There's no doubt that there's at least some amount of discontent at the state of the economy, and how it has affected people's personal fortunes.

It was a typically impressive Modi performance, mingling mythological references (Karna's gloomy charioteer in the Mahabharata) with robust defences of his record in office, repositioning of himself as an "outsider", and, of course, the usual trenchant attacks on the Congress.

Now that growth has naturally slowed, as was inevitable, given the policy choices that Modi made, how will he balance these narratives? Can he afford to lose those middle-class voters who might actually conclude that he has done a bad job with the economy?

It's a constant puzzle to me that so many of the critics of the Narendra Modi government - including, in fact led by, the Congress party - want to blame it for some of the few things it does right on the economy. The current attack on the government's pricing policy for petroleum products such as petrol is Exhibit A here as far as I'm concerned.

Don't get lost in the praise, the spin, and the triumphalism. This is a confused reshuffle from a government that cannot find its way to providing effective governance.

This was diplomacy, not war. What matters is this: cooler heads have prevailed, on both sides.

The BJP, of course, has swiftly moved to do what it does best: trying to take credit for something it has nothing to do with, or perhaps solidly opposed.

There is much that New Delhi can take away that is positive from Trump's latest broadside.

For reasons internal to China, this confrontation has provoked a response that is unparalleled in its rhetorical ferocity and that also shows no signing of slowing down.

Of course, it is pure coincidence that Kumar's JD(U) and the BJP together have a majority of one in the Bihar Assembly. Such things as arithmetic can have no bearing on Kumar's decisions, only his conscience does.

Only two people know the reasoning behind decisions taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party: Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Venkaiah Naidu may have wanted the job, but that's not usually an asset in Modi's eyes, or Shah's. So what else could have set him apart from the pack?

If Gandhi was going to meet the ambassador, he should have emerged and declared that he had gone to convey his support for the government's stand, and to indicate political unity at home.

Hindi fanatics in the north have in fact long argued that they are second-class citizens, behind English-speakers.

This is, frankly, the first time that I have felt that the Modi government has taken a stand that the preceding government would have balked at doing.

We have created a slow and lazy IT sector, which invests too little in itself, in its people, and in the future.