It is now a different time in Bihar. It is a different place -- one in which Raghuvansh Prasad Singh's options are very limited, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'The norm will be even less public accountability, even less transparency, tweets instead of press conferences, TV lectures rather than parliamentary debate, and greater political authoritarianism,' predicts Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
The South Asian nations could script a new history of cooperation and prosperity that could serve as an example for other nations, notes Dr Rahul Mishra.
'His biggest contribution as defence minister was to change the rules of bringing martyred soldiers' bodies home.'
'This silence is an eloquent testimony to the fact that such private armed mobs enjoy the luxury of official patronage'
The North East is a sizeable success story for the Modi government politically and for the BJP electorally. It will be an unpleasant surprise if they choose to blow it, bowing to their basic, polarising instinct at any point, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Chinese foreign policy will acquire a more ideological and less pragmatic character. It will be conducted with more nationalist overtones, predicts former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Every time we look at the Congress, its future, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, we find the situation more hopeless than even a few months earlier, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The TMC also announced it would hold talks with other regional parties in their bid to take on the BJP in the crucial 2024 elections but at the same time denied that it was planning a third front, separate from the Congress-led front.
'What will this supposedly more business-friendly government do if it gets a second term?' 'Important labour law and land reforms remain off the table.' 'Witness the arm-twisting of foreign players in e-commerce and all but one player in telecom -- and it is very hard to justify this perception that the BJP is business friendly.' 'There will also remain the real risk of ideas seemingly gleaned from the pages of Amar Chitra Katha, overlaid with PowerPoint presentations,' predicts Rahul Jacob.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com recounts the history of the Indian flag and how it has evolved over the years.
Gowri Ramnarayan explores the world of Kalki Krishnamurthy whose magnificent novel Ponniyin Selvan has inspired Mani Ratnam's latest film PS I.
Former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's subsequent elevation set a new benchmark for the actions of those who occupy Raj Bhavans, observes Aditi Phadnis.
"We condemn this and resolve to continue and intensify our collective fight against the anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-Constitution policies of the Modi 'sarkar' that is destroying the social fabric of our society," they also said in the statement.
The decision of some key regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Aam Aadmi Party to skip a key opposition meet called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the presidential poll has cheered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it believes that their absence has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
'The Left is dying, but its economic ideology rules, unchallenged.' 'Modi is its newest standard-bearer.' 'Even in today's bitterly polarised politics, if there is one thing on which not just the BJP and Congress, but all other parties agree, it is that socialist economics is the only way to survive,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Bihar is no stranger to being at the centre of a tectonic shift in national politics fuelled by turbulent regional forces.
The organisation established its electoral presence post-Independence in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Assam, with West Bengal being its main stronghold, but eight decades down the line, the party, now limited to just some pockets of the country, has no MP or MLA in its kitty.
With the latest additions, Yadav now follows 12 Twitter handles, which include the Dalai Lama, the President of India, the Prime Minister's Office and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's Office.
'Their idea of unity is uniformity. They disrespect and fear diversity which means they deny our pluralism, our freedom of choice, which are integral to our fundamental rights'
The hounding of Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh Rajput case is a drug that is being carefully pumped into India's veins to make it comfortably numb as it is wracked by economic ruin and disease, notes Sumit Bhattacharya.
After the Ladakh fiasco where Xi Jinping did not expect the Indian Army to resist his land-grabbing tactics, he has to save face before his colleagues in the Communist party.' To bring the threat of a mega-dam to the northern Indian border is a clever move, observes Claude Arpi.
'It's official: we won. I'm going to Albany to fight to tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor & build a socialist New York. But I can't do it alone. To win socialism, we'll need a mass movement of the multiracial working class as well. So let's build one,' Mamdani tweeted.
Security forces in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have mounted vigil in areas where the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang) led by Burmese-origin Naga S S Khaplang has strong influence.
'Mr Modi's next challenger/s will need to invent a new politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The Wire has reported that phone numbers of multiple people close to Dubai Princess Sheikha Latifa, who was captured by Indian soldiers in 2018, were added to a list of potential targets for surveillance.
Noting that while every MP has a constitutional right to speak in Parliament and express his/her views on various topics, he said it is also one of the foremost duties of every member to maintain decency and should not speak anything that would lower the dignity of Parliament and categorised as 'Contempt of the House'.
Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said that India is facing a health crisis that has led to a sudden stop of the economy.
All that happened in India in the past week, in photos.
Expressing 'pain' over opposition parties boycotting the Constitution Day event organised by the Lok Sabha secretariat on Friday, speaker Om Birla said staying away from such non-partisan events held by Parliament is not good for the health of democracy.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday called for a "main front" of all non-BJP parties to take on the ruling alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and asserted that the decision on its leadership can be taken later.
The wisdom of capping FII access to local debt, restriction on ECBs, etcetera is now apparent.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi held a virtual meeting on Friday evening with leaders of 19 Opposition parties, including the chief ministers of some Opposition-ruled states, amid efforts to boost Opposition unity and evolve a common strategy against the National Democratic Alliance government.
The new interlocutor, AK Mishra, held talks with NSCN-IM chief negotiator Thuingaleng Muivah at Dimapur in Nagaland.
'Modi cannot drag India back into a primitive epoch resembling the religious wars in medieval Europe and at the same time claim to represent the aspirations of modernity among Indians,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Rahul Gandhi can force the Congress to get rid of its old socialist baggage and become a truly secular and forward looking political formation. Instead, he has confused minority communalism with secularism and entitlements with development. This 'youth icon' is too busy fighting 20th century wars to worry about India's future, says Rohit Pradhan.
'We have to think of the repercussions if public sector banks are privatised and if they go to foreign hands.'
Over two dozen Muslims have been elected to the Lok Sabha. This shows that all is not lost for India's Muslims, suggests Mohammad Sajjad.
India needs more public investment, to sustain upwards of 9 per cent national income growth and also to fuel private sector dynamism.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is all set for an unprecedented third five-year term as he was 'elected' to the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party on Saturday while several top leaders including Premier Li Keqiang have been left out in the major shake-up at the top.
