politics

BSP faces a bleak future, thanks to Mayawati’s insecurities

Expulsion of her nephew Akash Anand from the party represents one more example of getting rid of people who have tried to revive it through a different approach. With a second rung leadership purged over the years, all that BSP party functionaries are left with is a distant leader whose problems with enforcement agencies have shrunk the potential of a political party that was once a dominant force in Uttar Pradesh 

With its back to the wall, Congress looks for ways to fight back

In April, Congress party’s brains trust will meet in Gujarat to find ways to pull themselves out the deep hole they are in. It comes at a time when Rahul Gandhi has managed to staff key positions in the party with trusted aides. The cold, hard truth, however, is absent an effective organisation on the ground, strategies remain empty ideas

History and politics of appointments to Election Commission

In Constituent Assembly debates, there was a consensus that the right to vote should be treated as a fundamental right and, therefore, integrity of electoral process is of paramount importance. As Supreme Court hears a challenge to the Parliament’s law on the composition of the selection committee for EC, also at stake is the question of separation of powers between the judiciary, legislature and executive

The UK can’t approach Trump like France and Germany have

Starmer has to do better than Macron and Merz when dealing with the US president

Anupam Kher clears the air of leaving acting for full-time political career: You don’t have to join politics, just be a good citizen

Anupam Kher, the renowned Bollywood actor, recently dismissed rumors of leaving acting for a career in politics. Despite his support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and involvement in political discussions, the 69-year-old actor clarified that he has no intentions of switching from films to politics at this time.

A look at Friedrich Merz, the veteran politician tipped to be Germany's next chancellor| Explained

A protege of late Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister and icon of fiscal conservatism, Merz rose to CDU parliamentary leader in the 2000s before becoming one of several powerful men dispatched by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. He quit parliament after she became chancellor and has never held government office. He worked for 15 years as a lobbyist and board member in companies including the Germany branches of asset manager Blackrock and HSBC bank, as well as the publicly-owned Cologne-Bonn airport. Merz is a hobby pilot who owns two aeroplanes. When Merkel stood down after almost 19 years as party chair, he was defeated by other candidates in 2018 and in 2021, before finally winning the post in 2022. Admirers praise Merz as a tactician. The collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government in November came after his legal challenge to last year's budget precipitated the funding crisis that wrecked an already unwieldy three-way coalition. In his campaign so far, Merz's economic prescriptions have focused on tax cuts, deregulation and incentives to work, in keeping with the man who once said that tax regulations should be simple enough to fit on the back of a beer mat. He has also hinted that he might loosen a constitutional spending cap - whose stringency it was that made his legal challenge so devastating - to win over voters angered at the state of Germany's infrastructure while promising that any change would finance investment, not spending. An INSA poll released on Friday (February 21) suggests Merz’s CDU are leading with 30% of support while the opposition far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would come in second at 21% and Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) would make third place at 15%.

Mahayudh again in Maharashtra, with a twist this time

Friction between state’s CM Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CM Eknath Shinde may seem like a repeat of the fractious BJP-Shiv Sena relationship between 2014 and 2019. This time, however, there may be other factors at play as the ostensible Sena-BJP battle for the Hindutva space may also be where the BJP’s internal leadership dynamics are playing out

Trump Removes Office Desk After Musk's Son Seen Picking His Nose, Wiping Fingers?

Remember when billionaire Elon Musk brought his son X Æ A-Xii, whom he calls X, to the Oval Office? From making weird noises to picking his nose, the 4-year-old, who was standing close to the President's Resolute Desk, grabbed headlines. Now, President Donald Trump has replaced the iconic 145-year-old desk with a C&O desk. He has called it a “temporary change.” Donald Trump, who has in the past labelled himself as a germaphobe, shared a picture of the Oval Office with the new desk on his social media platform Truth Social. It was not clear if the change was brought in due to the nose-picking incident. The note attached to the post read, “A President, after the election, gets a choice of 1 in 7 desks. This desk, the “C&O,” which is also very well known and was used by President George H.W. Bush and others, has been temporarily installed in the White House while the Resolute Desk is being lightly refinished—a very important job. This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!”

LIVE: Trump’s Tariff Threats On India Not Rooted In Facts | Political Economy

GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava explains that the threat of reciprocal tariffs is not cause of concern because 75 per cent of US exports to India have an average tariff of 5%. Watch Exclusive conversation with Shweta Punj.

