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BHOPAL: While Congress and BJP are engaged in a bitter electoral fight in two Vidhan Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, both parties are finding it difficult to explain inconvenient questions raised by their two powerful leaders. Laxman Singh, former M.P. and MLA has publicly said that Congress is not a private company. Laxman Singh, happens to be younger brother of Digvijay Singh. He has criticised the leadership over the manner in which party executive has been constituted without consultation, party president acted as if he is a managing director of a company.

DALLAS (USA): Why is America hesitant to see a woman as President in the White House? The potential is undeniable, as seen in Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential polls, but Trump emerged victorious. There is immense potential for women in leadership roles.

Finally, the U.S. election results are out. The Republican candidate Donald Trump has swept the polls by winning convincingly in the presidential contest as also leading the Republican Party to majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. There is no grey area. It is apparent that the majority of the American voters have shown confidence in this political maverick who has promised to Make America Great Again. For the Democratic Party, the 2024 elections results have brought some uneasy questions to the fore. The party leadership has to go into it after full results come out.

It is as though the most controversial, at times even messy, part of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has been reserved for the last few days of his tenure. The revelation about his prayer to the deity to help the Supreme Court come up with a solution in the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute has had its political undertones as the deity was in a way a party to the dispute. But luckily, the claim did not lead to any clumsy results, although it may have created some distrust in the minds of the aggrieved parties. The invitation to prime minister Narendra Modi for the CJI’s private Ganesh puja also had its share of doubts.

With passage of resolution for restoring Article 370 in the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir on November 6, 2024, a tightrope has been stretched through national unity of the country and the legitimate aspirations of the people of the state on which India will have to walk now. The third day of its very fist session, the assembly passed the resolution with majority, and demanded restoration of special status of the erstwhile state of J&K.

Donald Trump’s recent critique of Bangladesh on social media, branding it as a nation rife with “barbaric violence” against religious minorities and claiming it exists in a “total state of chaos,” has drawn significant attention. This statement, made just days before the US presidential election, appears to be an effort to appeal to Hindu-American voters, a demographic that has increasingly urged Trump to address issues related to Hindu and minority rights abroad. While the timing of these remarks suggests a political strategy aimed at garnering support, they could also carry profound implications for US-Bangladesh relations should Trump return to office. Under his leadership, US foreign policy could shift dramatically, potentially ushering in a new era for bilateral relations that have recently flourished under the current administration.

Food prices remain a major concern for the Reserve Bank of India as it uses its monetary policy handle to bring inflation continuing to play truant within the desired ambit while supporting economic growth. Policymakers will, therefore, be drawing some comfort from the agriculture ministry’s first advance estimate of principal kharif crops, projecting production of rice, pulses and maize in the current 2024-25 crop season to stay ahead of last year. A favourable monsoon encouraging farmers to bring more land under cultivation helped in boosting production. They find a lot of inspiration from minimum support price (MSP), guaranteeing a minimum 50 per cent margin over cost of production, announced well ahead of sowing for kharif and rabi crops.

KOLKATA: Football and electoral politics make strange bedfellows though a few politicians have been in sports bodies and ran them almost as their fiefdom in West Bengal. But heads turned and eyes were raised in amazement when the men heading Mohan Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting endorsed the candidature of Sanat Dey, Trinamool Congress candidate for Naihati assembly bypoll scheduled on November 13.

Country is swallowed up by impoverishment. Hunger, unemployment, and absence of any possibility of respite from the hurting present have left the entire people in the throes of depression. The middle class is also suffering along with those called the ‘have not’, though they never identify with them. There is hardly any difference between the middle class and the proletariat today. It is the centralization of country’s resources and rule of finance capital, a stage when the capitalist system reaches its zenith.

Wittingly or unwittingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been continuously raising the issue of infiltration during their election campaigns. They talk about “Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration” in their rallies, but little knowing the tribal psyche that has developed during the last three centuries of their struggle against “Dikus” (outsiders) who infiltrated into Jharkhand, grabbed their resources, and interfered with their culture and autonomy. All non-Adivasis are infiltrators for them, and on what Modi-Shah duo are emphasizing, is at best, just another addition. It has alarmed the tribes and they seem to be much more united against the BJP in this election.