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The state government of Maharashtra decided that this year too they would not grant permission for ‘Dahi Handi’ celebration during Janmashtami on 30 August. This is the second consecutive year that the immensely popular Dahi Handi celebration has been cancelled owing to the pandemic.

There is euphoria over India achieving one crore Covid vaccinations on a single day, the first time ever the country has achieved the feat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described it in a tweet as ‘momentous’, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya proudly made the announcement about the achievement. Everyone is patting on the back of everyone else.

The Regime changes are capricious events, since there are many variables in play. It explains their mystique. The latest one in Afghanistan, third in the past two decades, is no exception. The Mujahideen takeover in 1992 was a preordained event choreographed by the United States, which slipped out of its hands. The 1996 Taliban takeover was like a slow-motion talkie with Ahmad Shah Massoud simply disappearing from Kabul without a fight. August 15’s dramatic developments lead to a sense of deja vu.

Whatever the impending regime change in Afghanistan may mean to India, the country should accept the reality soon and join China, Russia, Pakistan and the UK, among others, to support the political change in Afghanistan. The India-Afghanistan relations are over 1,000 years old. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni invaded India 17 times between 1000 and 1027 AD. Nearly all former Islamic rulers of India originated from Afghanistan. India will make a big mistake if it trusts the USA on its immediate Afghanistan policy. A regime change in Afghanistan is no guarantee for peace. Name an Islamic rebel group which is not present in Afghanistan. The state has lived with several terrorist groups, including ISIS (Khorasan) that claimed responsibility for the latest deadly attack outside Kabul airport. The attack came as the US forces were in the process of withdrawing from the country following the Taliban's takeover.

With failed economic promises to misbegotten economic reforms, relentless communal polarization, the crushing of civil dissent and the destruction of citizen’s fundamental right to liberty, the nationalist (fascist) Union Government has tried everything in its quiver to shore up the image of PM as a superman of himself that he has tirelessly built over the last seven years. Yet the country has been witnessing crises ever since he tanked the economy with serial disasters like demonetization followed by GST and a disastrous tax cut of Rs.1.45 lakh crore for corporates in 2019, without consideration how the shortfall would be made up.

New Delhi: Head Coach Igor Stimac on Friday named a 25-member Indian Football squad for friendlies against Nepal.

New Delhi: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday said that owing to the pandemic situation, the competition calendar of 2020-21 has been brought forward to 2021-22.

New Delhi: Vishu Rathee, Tanu, and Nikita Chand scored emphatic victories over their rivals to move into the junior girls’ finals at the ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships in Dubai.

By 7 pm of August 26, 68 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered, said the Modi Government. Do we have to take it for gospel truth, especially when India doesn’t rely on vaccine mandates, unlike the USA, where vaccine mandates help ensure vaccine compliance? More so after August 23, when the FDA gave “full use approval” to the Pfizer vaccine – and the Biden administration made it compulsory for government employees to vaccinate, and US soldiers also.

The Supreme Court of India made two comments on policing in India on August 26 putting on record the two well known facts that the police administration across India are cosy to the politicians of the ruling establishments while filing flimsy charges against opposition leaders and keep hanging swords on their heads. One of comments was made in the case related to a state police and the other in a case related to the Centre’s CBI and ED. The comments showed how our police administrations suffer from the mother of all evils from which countless evils spring up through which a citizen of India struggles to get justice.