Ukraine is just a pawn in a Russian reset

The president’s approach makes US actions more logical, but no less shameful

Trump risks making the same economic mistakes as Biden

Much like his predecessor, the current president is eager to talk about the benefits of his policies but reluctant to confront their costs

Samsung’s persistent labour trouble in TN points to DMK’s weak grip on its coalition partners

Since September last year, Samsung’s unit in the state has seen intermittent labour trouble. Evidence shows that the underlying issue is about political power play as CITU, affiliated to the CPM which is a constituent in the ruling DMK-led coalition, is now magnifying the issue by calling for a protest in other industrial parks. The developments undermine the state’s investment policy, but the ruling party appears paralysed

Europe wakes up to a tectonic shift in the continent’s geopolitics

US-EU-NATO amity nurtured during the Cold War is being buried by the Trump administration. Europe is out in the cold. This message was hammered home on February 18 when the US and Russia agreed to work together to end the conflict in Ukraine, relegating other stakeholders to the periphery.

Quo vadis, Shashi Tharoor?

Elected four consecutive times to Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, but always the ‘outsider’ to the state unit. Arguably, the most popular Congress leader in Kerala, but now at odds with his party as his state heads for an assembly election. Stuck in a Lok Sabha characterized by repeated disruptions and little space for opposition MPs, where does that leave the man once seen as Kerala’s CM-in-waiting?

In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s fortress seems impregnable

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat is camping in West Bengal for 10 days, an indication of the electoral importance of the state for the BJP. TMC, however, is sitting pretty, thanks to the significant backing of Muslims who comprise 27 percent of the population. The magnitude of this support gives TMC the cushion to withstand problems that have come in the wake of three successive terms

Reviving ‘vaad’ India’s ancient tradition for healthy content and constructive debates

RSSFACTS: This article highlights the importance of India’s ancient tradition of Vaad, advocating for constructive debate rooted in truth, as a solution to the current toxic discourse. It explores examples from the Ramayana, Upanishads, and Mahabharata, offering valuable lessons for contemporary discussions

In the audacious Gaza proposal, different dimensions of Trump 2.0 tactics are on display

Start with a maximalist position, adapt to the response and keep both allies and rivals off balance all the time. It’s all there in the Gaza plan proposed by Donald Trump as stakeholders, Israel included, find the ball is in their court without the US having to take concrete steps initially

Invest Karnataka Meet: Rajnath Singh urges to rise above political differences; Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi skip event citing Parliament proceedings

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh stressed the strength of India’s cooperative federalism, stating that it thrives on constitutional values.

BJP government in Delhi faces both short-term and long-term challenges

Sanghnomics: The newly elected BJP government in Delhi faces long-term challenges of managing migration and job creation, while addressing short-term issues like financial mismanagement, infrastructure neglect, and significant cuts in the capital outlay for key sectors.

Can India-Pakistan cricket matches really overcome bilateral political problems?

For cricket administrators, India-Pakistan matches are a commercial necessity. That’s on account of their complex history of political engagement which cannot be disentangled from cricket, making for one of sport’s greatest rivalries. A Netflix docu-series explores the many-layered rivalry without eliciting a consensus on the larger question of can sport overcome deep-rooted distrust

Mahila, Muslim and Sikh vote necessary for AAP to retain Delhi: MC Analysis

The Aam Aadmi Party performed better in these three constituencies in terms of vote share in 2020 than in the previous election

Hamilton to Trump: America’s repeated dalliances with tariffs

Tariffs have often been viewed and used as tools to build domestic industrial strength. In displaying faith in them, Donald Trump is not an outlier in American political history. The question is whether tariffs are an unstoppable force or just another page in the economics textbooks. The next four years will answer that question for the U.S. and for the world at large.

Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination: Blaming RSS, a tale of lies and political vendetta

RSSFACTS: After Gandhi's assassination, the RSS was wrongly blamed and banned. Despite unjust arrests and political targeting, investigations cleared the RSS of involvement. The ban was lifted in 1949, and subsequent investigations reaffirmed the organisation's innocence

Karnataka’s politicians are playing Russian roulette with the state’s future

Congress may have a comfortable majority in the Assembly but runs a government that appears to be under siege. It is not on account of the BJP, which has three factions in the state that are locked in a struggle. And the very act of survival may be an achievement for JDS. Eventually, it’s the state and its people who will pay the price for dysfunctional politics