By Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: Much significance is being attached to the statement of Samajwadi Party national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav that he would not contest assembly polls. Akhilesh Yadav, who is MP from Azamgarh, will now concentrate on campaigning for his party rather than looking after...
By Rahil Nora Chopra After the by-polls to 29 assembly and three Lok Sabha seats where Congress scored a surprise victory in Himachal Pradesh, and notable wins in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted: “BJP has lost 2 out of 3 Lok Sabha seats. In...
By James M Dorsey Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan may have averted for now further violence by caving in to demands of a militant, supremacist religious group. But in doing so, Khan is allowing radical ultra-conservatism to fester, undermining social cohesion, threatening economic development, and giving militants a say...
By C.J. Atkins The big defeat of the Democratic Party in the latest Governor’s elections in Virginia and the erosion of its base in the strongholds of New Jersey and New York have ominous portent for the President Joe Biden and his party colleagues for the coming midterm elections...
By Nitya Chakraborty The results of the by polls of thirty assembly constituencies and three Lok Sabha seats announced on November 2 make it clear that the BJP’s days of supremacy in Indian politics have been reversed. The Congress has staged a significant come back while the regional parties, ...
By K Raveendran The behaviour of fuel prices in India is falling into a regular pattern. Three distinct patterns emerge, relative to elections in the country in the price movement of petroleum products. These phases fall into pre-election, election and post-election scenarios. The pattern has been repeating itself ad...
By Prakash Karat The part-virtual and part-person meeting of the foreign ministers of four countries – the United States, Israel, India and United Arab Emirates – on October 18 saw the emergence of a new grouping in West Asia. It is significant that the meeting took place when the...
By D. Raja Few events can be cited in human history that have altered our understanding of human society to the extent of the Russian Revolution (October 25, 1917, as per new calendar November 7). While the French Revolution fuelled the revolutionary aspirations of the masses but fell prey...
By Gyan Pathak By winning both the assembly seats – Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur – in Bihar that went to by-polls on October 30, the JD(U) has reaffirmed its advantage over the RJD, under three major conditions. First, JD(U) contested in alliance with BJP, voters turnout was less than...
By Sushil Kutty “First step outside Maharashtra, giant leap towards Delhi via Dadra Nagar Haveli!”, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, Neil Armstrong-like, tweeted, soon after the Sena’s newly minted candidate, Kalaben Delkar, won the Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DNH) bypoll. Kalaben defeated the BJP’s Mahesh Gavit and...
By L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: Nobody expected such a massive BJP win in the by-polls held in Madhya Pradesh on October 30. Most of the observers thought that because of the exorbitant price rise of diesel, petrol, LPG cylinders and scarcity of fertilizers at the time of sowing and terrible...
By Ashis Biswas In Assam, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally the United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL) won all five seats where assembly by-elections were held on October 30.Its performance in the biggest state in India’s Northeast somewhat offset its miserable showing in West Bengal, where...
By Harihar Swarup Aroosa Alam, the Pakistani journalist and advocate of India-Pakistan peace, whose “pure, beautiful friendship” with Amarinder Singh is now at the centre of a public slugfest between the former Punjab CM and his estranged colleagues in the Congress. Over the years, both when Amarinder was out...
By Matein Khalid A perfect macro storm for the Pakistani rupee has seen it tank from PKR 152 in May to PKR 170 now. The primary catalyst for the rupee’s plunge was the escalation in the trade deficit and the PTI government’s indiscriminate borrowing from the banking system to...
By Sankar Ray The 4-0 victory with big margins by the All India Trinamool Congress defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the bye-elections to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly has sent a clear message to the political parties and all concerned that the people of West Bengal stoutly reject...
By Kalyani Shankar Will V.K. Sasikala, the close aide of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, unite the AIADMK or divide it? That is the question that is dogging the party, of late. The controversial leader, who announced that she would not dabble in politics six months ago,...
By James M Dorsey Sudan is the exception to the rule in the United Arab Emirates’ counterrevolutionary playbook. In contrast to Egypt or Yemen, where it went out of its way to help roll back the achievements of popular revolts, the UAE was happy to see the back of...
By Nilanjan Banik In economics, there is a concept of intra-industry trade, which is trading in similar items. For example, China exports Lenovo computers to Japan and in return imports Sony computers. When countries trade in similar technology-intensive items, trade becomes mutually beneficial. And trading partners get access to...