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“I don’t have a single Muslim friend”, said S.Y. Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, while recalling his memories of having large Eid parties in his spacious bungalow in Lutyens Delhi in his official days.

Global hunger level has been skyrocketing since outbreak of COVID-19. In 2020, it rose by more than in the previous five years combined. Between 720 and 811 million people faced hunger during the first year of the pandemic, and the world is off the track to end hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Since India is among the worst his countries, which is facing the spectre the third wave while the second wave has hardly been over, a new wave of poverty and hunger is knocking at the door.

If West Bengal is repeated in Uttar Pradesh polls in 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have to book a 2024 ticket to Vadnagar, Gujarat. The pressure is on Yogi Adityanath. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister must have grown up on ‘Papa Kehte Hain Bada Naam Karega; Beta Hamaara Bada Kaam Karega’, but a month and a half ago, his political obituary was being written. Then, the Yogi was given a reprieve, and since then he has been selling a brand of ‘Hindutva’ more virulent than any sold by other Hindutva aficionados.

Should India do away with the concept of personal laws and bring in a Uniform Civil Code for all citizens? Is this the right time for bringing such a law? Supporters say it is already too late, while the opponents feel that this is not the time. The idea a complex one and needs political consensus.

The 20-year US war in Afghanistan, hand in hand with the Afghan National Security force against the Taliban is over. General Austin “Scott” Miller – the highest-ranked officer on the ground – handed down command to US-based four-star General Kenneth McKenzie, bringing the longest US war nearer to its end at a time by the end of August. Seizing the power vacuum, the Taliban are making sweeping advances across the country. Cashing in on the gradual reduction of NATO (mostly American) forces, the Taliban army is out to capture the whole of land-locked country. The Taliban propaganda is on through YouTube claiming that it occupies 85 per cent of 652,864 square kilometers of Afghanistan, but that appears exaggerated. Nonetheless, one-fourth of the hilly country is under the Taliban.

Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh has launched massive assaults on democracy and the constitutional values in the state to retain power in the next assembly elections scheduled in February/March 2022. In its bizzare actions, Yogi and the Sangh Parivar are getting full encouragement from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home plus Cooperation Minister Amit Shah.

New Delhi: Former India Women’s Hockey Team Chief Coach Neil Hawgood has opined that the current team is mentally tougher than before.

New Delhi: Three time Olympian and former captain Dilip Tirkey is hopeful that Manpreet Singh led Indian Hockey side will have a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics.

The people of this country, the land of RSS’s Hindutva, must hang their heads in shame for the chir-harana (disrobing) of the modern Draupadi in Uttar Pradesh, the state ruled by the fanatic Hindutva protagonist, Yogi Adityanath, by the cadres of RSS and Narendra Modi’s vigilantes on July 9 in district level elections.

A hundred years later, will another new parliament be built? The arguments which are now being advanced to justify the construction of a triangular building to house the MPs whose number may go up from the present 545 to more than 700 can be made again.