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The ongoing slugfest between the BJP and opposition parties over the serial raids on opposition leaders may or may not have merits of witch-hunt. But one uncomfortable fact which is coming up before public eyes is that the Indian political system has been thrived on cash economy. Much of it, is to be blamed to the opaque political funding system in India since independence. In the veil of this opacity the personal wealth creation takes place. The fault line lies on the very fact that political parties repose responsibilities to their leaders to raise fund in a decentralized model by earmarking territory like a state or a region or even a district. This creates a fiefdom of power of the Fund-Raising-Responsible leaders and along the way some unscrupulous leaders also generate amass wealth. This system of political funding has been practiced and performed over the decades. This is the ultimate mother of all corruptions in India.

The global oil market is entering a critical phase as the European Union’s price cap for Russian oils comes into immediate effect. The EU has set a price cap of $60 per barrel for Russian oils. Oil prices have hovered around $80 per barrel, and the EU price is not far below the ruling prices.

Has Congress President Rahul Gandhi's low-profile poll gamble worked? Rahul skipped the campaign in Himachal Pradesh and canvassed barely in Gujarat while concentrating on his Bharat Jodo yatra. Was it part of a strategy, or was it an ill-advised move? Could Rahul's strategy be to save the party's ammunition for more significant battles? What is intriguing is how could a defeat in one or both states help him when victory is at a striking distance.

New Delhi: Former Pakistan Hockey Olympian Tahir Zaman feels that India has the potential to win the Hockey World cup.

New Delhi: Ace Shuttler HS Prannoy, India’s lone entry into the year ending BWF World Tour Finals in Bangkok, is placed in tough Group A along with with Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, of Denmark, Japan’s Kodai Naraoka and China’s Lu Guang Zu.

Preeti Banerjee (nee Sarkar) who first sang Sare Jahanse Achchha Hindostan Hamara, the lyric of Mohammad Iqbal (written in 1904), scored anew into a song by Pandit Ravi Shankar in 1945 at the Andheri commune of Indian Peoples Theatre Association in Bombay would have been 100-plus, had she been alive today.

Maya Ghosh who mesmerized the theatre lovers of Calcutta in 1960s through her extraordinary acting prowess passed away in Kolkata on Saturday virtually unsung. She was79 and ailing for quite some time. Those of us who were witness to the surge of the group theatres in Calcutta in the second half of last century, still remember the thrill and excitement over the production of Nandikar’s Bengali adaptation of Italian writerLuigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author”Maya showed her mettle first as an actor in this adapted play by portraying the character of the mother.

With the Christian community across the country raising its voice against the rightist forces perpetrating torture and victimising the community members and planning the strategy to expose the Hindutva bigots, the RSS, which like its earlier imitative to win over the trust of the Muslims, is scheming to reach out to the Christians for forming a new association ‘Save our Nation India’ with their cooperation.

It is now to wait for the counting of votes. In between, there are the exit polls and people will get a glimpse of what’s in store. A couple of opinion polls have been generous to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, giving the BJP 130-plus seats in Gujarat. Winning Gujarat is crucial for Modi if he wants to be a third-termer PM. December 4, the streets of Delhi voted. So did the burgeoning landfills. If the AAP captures the MCD, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have nobody else to blame but garbage, and 15 years of doing nothing but sit and watch the landfills turn to stinking hills.

Chief minister, Mamata Banerjee's sharp reprimand to district magistrate of North 24 Parganas, Sharad Kumar Dwivedi and other officials down the hierarchy when she found that the winter garments brought for distribution at a public meeting at a Hingalgunj yet to arrive certainly shook them up but also refurbished her image when it is being enveloped in shadows of successive scams. Indeed she badly needed to brush it up as it being tarnished have become a ongoing process with an Opposition strident in its criticism of cash for teaching jobs scam, central probe agencies swooping down on some her party leaders and of course at stinging observations of Calcutta High Court.