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The presidential election has virtually split the grand old party of India, the Congress, on ideological plane. Congress has been a conglomerate of people having divergent political and social backgrounds. It never had a defined ideological line. The party primarily followed the centrist political line. Even in the pre independence days if it had leaders like Vallab Bhai Patel and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, it also had Marxist oriented leaders too on its decision making bodies.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Defeated, but not disgraced. That is the apt assessment of the outcome of the Congress presidential election, which saw Mallikarjun Kharge become the first non-Gandhi leader to head the grand old party in 24 years. The Congress veteran will officially take over the post on October 26.

The Global Hunger Index 2022, released on October 13, shows that India’s rank in the world has slipped further – from 101 last year to 107 this year – in terms of this important indicator of conditions of hunger and malnutrition. India’s rank is far below that of its neighbours, and levels of hunger and malnutrition are much better in many countries with significantly lower levels of economic development than India. Afghanistan, a war-torn country, is the only country in South Asia below India in terms of its GHI rank.

Britons nurse the feeling that Labour Party has lost the opportunity to take advantage of the present crisis facing the Tory Government led by Liz Truss. Though its leader Keir Starmer is trying to capitalise on the government crisis, the major section of the Labour leaders are reluctant to share his passion. These leaders hold the view that Starmer has not come out with the alternate economic policy paper to attract the peoples imagination. Starmer is hopeful that the Labour will defeat the Tories in the next general election, scheduled in December 2024.

As if the remission to the “Gujarat gang-rapists” and the showboating from the ramparts of the Lal Qila weren’t enough, now there’s India’s humiliating 107 out of 121 ranking on the Global Hunger index, too, indicting the Modi Government. Only the morally-corrupt and the ethically-challenged will not baulk at children wasting and stunting because of widespread hunger, and lack of balanced diet!

Nepal is going to polls on November 20 this year for the second time in its latest tryst with democracy. The first round of general elections took place in 2017 after the country got a brand new constitution in 2015. What makes the Nepal elections an interesting political development in the land-locked country a little shy of 30 million people and $33 billion worth of GDP is the aspirations of the people from the new political system after living under a monarchy for the greater part of its modern history.

The US has gambled big in its latest, across-the-board sanctions on Chinese companies in the semiconductor industry, believing it can kneecap China and retain its global dominance. From the slogan of globalisation and "free trade" of the neoliberal 90s, it has reverted to good old technology denial regimes followed by the US and its allies during the Cold War. While it might work in the short run in slowing down the Chinese advances, the cost to the US semiconductor industry of losing China – its biggest market – will also have significant consequences. In the process, the semiconductor industries of Taiwan and South Korea and equipment manufacturers in Japan and the European Union are likely to become collateral damage. It reminds us again of what Kissinger once said: "To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal"!

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) for 2022 has just come out, which shows India occupying the 107th position among the 121 countries for which the index is prepared (countries where hunger is not a noteworthy problem are left out of the index). India’s score on the hunger index is 29.1 which is worse than the score of 28.2 it had in 2014. (The lower the figure the less is hunger). One is so bombarded these days by official talk about India being among the fastest growing economies of the world, India within sight of becoming a $5 trillion economy, and India being an emerging economic power, that news such as the GHI brings one down to earth. Ironically, the only country in South Asia that is below India on the hunger index, and that too only marginally, is war-ravaged Afghanistan (rank 109); the rank of crisis-hit Sri Lanka is 64, of Nepal 81, of Bangladesh 84 and of Pakistan 99.

The release of Bilkis Bano rape case convicts by the Gujarat government is turning even more dubious amidst new disclosures that the remission was allowed despite opposition from the CBI as well as the city civil and sessions court of Greater Bombay and the prisons and correctional administration assistant DGP of Ahmedabad.

LUCKNOW: The visit of leaders from different political parties to Sefai village in Itawah in Uttar Pradesh to meet Akhilesh Yadav to condole the death of his father and founder of Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh Yadav had significance for future alliances by SP to face 2024 Lok Sabha polls.