ChinmayC Blog

In the previous post here, I said that in spite of the near-certainty of a ‘walkover’ for the Modi Government the General Elections-2024 could still be no less than a cricket thriller! And, like many of the opposition leaders who have been relentlessly accusing the Government of India of ‘vindictive politics’ I too hereby stay ‘vindicated’! Ha! Ha! The momentous day of 21 st March, 2024 started with the central government freezing the accounts of the Congress party leaving it almost penniless for the looming election expenses and ended (not really!) with the arrest of the three-time Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from his official residence around 9 o’clock in the night on corruption charges relating to the Delhi Liquor Scam that started in 2021-22 leading to the arrests of several leaders of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). CM Kejriwal has been skipping summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since November last year. After he refused the 9 th summons, the ED, act...

He is facing an existential crisis: should he stop watching news television forthwith or continue watching at his own peril! He is not able to decide the best course of action. Some of his friends, why his own wife too on many occasions, have been advising him to strictly not watch news channels. Because, they opine, it’s been very negative with everything, and, essentially, why should one go on being a mute witness to the reports of how many millions had been infected with the virus and how many thousands had succumbed to it. It affects you in the wrong way, makes you despondent and depressed, they add most emphatically. But, how can he just give up on news? He has to keep up with the local, national and the world scenario for his information, understanding and possibly analysis, particularly in this pandemic situation. And what are the alternatives? He does not still get his newspapers, and he quickly gets tired of reading e-papers. His mind goes into a spin. Some friends even hav...

The Indian National Congress (simply called the Congress), the oldest political party of India, was the single largest party in the legislative assembly election of Rajasthan in 2018 with just one seat less than simple majority and formed government with the support of independents and smaller parties. Thus, it had succeeded in snatching power from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who secured a landslide victory in 2013. This victory was one of the three major ones achieved by the Congress in 2018 with assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also won—a tremendous performance for a party that was totally decimated by the BJP in the General Elections of 2014 and in the following assembly elections. However, the party’s persistence with its old guards alienated the young promising leaders, and as in Madhya Pradesh by Jyotiraditya Scindia in March this year dissidence grew in Rajasthan too with its dynamic leader Sachin Pilot breaking out in an open revolt on 12 th July 2020 af...