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The results of the nine Uttar Pradesh bypolls will by far be more important than those of Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls, if only because Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who spent a lot of time in both states, cannot afford to lose Uttar Pradesh to Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, who is looking for the Yogi to go back to his 'mutt' and be a 'muttadeesh'. Also, there is the spectre of Union Home Minister Amit Shah whose interest in Yogi Adityanath’s performance is more than academic.

A fascist has one too many abominable attributes. But basically, someone to be called fascist will be found to be anti-liberal and anti-left. A fascist leader will be promoting a nationalist dictatorship and he will have a positive disposition to violence. Mass mobilization besides, he will be prone to building himself as a charismatic authoritarian leader who overtly and covertly will stay engaged in snuffing out all critics at all times. Some leaders will wear democratic mask but their actions will give out their fascist bearings. Since her resignation as prime minister and the army aided fleeing the country for friendly neighbour India as a result of unrelenting protests turning violent with students in the forefront, Sheikh Hasina to her acute discomfiture finds that her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is called a fascist by several leaders of the interim government.

On November 26, 1949, our Constitution was adopted and became operative on January 26, 1950.

The Ukraine war entered its 1000th day on Tuesday, November 19 and on the same afternoon, President Zelensky used for the first time high tech AATCMS missiles for striking inside Russia after getting green signal from the outgoing President Joe Biden only two days before. Soon after, President Putin announced lowering the Russian threshold for using nuclear weapons agreed to earlier.

G20 Presidency has called the Rio de Janeiro Declaration “historical” as the leaders committed to taxing billionaires, tackling inequalities, and support for climate action with focus on sustainable growth and fight against poverty, but it has taken limited concrete steps and focus was on long term goals rather than immediate actions.

Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, who recently concluded his tenure as the Chief Justice of India, has brought to light a significant issue confronting the judicial system: the growing influence of social media and lobbyists who target individual judges. His observations highlight a new challenge that the judges face in preserving their integrity and independence. This problem extends beyond the higher judiciary and affects district judges, where the pressures of online campaigns and public targeting have begun to erode the quality of judgments.

Cash, Caste, Crop. Add to that Crypto! Right from 7am in the morning on November 20, when voters stepped out in twos and threes and fours and fives to cast their votes, election aficionados have been placing their bets on the three ‘C’ as the moving force behind polling in Maharashtra, refusing to pin the voting trend on the conflicting narratives of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’, which dominated this latest phase of the elections.

Manila: It may be seen as an irony of fate that the Philippines, a pioneer of the modern rice production technology helping some of the world’s major rice producers, including India, to become self-sufficient in paddy production, has itself become the world’s biggest rice importer. For the third successive year, the Philippines will continue to be the world’s No. 1 rice importer during the current marketing season of 2024-25. Official estimates put the country’s rice import requirement at a record high of 5.1 million tons.

The Draft Communique of G20, the countries which are responsible for 80 per cent of global emissions, circulated on November 19, 2024, doesn’t mention “transitioning away from the fossil fuels” the phrase already agreed upon at COP28. G20 summit (November 18 -19) at Brazil thus displays a stark failure, as far as climate action is concerned, while COP29 in midway in Baku in Azerbaijan has turned into a stage for theatrics, and time is running out for an effective agreement on key issue of considerably scaling up necessary funding the climate action to save the planet Earth.

RANCHI: The second and final phase of polling for the Jharkhand Assembly, that will cover 38 constituencies, takes place on Wednesday November 20. The results of the election for the 81-member House will be announced on November 23.