THE standoff between India and China on the Doklam Plateau, adjoining the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan is now a month-old. There have been periodical instances of disagreement on the border in the past years; but this time the Doklam issue has assumed more serious proportions. This is because of the deterioration in the overall relations between the two countries. In the past instances, the two sides have accused each other of crossing into each other’s territories, or, the Line of Actual Control.  However, this time there is a difference.

THE fifth visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States, this time for his first official meeting with President Donald Trump, has confirmed the subordinate role that India plays in the US-India strategic relationship.This visit of Modi to the White House was being viewed with some apprehensions in the Indian establishment. These misgivings arose from the unpredictable and negative stance that President Trump has taken on various issues affecting India’s interests.

DARJEELING hills have been engulfed in a violent agitation which has paralysed normal life. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) call for an indefinite strike has shut down all activities. Three GJM supporters have died as a result of police firing and one police officer was killed.The GJM has revived its demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. The agitation was sparked off by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s provocative statement that Bengali would be taught compulsorily in all schools in the state.

IT is a bitter irony that the  day the news appeared in the newspapers that five farmers were killed in Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh due to police firing, the same newspapers carried full page advertisements about the success in the agriculture sector in the three-year rule of the Modi government. Farmers in the districts of Mandsaur, Neemuch, Jhabua, Ratlam and Ujjain were on strike and agitating since June 1 for fair prices for their produce and loan waivers.The farmers threw vegetables and emptied milk tankers on the roads.  The response of the Shivraj Chouhan government was to sh

THE Modi government marked the completion of its three years in office by launching a vicious attack on the right of choice of food and the livelihood of millions of farmers, cattle traders and butchers. On May 25, an amendment to the rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was notified.