Sushil Kutty Ayodhya, Sabarimala, Gurugram, Akbar Fort, Noida, lunatic asylum, pilgrimage centre, women’s right to pray, Muslims’ right to pray… Since May 26, 2014, ever since BJP won the rulers’ grubstake, religious issues have acquired a political colour, which has gotten a deeper shade with general elections 2019 approaching....
By Matein Khalid DUBAI: The current balance of payments crisis in Pakistan evoked my memories of visiting Argentina as a Chase Manhattan derivatives banker in the 1990s. Domingo Cavallo’s artificial peso peg against the US dollar led to a currency collapse, banking failures and political chaos (five Presidents in...
By Sushil Kutty Ayodhya, Sabarimala, Gurugram, Akbar Fort, Noida, lunatic asylum, pilgrimage centre, women’s right to pray, Muslims’ right to pray… Since May 26, 2014, ever since BJP won the rulers’ grubstake, religious issues have acquired a political colour, which has gotten a deeper shade with general elections...
Are the 2019 Lok Sabha and six Assembly elections having dictative feature? The 2014 polls witnessed worst ever performance of Congress followed by BJPs subsequent wins in Assembly elections. The mandate was decisive and in favor of Narendra Modi. However, it is to understand the 2014 was a see-saw...
By Aditya Aamir A C-Voter-Republic TV ‘National Survey’, released a couple of days ago, gives the Mahagathbandhan 50 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, if ‘elections are held today.’ There is a caveat: There should be a MGB. Well, MGB did not come gift-wrapped this Xmas, and is...
Taxpayers will surely be happy with the latest announcement of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the government is currently working on a single GST rate for most of the goods. It makes sense as India is having one of the most complex GST structures in the world and simplifying...
By Rob Miller On January 1 2019, the Cuban people will celebrate the 60th anniversary of their revolution. Following years of struggle Cubans finally defeated the forces of the brutal dictator Fulgencia Batista and his backers in the United States. Yet as Fidel Castro famously predicted the United...
By Ashis Biswas In a closely contested election it is not often that both winners and the runners-up end up celebrating the results. Curiously, that is precisely what happened in the recently concluded Assam panchayat elections. Leaders of both BJP and Congress had their reasons to cheer as...
By L.S. Herdenia BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has accomplished a Herculean task. Although in theory the chief minister alone has the prerogative about the formation of the ministry, the ground reality is totally different. The chief minister has to play a delicate balancing act and by...
By Barun Das Gupta China has suffered two major diplomatic setbacks in Asia within the span of one month. The first was its failure to get its protégé Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. The second was the defeat of its friend Abdulla Yameen in...
Even though West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee virtually has no challenge from opponents and is enjoying good majority in state assembly, she seems not certain about her political position. She is currently more concerned is the jump of BJP’s vote share in a by-election this year. In 2013...
By Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: Congress leaders and workers led by UPCC president Raj Babbar are opposed to joining any alliance with SP and BSP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Senior leaders have appraised the party high command of their feelings and asked party leaders and workers to stay...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was theatre of the absurd at its worst at Sabarimala on Sunday, thanks to a government which seems to have no clue whatsoever on handling the volatile situation at the hill shrine when 11 women under the banner of Manithi, a progressive women’s forum,...
By Kalyani Shankar As the year 2018 comes to close, it is pertinent to look back and see how the year that was politically. It has been especially important as it taught a few lessons to the political parties of all shades. Till a few months ago, no...
By Amulya Ganguli Unless K. Chandrashekhar Rao is playing the BJP’s game, as his critics suspect, his attempts to put together a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance do not make sense. If the real objective of the Telangana chief minister is to oust the BJP, he simply cannot afford...
By Aditya Aamir Monday morning, ‘yuvatis’ Kanaka Durga and Bindu tried their luck at breaching the Sabarimala male bastion and failed. Sunday it was Selvi Mano and her band of 10 Chennai girls. Mano – supporter and fan of ‘chapter-and-verse’ Zakir Naik – and her group were driven...
By Nantoo Banerjee It may appear to be odd that India’s nearly 150-million 60-plus-year old population, generally politically active though not always quite vocal, is among the country’s most neglected by the society and the government. There is no worthwhile social security for the aged. A small section...
Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United) will be contesting in seventeen seats each in Bihar while the Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan to have candidates for remaining six seats. Announcing the seat sharing on Sunday the BJP president Amit Shah said NDA will send Paswan, who...