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NEW YORK: Voters in the West African nation of Ghana repudiated the right-wing government of President Nana Akufo-Addo with a historic, massive win for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in elections on December 7.

The rapid advance of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other armed factions led to the fall of Bashar al- Assad’s government in Syria. With this, the US has succeeded in toppling the last of the secular regimes in West Asia. US military interventions resulted not only in the fall of secular regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria in the West Asia-North African region, but also created deep sectarian fissures in the region. The destruction unleashed by the US and the Frankenstein religious fundamentalist/extremist groups it helped create, is threatening peace and stability everywhere.

Maharashtra’s Mahayuti, the ruling NDA in the state, is still struggling to overcome a deep political trouble from within. The most serious political development is that Shiv Sena believes BJP and NCP are hand in glove in clipping the wings of their party and leader Eknath Shinde. It is a serious concern for the BJP leadership, since many political leaders believe that BJP is pursuing downsizing its allies one by one to go ahead with its dream of ‘one nation, one party’ approach in the long run.

The BJP is in hurry to appoint a new national president by December end. Electoral process for the election of the new president is underway. But the contentious issue whose candidate, either of the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat or of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will eventually occupy the office is still shrouded in the mystery. October meeting of the RSS national executive and later interaction of Bhagwat with some senior BJP leaders and also chief minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath had certainly turned the saffron ecosystem optimist of an agreement between the two before the year is out.

Finally, the cat is out of the bag and hopping mad on the hot tin roof! Techie Atul Subhash, 34, strung himself up like a ceiling fan and left a placard with the three words ‘Justice Is Due’. Atul Subhash also left a 24-page suicide note and an audio-video explanation on why he killed himself and who abetted the suicide, bringing into focus the female-male divide into sharp focus? Nobody assisted Subhash in placing the noose around his neck, but he did affirm that his estranged wife and her relatives drove him to suicide. There was massive inducement and a big fat release.

The dramatic toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime at the hands of rebel forces this weekend could have far-reaching consequences for Syria, global and regional powers, and alliances. It also may prove to be a replay of earlier events in Iraq courtesy the western powers.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has refused an alliance with Congress in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. It assumes significance on two counts. It marks a turning point in the political landscape of the national Capital. It underscores AAP's confidence in its political dominance. But it reveals a challenge to the unity in the Opposition against the BJP-led NDA dispensation. The BJP will always like to be faced with a fractured Opposition than a united one.

It was a huge pile of debris left on the ground where Babri Masjid, with its undeniable grandeur, stood. Space was slowly emptied, leaving behind a vast loneliness, desolate and wet. Nothing remained the same. It was not only an attack on a mosque, it injured our inheritance, inclusivity. Almost half of us lost the expanse that we had built up since centuries. Those responsible stand today merged with state, with majoritarian support. Whosoever stood up in search of justice, got lost in a crowd. Their defence became spontaneously defiance as once Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had said when he was falsely accused of sedition by British imperialism and was taken to the dock. He had told the court that it was only in battlefields and in court rooms, that greatest acts of injustice in the history generally have taken place.

LONDON: Israel has invaded Syria, its tanks moving beyond a “buffer zone” adjacent to the illegally occupied Golan Heights to within a few miles of Damascus. Its Defence Minister Israel Katz boasts that its bombers have entirely destroyed the Syrian navy as it sat idle in dock. It is conducting hundreds of other bombing raids over Syria, destroying the weapons stocks and military infrastructure of a country with which it is supposedly at peace.

On December 9 Monday, Indian foreign secretary held crucial talks in Dhaka with his Bangladesh counterpart as also the head of interim government Dr. Muhammad Yunus to find some ways for improving the bilateral relations in the wake of reports of attacks on Hindus by the communal elements of the country. The discussions were the first at the high level between the two countries in the Bangladesh capital with no breakthrough in sight though both expressed their desire to continue the dialogue.