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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is celebration time for the Congress and the party-led united Democratic front (UDF) after a long drought of election victories. The Congress has just scored a spectacular victory in the Thrikkakara assembly by-election with its candidate Uma Thomas defeating CPI(M)’s Dr Jo Joseph by a record margin of 25,016 votes. The by-election held on May 31 was necessitated by the death of Congress MLA P T Thomas.. The results were announced on June 3.

The world believes that the success of western sanctions against Putin’s Russia depends on just two countries: India and China. On the face of it, it would appear to be a straightforward positioning. For, much of the Russian oil that has been made redundant by the sanctions is expected to flow to these two countries.

In the absence of adequate social security for migrant workers, their rural households of largely left-behind women supported millions of migrant workers when they returned after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country and induced a severe recession that also rendered small traders and operators of microenterprises destitute and reduced the incomes of small-scale farmers. It did not only highlight the weakness in state policy and lack of resources, but also resulted in temporary loss of income, increased inequality, and strengthened oligopoly structure of the Indian economy.

Whether as commoners or experts, people engaged in making political predictions are usually in a high-risk, error-prone business: Yet judging by initial public reactions after the unfortunate death of highly popular singer Krishnakumar Kunnath or KK in Kolkata on May 31 it seems safe to conclude that West Bengal as a state may find it hard to live down the toxic notoriety billing it has begun to receive.

For the last two-three days, Indian media is running a story that says a Bangladeshi woman crossed the swampy Sundarban forests, also home to Royal Bengal Tigers, and then swam for an hour to cross a river and meet her Indian boyfriend. The 22-year-old Krishna Mandal had met her boyfriend Abhik Mandal on Facebook. The couple got married at Kolkata’s famous Kalighat temple before their love story got viral and the lady was arrested for illegally entering India. In her defense, she said she had no passport so she took the easier way to meet and marry her man.

Resurgence of OBC politics in Bihar is now spreading to other states as far as even Maharashtra where NCP has renewed its demand for caste based census on June 2, 2022, the day the Bihar state cabinet led by JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar approved the proposal of general administration department (GAD) for conducting caste based population count in the state by February 2023.

The BJP is conducting a fortnight campaign to celebrate the completion of eight years of the Modi government. The campaign seeks to highlight claims of the various achievements of the government regarding economic growth, infrastructure development, foodgrain production, social welfare schemes and foreign policy. All these are attributed to the initiatives and the tireless work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Modi government under the control of RSS has completed eight years. The Prime Minister and his companions have mobilised every propaganda means to boast about their 'tremendous' achievements. The sufferings and sorrows of the masses are cunningly drowned with the flood of propaganda gimmicks. During the last eight years when the promises of prosperity were thrown to the wind, the ‘Atmanirbhar' government was keen to serve the greed of the domestic and foreign capital. While the bottom 50 per cent of the population has only 13 per cent of the country's wealth, the top 10 per cent has acquired 57 per cent of the national assets.

The evolution of the internet is underway. Users may soon experience the same kind of disorientation that was caused by the cataclysmic shift of the internet from English computer scientist Tim Berner Lee’s World Wide Web to social media-based Web 2.0.

LUCKNOW: BJP is much ahead of political rivals in making preparations for 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh using Hindutva, holding investment meet and gearing up party workers to achieve target. Significantly enough Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked the party leaders and workers to achieve the target of 75 seats out of 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP in Lok Sabha polls in 2024.