Pallab Bhattacharya

Post-Rahul Gandhi’s exit as Congress president, an intense power struggle has begun within the party to choose his successor amidst a raging debate over whether the mantle should fall on the shoulders of a young Turk or a veteran.

Any government in an elected parliamentary democracy invariably seeks to strike a balance in its annual budget between the imperatives of politics and the pressing needs of the economy.

When the exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam began two years ago, it was expected to have a contagion effect in the rest of northeast India where identity politics has always been pronounced. The first sign of that has come in the public domain with the government in Assam’s next-door neighbour, Nagaland, having announced a move to draw up a digital database of all indigenous inhabitants of the state.

On June 26, the contro-versial National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam was pruned down considerably. The names of slightly over

National award-winning actor Zaira Wasim, who shot into fame with her role in Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal three years ago, announced her “disassociation” with acting yesterday, saying she was not happy with the line of work as it interfered with her religious faith.

Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal will be seen in the role of legendary military general Sam Manekshaw, under the leadership of whom the Indian army fought the 1971 war against Pakistan, leading to the emergence of an independent Bangladesh.

A youth from West Bengal’s Baharampur district cleared the West Bengal civil services examination more than two years ago but is yet to get his appointment letter. When he went to enquire about the delay in getting the letter, he was advised by an official of the West Bengal Public Services Commission that he could get the letter expedited by paying Rs 5 lakh to a Trinamool Congress leader.

It has finally happened. The trade conflict between India and the United States has broken out as New Delhi ended its almost year-long wait for a negotiated settlement and came up with a retaliatory step imposing higher tariffs on import of 28 high-value agricultural items from the US with effect from June 16. It was in June last year that the US set off the conflict by hiking the duties on import of goods from India including steel and aluminium.

Shortly before the first session of the newly-elected 17th Lok Sabha began on the morning of June 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the customary media appearance and underlined that a pro-active opposition is an indispensable component of a vibrant

One of the most abiding images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first bilateral visit to the Maldives on June 8 was him gifting President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih a cricket bat, containing the autographs of all the members of the Indian national team playing in the ongoing World Cup in England.

Acclaimed director Tanvir Mokammel is all set to wrap up his upcoming full-length feature film Rupsha Nodir Bankey in the next couple of months. The movie, funded by the Bangladesh government, is slated for release this December in Bangladesh.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said the goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024 is “challenging but achievable”.

When Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid and leaders of six other BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) countries attended Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi,

POST-PARLIAMENTARY elections, a battle over sub-nationalism along ideological lines is on in West Bengal between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.

The most talked-about person in the new council of ministers of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah.

India yesterday termed “unfortunate” the US decision to withdraw generalised system of preference (GSP), a day after the Trump administration announced to end the preferential trade treatment to Indian exporters from June 5.

A few weeks before the campaigning for the Indian parliamentary polls ended, two key leaders of the Congress confided that the party should remain out of power for another 10 years in order to revive itself organisationally. One of them was from Rajasthan who occupies a key post in the party’s government there and the other one was from Uttar Pradesh who was a former cabinet minister in Manmohan Singh’s government. Obviously, the two leaders did not want to go on record as having said this. But their remark reflected the present condition within the Congress.

Soon after becoming the prime minister of India for the first time five years ago, Narendra Modi had declared that the guiding light of his government would be “sabka saath, sabka vikas”. On May 25, 2019, he added two more words to that slogan: “sabka viswas”.

The two most commonly used taglines for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign in the just concluded parliamentary elections were “phir ek baar Modi sarkar” and “Modi hai to mumkin hai.” Both have come tellingly true as borne out the poll outcome that gave a much bigger mandate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi than when he came to power for the first time five years ago. It was the Modi factor which made it possible despite the BJP being hobbled by farm sector crisis, job crisis and the economic reforms like demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax which temporarily hit a cross section of people.

Minutes after the buttons on the Electronic Voting Machines were pressed for the last time on May 19 in the Indian national elections, the people were flooded with a flurry of exit polls broadcast over TV channels.