The Supreme Court has expressed its’ opinion  on a reference  of the President under Article 143(1) of the Constitution of India.  The Court’s opinion was sought on eight different questions.  Most of these questions arose from the observations and directions of the Court in the 2G Spectrum

With the London Olympics beginning next week, it is hardly surprising that sporting terms have acquired currency, even in politics. The buzzword these days is ‘cornered’ and everyone is suddenly getting ‘cornered’. The NDA was ‘cornered’ when APJ Abdul Kalam decided not to contest the presidential election and the Shiv Sena and Janata Dal (United) broke ranks.

Parliamentary elections in India are still more than a year away but electoral battle-lines are already being drawn in the country’s political landscape. Northing exemplifies this better than the vigorous debate within the political establishment and outside in the popular media on the two main Prime Ministerial candidates – Narendra

Unlike the Left that sees itself as an international tendency, the Centre-Right is inclined to be more national in its outlook. The conclusive re-election of US President Barack Obama was consequently an event celebrated by the Left and liberal forces world-wide, not least, in India. The defeat of his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, on the other hand, didn’t generate a similar solidarity of the despondent. In Britain, the governing Conservative Party, for example, had carefully detached itself from Romney and had shown a marked inclination to be supportive of Obama.

In a year’s time, Americans will be deciding if they are ready to give President Obama another term in the White House. The present trends do not favor Obama but the Republicans have not found a good candidate yet. Whatever happens, the United States is moving deeply into an election cycle will affect American international behavior and therefore the international system.

The current presidential election has blurred the distinction between the main political alliances in the country and raised questions over the integrity of existing coalitions.  Although one spoke of the death of ideology in a metaphorical sense when the era of bizarre political combinations began at the federal level in 1996, the strange bedfellows we see in the current presidential campaign should prompt us to declare the “sad demise” of ideology in a clinical sense as well.

Just a month back it had seemed as if the US President, Barack Obama, would have a smooth sailing for a second term at the White House. He was leading in the polls, the Democrats had succeeded in panting his opponent, Mitt Romney, as a gaffe-prone bumbler out of touch with ordinary Americans and the economy was showing signs of recovery. And then something rather unexpected happened.

The approaching election in Uttar Pradesh resembles an imminent surgery in the hospital. Both have a way of crowding out all other thoughts from the mind. The world is in the midst of a major crisis of confidence in its economic system-- that is called capitalism--but the people of UP are hardly aware of it, and do not much care about anything except who will rule from Lucknow. Both Europe and America are in a bad state economically. Even India’s economy has slowed down, and the recent debate about foreign investment in retailing shows that we are still suspicious about the market.

In 1971, shortly after writing my final school examinations, I decided to abandon Calcutta for Delhi. My reasons were pragmatic: I wanted to complete my degree in three years.

Days after he was ousted from the office of President of the Maldives it became clear that Nasheed was the victim of a coup staged by the mutinous armed forces of the Indian Ocean paradise of the Maldives with the backing of religious fundamentalists. Some other facts that have since emerged suggest that there is a distinct possibility of the ‘100 per cent Sunni Islam’ spiralling Maldives into either instability or anarchy or move towards an intolerant Wahabi society, abandoning its tolerant, syncretic brand of Islam.