India Today Monday, May 8, 2023

All elections are important, but some assume greater significance than others. The Karnataka election on May 10 will be one such. Like the ‘butterfly effect’ in ecology, where the slight disturbance of air caused by one delicate pair of flapping wings in one corner of the world can cause a storm halfway across the planet, the poll outcome in Karnataka can influence national political events in a major way. For one, it inaugurates a series of five big ‘semi-final’ elections in 2023. Victory in the state will grant the BJP government at the Centre positive momentum before the 2024 general election. Karnataka will be followed by Telangana seven months later—at the sub-national level, whether it retains or loses its lone fortress in the South will send out a psychologically vital…

As dawn broke on the morning of April 23 and the amrit vela nitnem (prayers at dawn) at the Gurudwara Janam Asthan Sant Khalsa in Punjab’s Rode village came to a close, Waris Punjab De (WPD) leader and fugitive Amritpal Singh Sandhu took the mike to recite a few stanzas from the Gurbani and address the gathering. The locals say Amritpal reached Rode, the ancestral village of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, late on Saturday night. At around 6.15 am on Sunday, he reached the gurdwara with two aides in an SUV. In his brief speech, which went live on social media platforms, he justified the step he was about to take and said it wasn’t the end of his story, but a new start. “I will return to start…

What happens at the local level in Uttar Pradesh can hold plenty interest for those outside. Judge only by the April 15 murders of ex-legislator and alleged mafia don Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf on live TV. In its immediate aftermath, the state is set for local body polls, to be held in two phases, on May 4 and 11. Naturally, with the three assailants downing the dons at close range while they were in police custody, the law and order situation in the state is a pre-poll talking point. But the fear that the incident could polarise the polls on religious lines surpasses that. That’s perhaps why even Opposition parties have not been too vocal in their protests over any aspect relating to the murders. Experts acknowledge the…

A stormy three years it had been, from August 2019 to July 2022, when Jagdeep Dhankhar, now India’s vice-president, served as governor of West Bengal. Scarcely a week passed without Raj Bhavan and the Trinamool Congress government sniping at each other. Dhankhar said his frequent travels in the state to assess the ground situation and critical statements thereafter were but a fulfilment of his constitutional duty; the TMC government accused him of gross interference. Thus, when a new governor took over in November 2022, there was expectation that ties would improve with Raj Bhavan. Indeed, things went swimmingly well at first with the soft-spoken C.V. Ananda Bose. A retired IAS officer who joined the BJP in 2019, Bose seemed to enjoy genuine warmth with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. “The governor…

Two back-to-back incidents in poll-bound Rajasthan have left the Ashok Gehlot-led government red-faced. CM Gehlot claims having taken quick action in both cases, but the Opposition has been handed ammunition to target the Congress and question its government’s claims of integrity. First came a video left by a tea vendor who died by suicide in Jaipur on April 17, accusing cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi (among others) of harassment. The next day, question paper leaks came back to haunt the Gehlot regime after the arrest of a Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC) member. The tea vendor, Ram Prasad Meena, had been living on a plot adjoining a 300-year-old temple in the walled city of Jaipur. Though the family was granted its patta (title rights) in 2017, the allotment was challenged before…

Life convicts getting their sentence commuted is not news usually but the Bihar law department’s April 24 release order for 27 lifers who have completed 14 years behind bars has set off a furious debate. And this is because of one name on the list—ex-MP and bahubali Anand Mohan Singh. In jail for the past 15 years after his conviction in the 1994 murder of then Gopalganj district magistrate G. Krishnaiah, Mohan has always been a polarising figure, revered by his Rajput castemen but despised by many others. Mohan was accused of inciting the mob that attacked and killed the 1985 batch IAS officer. The don’s release was facilitated by the state home department when it amended the Bihar Police Jail Manuals’ Rule No. 481 (1) on April 10, removing…