THE GUJARAT POLL NARRATIVE

November 23, 2022

The battle for Gujarat got all the more interesting with the presence of two BJP chief ministers (and the party’s star campaigners) into the electoral battlefield. Both the UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma have been campaigning in Prime Minister Modi’s homestate. But their focus was...

READING BETWEEN THE VOTES

October 19, 2022

The votes have been cast for the Congress Presidential race with both Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge as the contesting candidates. While there was no official word on this, the unofficial message is that Kharge is the candidate backed by the Gandhi family; and it is he who is tipped...

Can Akhilesh refashion his father’s Mandal politics?

October 12, 2022

Does Mulayam Singh Yadav’s demise signify the end of an era or will his son and political heir Akhilesh Yadav continue to be the torchbearer for Mandal politics? Certainly, in the last Uttar Pradesh elections, Akhilesh pitched the politics of Mandal and caste versus the BJP’s politics of Kamandal and...

AN OPPOSITION ON THE MOVE, FINALLY

October 5, 2022

It’s the season for political yatras what with Rahul Gandhi’s 3570 km Bharat Jodo yatra, Arvind Kejriwal’s countrywide Make India No 1 mission and Prashant Kishor’s 3500 km padyatra in Bihar. The one unifying narrative here is that all these are opposition leaders who have taken to the streets, so in a...

CAN ARVIND KEJRIWAL LEAD THE OPPOSITION?

August 31, 2022

With the Congress still in limbo over its inner party elections, and with so many defections, the focus is once again on the state of the opposition. And more specifically the question that if the Congress is in no shape to lead the attack against the BJP, then who shall...

‘ALL OF US SHOULD MAKE OUR SUCCESSION PLAN, WE SHOULD MAKE OUR WILLS’

August 26, 2022

Priya Sahgal in conversation with Aishwarya Bhati, ASG at ITV Group’s Shakti Awards 2022 and the We Women Want conclave- Q: Thank You Aishwarya for joining us and we had many conversation with you but first as Additional Solicitor General so we congratulate you for that good to see you here...

HISTORY WARS OVER JAWAHARLAL NEHRU’S LEGACY

August 17, 2022

While the 75th Anniversary of our Freedom was an occasion to celebrate, it has also unleashed a bitter round of legacy wars between the BJP and the Congress. With the BJP playing down Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his contribution to nation building, the Congress has retaliated with a blitzkrieg of...

NITISH DOES ANOTHER U-TURN

August 10, 2022

There’s a good reason why Tejashwi Yadav used to refer to the JD(U) leader as Paltu Uncle (someone who does U-turns). Tejashwi was referring to Nitish Kumar’s habit of changing coalition partners to suit his moods and personal ambitions. Certainly, Nitish has been vacillating between the BJP and the Opposition. In...

BACK TO WORK AGAIN?

August 3, 2022

It’s been an interesting week with the Sonia Gandhi-Smriti Irani face off dominating the Parliament. However, finally some real issues got their day on the floor of the House as price rise and inflation were discussed. Though the Congress staged a walk-out in the middle of the finance minister’s reply, at...

Why it is so personal between Smriti Irani and the Gandhis

July 29, 2022

It is not unusual to see Smriti Irani taking on a member of the Gandhi family for that seems to be part of her portfolio allocation ever since she wrested Amethi away from Rahul. What is unusual however is to see Sonia Gandhi enter into the sparring arena, gloves off and...