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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had once told a national daily that if a man was true to himself and to his country, he can become Prime Minister in his 70s! Kumar, born in 1951, is now in his 70s. Also, seldom does one man raise the spirits of more than half the nation, which the “then” Bihar Chief Minister did when he snapped JD(U) ties with the BJP, and the “now” Bihar Chief Minister is fully ready to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the PM’s post come 2024.

One liner puzzling remark from Nitish Kumar, after being sworn in chief minister, “the person who came to power in 2014 will not come back in 2024” while has brought about a major shift overnight in the political culture and dynamics of the country, his divorcing the alliance in Bihar has put the Modi government in a vulnerable situation about the functioning of the Rajya Sabha.

The post-colonial state in India had two primary tasks before it: one was to overcome the hegemony of metropolitan capital, so that a development strategy in relative autonomy from imperialism could be pursued; the second was to attack landlordism both to free the agrarian population from its clutches, and to increase agricultural output for rapid industrialisation based on a growing home market. These two tasks were interlinked: unless agricultural growth was stepped up considerably by attacking landlordism, the inflationary and balance of payments pressures associated with a relatively autonomous development strategy would keep overall growth constrained, generating social contradictions that would force an eventual capitulation before imperialism.

Indian democracy presently suffers from its lack of a strong Opposition. Some feel that the secret weapon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's success is the divided Opposition.

Indian politics takes a new turn with the fall of the BJP-led government in Bihar. The BJP-led NDA crumbled down there when the JD(U) bid farewell to BJP. Even though for several months, the conflict between BJP and JD(U) was brewing, nobody expected that it would pull down their government so swiftly. Within the time span of 24 hours, the BJP-led government was ousted and the Mahagathbandhan government came into power. This nature of the political churning process in India has its own lessons for the students of political science to learn.

Till recently, when commemorating the significant anniversaries of independence, we could cite the parliamentary democratic system as one of the major achievements of independent India. The adoption of a republican constitution in 1950 provided the scope for people’s participation and a voice in politics which reflected the aspirations of the Indian people in their struggle for national independence.

A week ahead of the 75th anniversary of Independence, India commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Quit India movement on 9 August 2022. The Congress leadership had been arrested immediately after giving the Quit India call from the All-India Congress Committee session in Mumbai, but the call triggered a popular upsurge in several parts of India and gave rise to even four parallel governments – Ballia in UP, Tamluk in Bengal, Talcher in Odisha and Satara in Maharashtra. The Satara parallel government in fact lasted till 1947, becoming the historical bridge between the Quit India movement and the final exit of the British colonial rulers.

In the fierce battle for buttressing political supremacy between the two Chanakyas, Amit Shah was made to bite dust by Nitish Kumar by aborting his mission Operation Lotus, an endeavour to remove Chief Minister Nitish from power and also restructure his task to finish yet another regional party, this time JD(U) of Nitish, and create a new Eknath Sinde in Bihar.

It might not be churlish to say that the celebration of the 75th year of Indian independence is more an official event associated with the BJP than a national occasion.

Veteran lawyer Kapil Sibal isn’t a happy lawyer. It was only a few days ago that the Supreme Court had asked him to be the court’s friend, help it understand the “freebies culture”, and what ought to be done with the pettifoggery that some political parties do to win sweeping electoral victories.