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It has been a shattering blow for the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Even in his dreams he would not have imagined that a person like Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar who he has been keeping under his thumbs would raise his voice and challenge his authority.

On the evening of August 14, 1947, the then Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, and his wife Edwina settled down to watch a Bob Hope movie, "My Favourite Brunette." A few yards away, in the Central Hall of Parliament, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru rose to make his famous ‘Tryst with destiny speech announcing India's Independence. He declared, "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will be awake to life and freedom." Thus on August 15, two independent nation-states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan were born. It is befitting to look back and look forward as India turned 75.

The ‘mood’ does not favour Modi. Support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ebbed. Only 24 percent want to see him PM for a third term. The percentage was 66 a year ago. That is a Niagara Falls magnitude stumble from the heights, a slam-dunk in world wrestling lingo. India Today's ‘Mood of the Nation’ survey says Narendra Modi is not India’s ‘Best Choice for PM’ anymore.

The photograph of China’s state councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political bureau chief of Afghanistan's Taliban, in Tianjin, China on 28 July 2021 was an advance message that Beijing was destined to be the closest ally of the Taliban if the latter would oust the erstwhile President of Afghanistan, Dr Ashraf Ghani-led government. But very few could imagine that it would happen less than three weeks after the Tianjin dialogue. But the Chinese were optimistic after the one-to-one meeting.

What states in India could learn from the Tamil Nadu budget is the consistent high spending on school education and health. This is something that other states need to emulate if India were to eradicate poverty and create more jobs in the country. Of course one may argue that Tamil Nadu is among the richer, developed, progressive and well administered states in the country. But what is noteworthy is that the state has laid emphasis on education and health for quite some time and more particularly in school education since the 14th finance commission.

Recalling the horrors of partition on the 75th Independence Day is not intended by the BJP to present a holistic picture of that simultaneously joyful and distressing time, but a means of stoking communal hatred.

Whoever may be behind the preparation of The Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the initiators have ignored a simple logic that India should first strive to generate enough electricity for its people before recasting its distribution policy. The aspect of cost of electricity to consumers should also guide the lawmakers in formulating any new electricity policy. While the Bill fails to recognise the first thing first — the need for a rapid increase in the generation capacity — it is more concerned with selective distribution through private participation.

Chelat Achutha Menon played a decisive role in the history of modern Kerala-as one of the greatest statesmen emerged from the tiny state, and as a major driving force behind the celebrated ‘Kerala Model’ of development. Achutha Menon’s stature is so great that any serious discourse on the political economy of modern Kerala seemed unimaginable without his immense contributions to the development of the state. Today, thirty years after his death (August 16, 1991), Achutha Menon’s legacy still appears to be intact, although Kerala has moved away from much of ‘his model’.

The Afghan Taliban are in Kabul. And foaming at the mouth are Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo. Both blame President Joe Biden for doing a Vietnam on Afghanistan. Even the “helicopter picture” is ‘hu-ba-hu’, surreal! Throughout Sunday, August 15, India’s Independence Day, the Taliban were at the gates of Kabul, and President Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikstan. The Taliban’s Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, likely Taliban President, entered the Presidential Palace; but, hold on, wait for the "peaceful" transfer of power, reported Afghanistan’s ‘Tolo News’, the warlords have been neutralized and the Afghan women are cowering in the burqa.

These were two distinct different narratives, while the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to nihilism and called to observe the Independence Day of Pakistan, August 14 as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day as the pain of Partition can never be forgotten but the same Modi on March 22, in a letter had congratulated the Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan and exhibited his love for Pakistan as on this day Muslim League had passed the 'Partition Resolution' in 1940.