AS Assam heads toward the 2026 Assembly elections, governance under the present regime appears to be increasingly defined not by policy or performance, but by the systematic cultivation of hate and communal division. What should have been a democratic contest over livelihoods, development and accountability is being reshaped into a campaign built on intimidation, polarisation and calculated spectacle. The conduct of the Assam Chief Minister has ceased to resemble democratic leadership and begun to mirror something far more dangerous.

All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has issued the following declaration on the Modi government’s decision to allow import of cotton from the US:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi surrendered to the diktats of US Imperialism and agreed to a humiliating lop-sided trade deal by seriously compromising India’s sovereignty. The “deal” announced unilaterally by Donald Trump over his social media platform, and welcomed by Narendra Modi on X, seems more like a promise extracted with a boot on the throat.

WITH the Trump administration adopting brutally repressive measures not just against immigrants but even against US citizens, a tendency has emerged within American liberal circles to look towards Europe for providing a “third way”, a “model” different from both China and the US, the two major powers in contention in today’s world. American liberals of course were never enamoured with China; so their rejecting the Chinese “model” is not surprising.

OVER the last few years, we have seen how the direct cash transfer schemes targeted at women have become a central feature of the Bharatiya Janata Party's electoral strategy across multiple states. Now, as we move towards the assembly elections in five states, it becomes extremely crucial that we revisit this tool of Direct Bank Transfer (DBT) schemes that has been repeatedly and successfully deployed by BJP and its allies.