The BJP acted in accordance with constitutional propriety and quit office when it failed to gather the required numbers. Whether it attempted horse-trading is a matter of conjecture and, in any case, the Congress-JD(S) combine too pulled out all stops to hold its MLAs captive and even procure some more.

No rape can be condoned, regardless of the ideological colour of the perpetrators. However, if the BJP can be even tangentially dragged into the controversy, the outcry is louder than in other cases.

An iconoclastic frenzy has gripped parts of India in the last one week in the aftermath of the BJP's stunning victory in Tripura.

understatement. Routing the CPM in Tripura after 25 years is an unprecedented achievement comparable only to Mamata Banerjee's feat in dislodging the Left Front from power in Bengal after 34 years in 2011.

If Rahul Gandhi sticks to his newly-discovered identity he would, in a sense, be taking the Congress back to its pre-Nehru avatar.

Mani Shankar Aiyar's ability to score goals against his own team is unparalleled in Indian politics. So, perhaps, is his level of frustration at being sidelined in his party despite his fawning allegiance to the Nehru-Gandhi family. He has a remarkable capacity to offend people, get personal and abusive without provocation.

Only a stable and mature society whose faultlines have been erased over time can deal with issues such as the communal divide. Till that time, narratives involving Hindu and Muslim protagonists are ideally kept inside the closets of history.

Those who say that Kerala is too well-educated to harbour religiosity as a driver of politics need only to look at the political formations of non-Hindu groups to realise that education has little to do with political allegiances.

About five years ago, a protest meeting of Muslims in Mumbai turned ugly leading to considerable violence and clashes with the police. It transpired that the mob had been asked to assemble to protest against atrocities allegedly committed on Muslims in the North-East.

When a semblance of sanity returns and recriminations from all sides die down, it may be possible to draft a code of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to deal with such events in future, for incidents of this nature are certain to recur.

Long-standing "frenemies" Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav have fallen out once again. Socialists by nature are congenital party-breakers or "splittists" as European Communists of the 1930s used to call them. The list of "socialist" parties that have been formed in India after Independence will surely run into several pages.

Bengal is sitting on a tinder box. According to those who follow the news emanating from the state, it appears on the brink of a major communal conflagration. Comments in the social media ominously recall horrific details of the Great Calcutta Killing of 1946 in which thousands were slaughtered during the carnage triggered by Muslim League leader M...

Beijing is unnerved by New Delhi's close association with Washington and is sending a message to both capitals against bolstering equations between India and the US. If in the process, 49 hapless pilgrims are victimized by Chinese high-handedness, well, so be it!

Mild mannered and a thorough gentleman, Kovind's choice by the BJP's helmsmen, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party president, Amit Shah, has once again been described as a masterstroke.

The violent protests in parts of Madhya Pradesh and the endemic agitation in Maharashtra point to a deeper malaise affecting Indian agriculture and agriculturists.