THE finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, in her interim budget speech announced the setting up of a high-powered committee “to study the challenges of fast population growth and demographic changes”.  The announcement of such a committee in a budget speech was itself a curious one.  If the government intended to frame a new population policy based on a committee to study population growth, it should have found a mention in the president’s address to parliament.The purpose of the high-powered committee is also unclear as the fact of “fast population growth” is itself a contestable one.  Fur

BIHAR chief minister and JD(U) leader, Nitish Kumar, has somersaulted again. After leaving the BJP and forming a Mahagathbandhan government with the RJD in August 2022, Nitish has now defected back to the side of the BJP.In India’s parliamentary history, Nitish Kumar has created a notorious record of switching sides five times and being sworn in as chief minister, nine times.This latest U-turn has taken place in the most curious circumstances.  Since July last year, Nitish was ostensibly engaged in putting together an anti-BJP opposition grouping.

THE consecration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya on January 22 will symbolise the merger of State and religion under the rubric of Hindutva.  Central to the `Pran Pratishtha’ of the idol of Lord Ram will be the role of prime minister Narendra Modi, underlining the fact that this is a State-sponsored event. The Ayodhya ceremony is to proclaim Hindutva as the State ideology.  Both in the run-up to the consecration and the mobilisation of pilgrims to Ayodhya, there is the intertwining of the efforts of the State and the Sangh  parivar.The timing of the Ayodhya event has obviously been de

THE Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have announced that the military operations in Gaza will continue throughout 2024.  Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly stated that the war in Gaza will continue till the Hamas is totally finished.

AN unprecedented 146 opposition members of parliament of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been suspended for the rest of the winter session.  Apart from the ‘loyal’ opposition MPs belonging to parties like the BJD, YSRCP and AIADMK, there will be no opposition MPs left in either house by December 22.It is important to recall why these suspensions took place at all.