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The independent constitutional authority, Election Commission of India, tasked to conduct free and fair elections, today stands like the naked Emperor. Since the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was launched on June 24, 2025, for Bihar, it was clear that it was not intended to clean up the electoral rolls. It had no precedent contrary to what was claimed by the ECI nor was it backed by any formal decision nor based on any due diligence to hold the exercise across the nation as was made out during launch. The statutory provisions of the election laws and regulations didn’t validate this exercise. It was simply aimed at mass disenfranchisement of the citizen’s constitutional right to vote. However, it was also clear that the exclusion was not arbitrary; there was madness in the method. There was clear design to cleanse the rolls of such voters who given their socioeconomic and identity background were more likely to vote against the BJP.

The public argument over Tata Sons has been told as a story of power: a board and a set of trusts pulling in different directions, a regulator applying pressure from outside. Lost in that framing is the party with the least say and the most at stake, the ordinary investor. This month the Reserve Bank of India rejected Tata Sons’ bid to surrender its registration as a core investment company, and on 17 September the board resolved to begin the listing process. The debate should now move on from whether to list to what listing gives the public.

Last Week the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed a special drive to re-enrol voters who were left out of the process during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in 30 States and Union Territories (UTs). Such directions came in the backdrop of the incessant criticism the ECI, headed by Gyanesh Kumar, faced over removal of 13 crore names from draft rolls in those States and UTs and a week after the devastating Indian Express expose (September 23) laid bare the squabbles between CEC and two Election Commissioners on several issues concerning SIR and who would be included in the voter list and who would be removed.

India’s escalating confrontation over the Election Commission is no longer merely a dispute about electoral rolls or the conduct of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. It has become an institutional crisis touching the credibility of elections themselves. As opposition parties, activists and youth groups demand Kumar’s resignation over allegations of voter-list manipulation, the Supreme Court must confront an uncomfortable question of its own: could much of this uncertainty have been avoided had it decided, with reasonable urgency, the constitutional challenge to the law under which the Election Commission’s leadership came to be appointed?

Tamil Nadu politics is undergoing a great churning. Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by CM Chandrasekaran Joseph Vijay has formally joined the INDIA bloc on October 3, 2026. It is indeed the biggest strategic shift in Tamil Nadu politics in recent times, which the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore called historic. DMK, on the other hand, distances farther away from Rahul Gandhi and Congress.

The political economy of a state is the interdisciplinary study of how a government's political institutions, laws, and power dynamics interact with its economic system to produce, distribute, and manage wealth and public policy. The political economy of Uttar Pradesh is shaped by its massive electoral weight, profound caste-class cleavages, and a transitioning economic landscape moving from agrarian backwardness toward state-driven industrialization.

Prices convey vital information. The price of a good reflects its scarcity, while interest rates—the price of money—influence whether households and firms spend, save, or invest. When governments alter these signals to pursue broader policy objectives, the consequences can extend well beyond the original target.

India's problem with Washington is no longer how to close a trade deal. It is how to stop negotiating against itself. That distinction matters because New Delhi is approaching the most dangerous stage of the India-US trade talks: the point at which the political need to announce an agreement can become greater than the economic need to secure one.

Members of Parliament of INDIA bloc and other opposition parties began their Save Democracy March on Tuesday October 6 from the Parliament to Election Commission of India (ECI) in protest of “Vote Theft” and irregularities in SIR process, but only to be stopped by the Delhi Police. They were not allowed to move towards the Election Commission. MPs were detained and taken in busses. Altogether, 237 MPs, belonging to 20 political parties, were participating in the march, and many were seen climbing police barricades.

The question why did the Supreme Court hesitate to take action against CEC Gyanesh Kumar for defaming its image by making a statement that a declaration attached to Form 6 (used for registering new voters) had been "upheld by the Supreme Court" has been haunting the social and political circles. On October 5, 2026, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant strongly contradicted the ECI's claim, stating, "Modified Form 6 has not been approved by us, let us be very clear."