Pallab Bhattacharya

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.

Trudging across the world’s largest inhabited island (Majuli) on the Brahmaputra river in Assam for three days carrying EVMs, VVPAT units and other election materials, scaling rugged mountains in eastern Himalayas to reach just one voter in Arunachal Pradesh, walking through the deep snow to the world’s highest battlefield Siachen Glacier, where oxygen is scarce, or risking Maoist ambush in a dense forest—these are just a few vignettes from the Indian parliamentary election, a mind-boggling exercise in the world’s largest democracy, that aim to ensure that no eligible voter is left out.

After staying away from the heat and dust of gruelling summer electioneering and leaving the job of fronting the Congress Party’s campaign to her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka, Sonia Gandhi is back to doing what she does best—coalition-building—even before the last votes in India’s parliamentary polls are cast today and results declared four days later. The purpose: to stop the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from recapturing power in the event of a clear majority eluding the saffron party and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by it.

When polling in India’s parliamentary elections concludes on Sunday (May 19), the entire national focus will be firmly on nine remaining constituencies out of total of 42 in West Bengal even though voting will also take place in some other states, including Uttar Pradesh, electorally the most crucial state.

The federal Indian government has cleared Tripura state authorities’ proposal for setting up a second integrated check post (ICP) along

With Indian parliamentary election having entered the final lap of voting before vote-count is taken up in about a fortnight (on May 23), coalition-building efforts have begun afresh amidst indications of majority being elusive for any particular party or pre-poll alliance of parties.

The Easter Sunday terror attacks in Sri Lanka—for which the Islamic State terror outfit claimed responsibility—have brought to the fore three main disturbing developments that have serious security implications for the entire South Asian region: first, the IS poses an ever-greater threat to the region; second, its relatively new modus operandi is the adoption of the franchise model by helping local outfits to carry out spectacular attacks; and third, radicalisation.

Acclaimed Indian director Shyam Benegal plans to begin the shooting of his much-awaited feature film on the life and works of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Filming for the Bangladesh-India co-production is expected to begin in November this year and be completed by February next.

Polling in 70 percent of the total of 543 seats in India’s parliamentary election is over. After polling began on April 11, voters have chosen their representatives for 373 constituencies in four phases.

It is not just the summer heat that is rising in Delhi with each passing day. The political temperature, too, is shooting up with the battle lines drawn for the seven parliamentary seats which will go to the polls on May 12.

The month-long feverish speculations about Congress Party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi parliamentary constituency has come to an anti-climactic end. Had it come about,

The last seven months have seen two watershed events in the political history of the Maldives, the strategically-located Indian Ocean archipelago that has since long been a theatre of intense rivalry between Asian giants India and China for influence.

India’s Supreme Court yesterday held an extraordinary hearing after a former employee of the apex court accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment and persecution.