the despair and anger of farmers against them. Moreover, it may be a precursor not only for their own decline but also preparation for sacrificing their own government to keep their support base for larger interest of establishing a complete Hindu Rashtra.

The BJP has weakened Congress in the past eight years, but can it decimate the growing number of influential regional leaders who will be the primary challengers in the 2024 polls?

West Bengal BJP leaders were caught on the wrong foot when Union home minister Amit Shah during his recent visit to Kolkata asked them the reason behind a rise in Left parties strength in the state. Complacent in the knowledge of being the Opposition party in the state Assembly, the local BJP leaders have overlooked a fact which Shah despite being far away from the state had zeroed in on.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is silently, and certainly irreversibly, moving towards his goal, to transmute the basic identity and character of Indian judicial system. There are many aces on his chess board, but the Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju is a rare exception to perform the task more diligently.