THE visit of United States president, Donald Trump, to India was like none other by an American president in recent times.  Though a State visit, the highlight was the “Namaste Trump” event at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, where Narendra Modi enacted an Indian version of ‘Howdy Modi’ in Houston last year.  However it would not be correct to dismiss this show as just ‘optics’, or, a tamasha.

THE sweeping victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi Assembly election is a remarkable performance.  After winning an unprecedented 67 out of the 70 seats in the 2015 assembly election, the AAP, under Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership, has repeated this comprehensive victory by winning 62 out of 70 seats. The big popular support behind this victory is signified by the 53.6 per cent vote that the AAP has garnered this time around, as compared to the 54.3 per cent vote it got in 2015.

THE election campaign for the Delhi Assembly is witnessing a disgraceful campaign by the BJP based on rabid communalism and hate speech inciting violence.  The Modi government and the BJP are also displaying the authoritarian manner in which they are dealing with the widespread peaceful protests against the CAA-NPR-NRC.The home minister, Amit Shah, himself set the tone of the campaign by targeting the women’s protest at Shaheen Bagh as an anti-national activity and calling upon people to press the voting button so hard that the current reaches Shaheen Bagh. The union minister of state for f

THE public remarks made by some leaders of the armed forces are a departure from the strictly professional and non-political role of the armed forces.  This is happening because the Modi government seems to be consciously encouraging the top echelons of the defence forces to air views in line with its Hindutva nationalist outlook. General Bipin Rawat, days before assuming the post of chief of defence staff, made a provocative statement regarding the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.