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Rahul Gandhi’s homily that unlike regional parties which “lack an ideology” and “have different approaches”, Congress is a party with an ideology has evoked strong reaction from the leaders of other opposition parties. Questions are being raised what the authority does he enjoy to speak in this manner? What is his locus standi in the Congress? Except being a Gandhi scion and a member of the Lok Sabha he has no other identity.

LUCKNOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leadership are banking on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his team for crucial Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 2024. With 80 Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh, the elections are very crucial for PM Narendra Modi and BJP for getting consecutive third term at the Centre.

Shelving of the disinvestment programme of the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) the Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) soon after postponing planned disinvestment programme for another PSU the Central Electronics Limited (CEL) has brought the national attention not only to reexamine the merits and demerits of the Modi government’s overall disinvestment programme, but to find out the real intention behind it apart from the competency of the government officials dealing with the matter.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has struck a big blow to the efforts of the opposition parties towards forming a combined front to take on the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. Gandhi said in the Congress Chintan Shivir in Udaipur that the Congress is the only alternative to the BJP and the regional parties cannot be the face of the opposition. His view is that the regional parties have no ideology and the only the Congress, with its strong ideology, is in a position to fight the BJP.

Union Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has raised concern over failure of the States/Union Territories (UTs) to adopt Model Prison Manual 2016 for improving jail administration and security of jails. In this connection, a circular of May 2, 2022 to States/UTs points out that given the importance of prisons in criminal justice system, the Government of India has been sharing with States/UTs the latest guiding principles, best practices, directives of the Supreme Court of India (SCI) and recommendations of Parliamentary Standing Committee for efficient prison administration.

Following the 1857 so-called Great Indian Rebellion during the rule of the East India Company, British monarch Queen Victoria, issued a proclamation in 1858 that India would be governed by and in the name of “the Crown”. Thus, the British territory of India (the State) and the British Government of India, were embodied in the British Monarch.

Media has been writing and talking of “KCR’s gambit” from way before the Telangana state was born. That first gambit succeeded and, today, Telangana is India’s youngest state. It is said that KCR led the way for the formation of Telangana from the front from the word ‘go’. Then, in the year 2018, KCR took another gambit. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao dissolved the assembly and resigned.

The Chintan shivir is not the panacea of the malaise that inflicts the Congress. Significantly, Congress under Sonia Gandhi has been regularly holding such shivirs. But the shivirs have failed to rejuvenate and revitalise the organisation and provide a new direction. On the contrary the party has been consistently drowning in the quagmire of lack of political will and ideological disillusionment. It is noticed that the internal bickerings raises its ugly head after these shivirs.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A new political outfit has burst on Kerala’s political landscape. The latest addition to the plethora of political organisations the State parades has been made by the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) and the corporate-backed Twenty20, which have joined hands to challenge the two principal political fronts dominating Kerala’s political landscape for long.

Majoritarian nationalism can go wrong and it can land the leaders in a hot soup! This is the unmistakable message from the Sri Lankan crisis. The Rajapaksa family was the darling of the majority Singhalese and it indulged in hate politics against Hindus and Muslims. The isolation of the minority came to become the norm. For example, Buddhist monks would block Hindus from entering their temples. Hit by scarcity, these monks had to stand in queues for essential daily-use items. The hardship forced them to demand the removal of the Rajapaksas from the government. Last week, New Zealand provided NZ$ 500,000 to help feed children and farmers and India sent 65,000 MT of urea to Sri Lanka.