Politics
To learn to lose is an art, but it gets quite complex when winning becomes a crafty science. This came out in the elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly, where the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a massive number of 202 seats of the total of 243. Within the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged 89 seats, the Janata Dal (United) or JDU won 85, while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJPRV won 19. NDA allies such as the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) got five and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four seats.
২৪ জানুয়ারি, ১৯৬৬ সালে লাল বাহাদুর শাস্ত্রীর আকস্মিক মৃত্যুর পর তিনি ভারতের প্রধানমন্ত্রী হন। কংগ্রেসের বর্ষীয়ান নেতারা ধারণা করেছিলেন, তিনি যেহেতু রোগা-পাতলা এবং অভিজ্ঞতাহীন, তাই তারা তাঁকে ‘শোভাময়ী’ প্রধানমন্ত্রী করে রেখে নিজেরাই ক্ষমতা চালাবেন।
কিন্তু প্রথম দিন থেকেই তিনি নিজের কর্তৃত্ব প্রতিষ্ঠা করতে শুরু করেন এবং প্রবীণ, মধ্যম ও প্রতিভাবান নবীন মন্ত্রীদের নিয়ে নিজের একটি ছোট দল গঠন করেন—যেমন প্রণব মুখার্জি। এরা কংগ্রেসের পুরনো গোষ্ঠীর রক্ষণশীল নীতি থেকে এতটাই সরে আসতে শুরু করলেন যে ১৯৬৯ সালে তাঁকেই—দেশের প্রধানমন্ত্রীকে—কংগ্রেস দল থেকে বহিষ্কার করা হলো।
Let us recall the achievements of Indira Gandhi, whose birth anniversary we celebrate today. She has undoubtedly been one of India’s most powerful rulers ever — with a baggage of controversy as well.
She took over as the Prime Minister of India on 24 January 1966, following the unexpected death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. The senior leaders in the Congress assumed that, as she was a frail woman and quite inexperienced, they would continue to rule with her as an ornamental PM.
Himanta Biswa Sarma is upto his reprehensible antics once again. This time, he has picked on a very popular Rabindranath Tagore song Amar Shonar Bangla (‘O! My golden Bengal’) to declare its singing as an act of treason.
The massive street protests in Sri Lanka (2022), Bangladesh (2024) and Nepai (2025) toppled three legitimately elected governments primarily because the demos, common people in Greek, were convinced that the “democratic” structure which was meant to reflect their will did not do so. Surprisingly, Plato was critical of Athenian democracy and considered it to be chaotic, prone to mob rule, which elevates unqualified leaders through oratory, not virtue, and risks tyranny. Aristotle saw democracy as a flawed system often swayed by emotion or demagogues, leading to mob rule.
A couple of days ago, a 27-year-old Indian student, working at a gas station at night was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Dallas, USA. Another shooter had 'Nuke India' etched on his bullets. In July 2024, the Diaspora Engagement Division of the MEA said that over the preceding 3 years, 1,622 Indians died in accidents, 686 due to occupational hazards, 1,736 from suicide, and 136 from violence and murder. The last two are worrisome as they include several racial hate crimes.
In July-August last year, Indians were quite shocked at the scenes of street violence in Bangladesh, as police and armed forces strained to quell an unprecedented mass uprising against then prime minister Sheikh Hasina. What began as a students’ protest against the reimposition of hated quotas for families of ‘freedom fighters’ (of the 1971 war of liberation) turned into a all-out battle between forces for and against Sheikh Hasina. Lakhs of angry protesters moved their target from ‘quotas’ to her autocratic governance – and dragged India in, for propping up her unpopular regime.
Assam, one of India’s most beautiful and bounteous states, is today troubled and in turmoil. The reason for this is deep-rooted anxiety among the indigenous Assamese of being swamped by ‘outsiders’, mainly Bengali Muslims — often automatically branded Bangladeshis. The problem is, however, more complex.
এমন অনেকে রয়েছেন, মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের কথায় যাঁরা গুরুত্ব দিতে চান না, কিন্তু যখন বিজেপির বাঙালি ও বাংলা ভাষাকে সমূলে বিনাশ করার চক্রান্তের বিরুদ্ধে তিনি প্রকাশ্য যুদ্ধ ঘোষণা করলেন, তখন কিন্তু তাঁর কথায় আমল না-দিয়ে তাঁদের আর উপায় রইল না। একমাথা বর্ষায়, ২১ জুলাই, কলকাতার কেন্দ্রস্থলে হাজার-হাজার অনুরাগী সমর্থক তথা বিক্ষোভকারীদের নেতৃত্ব দিয়ে তিনি চ্যালেঞ্জ গ্রহণ করলেন। এরপর রবি ঠাকুরের বোলপুর থেকে হিন্দি ভাষার সাম্রাজ্যবাদী বিস্তারের বিরুদ্ধে শুরু করলেন 'দ্বিতীয়' ভাষা আন্দোলন।
Now that the G7 summit is done and dusted, we may try to assess whether it has helped India break its disastrous isolation that Operation Sindoor revealed....PM Modi did get a last-minute invitation to join the G7, but not as a participant— only as an observer. There was jubilation among his lesser-informed fans, fanned also by his multi-million rupee IT cells and the enthralled majority in Indian media. The narrative was that he is too important not to be invited and that India is not isolated, or never was. It is, was and continues to remain the Vishwa-guru.
