Pallab Bhattacharya

Discretion is the better part of valour, but not quite when it comes to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

As the world debates on the ways to deal with the serious challenges faced on multiple fronts after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, one issue that has received much less attention than the others is the kind of template based on which the solutions are to be found. The challenges relate as much to Afghanistan’s internal dynamics as to the external ones.

On August 31, 2019, the “final” draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam was published amidst considerable expectations, excitement and anxiety. It was a document of “genuine” Indian citizens that was thought to be the panacea for the state’s long-festering issue of illegal immigrants.

As Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla was wrapping up his talks with senior US officials in Washington on the evolving situation in Afghanistan,

In its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, India achieved two milestones in five days between August 27 and 31 while vaccinating its people. Both relate to a new high in the number of vaccine recipients—1.03 crore doses on August 27, and 1.28 crore on the last day of a month that saw nearly 18 crore doses being administered, up from 13.45 crore in July and 11.97 crore in June.

When Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed floor leaders of 31 parties in Parliament on August 26 on the developments in Afghanistan, he faced some searching questions about New Delhi’s policy, actions and future strategy towards Afghanistan, post-Taliban takeover.

Though born in Kolkata and studied at St Xavier’s College there, the foundation of one of Bengal’s most popular writers Buddhadeb Guha’s creative mind was shaped by his extensive journey through the swathes and rivers of Rangpur, Jaipurhat and Barisal districts.

The joke going around in diplomatic circles in New Delhi is that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was much smoother than the change of guard at the White House after Joe Biden won the presidential elections in the world’s biggest democracy.

On two successive days on August 14 and 15, 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the 1947 Partition of the subcontinent and its catastrophic fallout on millions of people.

It rained protests and disruptions by a united and unrelenting opposition every day during the nearly month-long monsoon session of the Indian parliament, raising serious concerns about Indian democracy.

On August 2, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi chaired a meeting of leaders of 15 opposition parties for breakfast at New Delhi’s Constitution Club

Politics has a strange way of repeating itself in some ways.

The Pegasus spyware controversy has set off a political storm in India. Sustained anti-government protests by the opposition on the floor of the House paralysed almost the entire first week of the monsoon session of Parliament from July 19.

“The future of Afghanistan cannot be its past,” India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had told a meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on July 14. It is precisely the spectre of a rerun of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 that has been firmly raised with its swift military surge across much of that country in the last few months.

Over two months after the state assembly elections, which saw Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) returning to power with a thumping majority and its principal rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) making substantial gains in terms of seats, the political landscape in the state is set to be roiled once again on a range of issues.    

On July 6, the Indian government came out with the announcement of a separate Ministry of Cooperation with the avowed aim of realising the vision of “Sahkar se Samriddhi” (“Progress Through Cooperation”).

Politics, particularly electoral politics, in India is as much about public perception as about the quality of governance. This comes out quite clearly in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s major expansion of his council of ministers and reshuffle of portfolios on Wednesday night.

In May this year, India's veteran tribal rights activist Stan Swamy had told the Bombay High Court—where he was being tried after being arrested under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, for his alleged links with Maoists—that he would die if "things were to go on this way".

India today got Asia’s longest high-speed track for testing automobiles including high-end cars.

On June 8, South Asia acquired a rare salience at the United Nations after the Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid was elected as the new President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) for a one-year term beginning in September.