By Harihar Swarup BJP and Shiv Sena have a history of difficult relationship. Despite being partners for the major part of three decades, the relationship between the two parties has been under almost constant strain—this is because the ideological affinities that brings them together also pits them against...
By Ashis Biswas A bitter war of words over basic procedural, governance-related issues in public perception, this is what the ongoing, unseemly spat between Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) looks like. At another level, it enables the BJP-run central government to challenge the...
By John Wojcik This weekend, there are events in Germany commemorating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the pages of the press, prominent persons—from former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker to current German Chancellor Angela Merkel to former Soviet President...
By Nitya Chakraborty The Bharatiya Janta Party is taking full advantage of the existing electoral bond scheme of the NDA government in bringing about massive expansion of its finances by cornering more than ninety percent of the funds received under the scheme from the donors belonging mainly to...
By N Sundaramurthy Narendra Modi-led government has decided to list LIC on the Stock Exchange. The media appears to be excited that LIC, the country’s largest financial institution, will become a potential candidate for public listing. It is termed the big-bang reform. What is the big-bang?! In simple...
By Arun Srivastava The exercise to verify and identify the illegal migrants residing in Assam and create the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the state has been going on for nearly four years, and so far not less than 2 million people have been delisted. Going...
By Rahil Nora Chopra Since the Assembly poll verdict, it has been 14 days and no headway made towards government formation in Maharashtra. Now, senior and influential leaders of BJP have started pressuring the central leadership to hasten government formation and in doing so, also criticizing and blaming Devendra...
By Emile Schepers On Tuesday, November 5, there were many important victories for the Democratic Party, but none greater than in Virginia, where Democrats took control of both houses of the General Assembly (state legislature) for the first time in 26 years. Republicans went into the election...
By Barun Das Gupta The BJP has never been able to resolve the mutually exclusive nature of science and pseudo-science. It has always been in a dilemma as to how to reconcile their irrational belief that thousands of years ago our ancestors used to travel from planet to...
By Arun Srivastava It appears that Indians are no more wanted in New Zealand. Else there is no genuine reason to fundamentally change the parameters of the visa issuing rules. In a swift move the New Zealand government has changed the provision of the Visa. Earlier the...
By Conn Hallinan The fallout from the September attack on Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil facilities is continuing to reverberate throughout the Middle East, sidelining old enmities—sometimes for new ones—and re-drawing traditional alliances. While Turkey’s recent invasion of northern Syria is grabbing the headlines, the bigger story may be...
By Peter Frost Frida Kahlo, the doyen of the Mexican painters of the last century was one of the early feminists and a firebrand communist who took part in every people’s movement despite bad health conditions. Today Kahlo’s reputation is growing all the time even though she...
By K Raveendran Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reprimanding WhatsApp for criminal breach of the privacy of Indians is like the devil swearing by god. “Government of India is concerned at the breach of the privacy of citizens of India on the messaging platform WhatsApp....
By Nitya Chakraborty In a significant development in the communist strategy in influencing the political course in United Kingdom, the Communist Party of Britain, has extended its total support to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in his bid to oust the Tories from power to implement his programme...
By Ashok B Sharma India has refused to be a part of the mega trading bloc Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in its neighbourhood in its present form as its demand were not met. Well that does not mean it has to forgo its Act East policy. Joining...
By Subrata Majumder The last minute paradox, which led India not to join RCEP, was a bolt from the blue to member countries. At the present juncture, the policy makers viewed RCEP as the bane since this will represent India a buying market for the member countries. India’s...
By Gyan Pathak Amid a changing global economic landscape, South Asia will need to leverage on all sectors of the economy in a balanced way, supporting improvements in agricultural productivity and a sustainable expansion of manufacturing, while promoting higher-skill services, and supporting over 150 million people in the...
By Steve Sweeney Iraq’s Communist Party has called for a new type of government and for the momentum of the current uprising to continue until its demands are realized as roads were blocked in Baghdad on Sunday. A party statement branded the current system a “terrible failure at...