One may or not take what Mamata Banerjee says very seriously all the time (provided one can unscramble her choice of words), but when she declares open war on the BJP for trying to finish off the Bengali people, it is time to take note. She takes up the challenge by leading countless thousands of protesters, oblivious of monsoon showers, along the main thoroughfares of Kolkata. It would be quite contemptuously Jinnahesque to dismiss them (as he did in East Pakistan) as excited Bengali-speaking rabble.
Award-winning film director Mira Nair’s son, 33-year-old progressive Zohran Mamdani, is shaking up Trump’s America as few could. He swept the Democratic Party’s primary nomination process, defeating the redoubtable Andrew Cuomo and is contesting the New York city mayoral elections. This is historic, as he keeps shattering at least three of Donald Trump’s most aggressive planks.
As elections have already been announced in Bangladesh, India needs to be extra careful. We need to consider that, as of now, except Bhutan, India has no real friend in the neighbourhood, and everyone is playing the China card.
But how India infuriated its last friend, Bangladesh, is a case study in insensitive handling. It is an open secret that India was completely outwitted by the US, supposedly an ally against China, after the regime change in Bangladesh last August. We now need to review our age-old approach to Bangladesh politics.
It is pretty clear now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will probably not join the elite G7 meeting in Alberta, Canada, scheduled from June 15 to 17.. Alberta is not among the cities he seems to have seen so far in his 152 foreign visits to 72 countries in the last 11 years. So, it’s a bit of a miss on both sides. What he may miss more is not being able to hug the new Canadian PM Mark Carney (what a relief, after that hostile Trudeau!), the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his known leaders, like PM Starmer of the UK, President Macron (after that dreadful family incident) and PM Ishiba of Japan.
April is the cruellest month...", TS Eliot had once declared. April this year has indeed been unusually cruel.
On the third day of the month, the Central government rammed the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill through an incensed Lok Sabha — obviously more to needle the Muslims than grab their endowments. The next day, it harangued and bickered and bullied the Rajya Sabha, until it cleared the amendment at 2 o’clock in the morning. Muslims seethed with rage, while the Opposition licked its wounds.
Now that we are hell bent on becoming a Hindu Pakistan, how can we do without a Sunni-Shia divide, that has led to innumerable killings among Muslims in the real Pakistan? When hate becomes the cornerstone of the one-religion-one-country demand, then the ghost of Jinnah is bound to roam all over, to ensure that this hate just does not stop at one community.
Few world leaders have caused such universal consternation, even before they formally accepted their office, as President Donald Trump has. Much of this apprehension arises out of his past record of extreme aggression whenever he perceives that American interests are hurt, leading to a lot of sabre-rattling and chest thumping. The more worrisome part lies in his weaponising of tariff protect the American market against importers, until they zip open their markets to him or toe his political line.
Of the two major national day celebrations that India observes, Republic Day is certainly more colourful because of the pomp and power government displays on New Delhi’s imposing Central Vista avenue. Amidst the glitter and glory, we tend to forget why we celebrate this day. On this 26th day of January in 1950, India gave effect to the Constitution of a free nation and replaced the Imperial-era Government of India Act of 1935.
Now that the minister of state for finance has finally confirmed, in reply to one of the last letters written as MP before I resigned, that the Indian banking system has written off Rs 16.11 lakh crore during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first 10 years – we have the full picture for the first time.
One of the heavy costs that Narendra Modi is paying for staying in power is disowning the strongest of biases of his parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – to which he swore everlasting loyalty when he joined it in his teens. He also retracts, ever so stealthily, from the principle of his political guru, V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha, even as he never misses a photo opportunity to worship him publicly.
On August 9, the day Mahatma Gandhi had launched the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942 (opposed by the Hindu Right), the entire opposition walked out of the Rajya Sabha in protest against the chairman’s ruling that disallowed the Leader of Opposition to speak about the chair’s jibe at Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, who’s in her 20th year in the Rajya Sabha.