Shyam Plastic Industries Right

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Gujarat Congress Internal Dispute: The countdown to the 2027 Gujarat Assembly election has already begun. The 2029 Lok Sabha election is not far away either. The Congress high command is making claims of a change of power in Gujarat. Rahul Gandhi is talking about rebuilding the Gujarat Congress from the ground up. There is talk of removing the &lsquo;lame horses&rsquo; and putting the &lsquo;race horses&rsquo; on the field. But looking at the current state of the Gujarat Congress, one question cannot be avoided: before entering the race, will the Congress even be able to get its own team to stand in one line? Before declaring war against the BJP, the Congress is caught in a political battle within its own house. The question is bitter, but necessary: if a party cannot create unity within its own organisation, how does it expect to take on the BJP&rsquo;s formidable organisational machinery in Gujarat?
Leaders Changed, But Why Didn&rsquo;t the Problem? Keeping the 2027 Assembly and 2029 Lok Sabha elections in mind, the Congress has begun making changes to its Gujarat organisation. The high command wanted to remove the old and inactive structure and bring forward leaders with the ability to fight elections. But when a party repeatedly needs to change its state in-charge, the question becomes bigger than the capability of the individual holding the post. Mukul Wasnik was replaced by Randeep Singh Surjewala as Gujarat Congress in-charge. With the new in-charge came expectations of a new direction, a new strategy and greater discipline within the organisation. Yet, barely had Surjewala taken charge when a controversy erupted within Banaskantha Congress over the organisational structure. That is where the Congress&rsquo;s real trouble begins.
A Symptom of Congress&rsquo;s Organisational Illness Banaskantha is not an ordinary constituency. It is the only Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat that the Congress won in the 2024 general election. That makes it the biggest symbol of political hope for the Congress in Gujarat. So when differences emerge over organisational posts and responsibilities in precisely this constituency, when questions are raised over decisions taken by the state leadership, and when the district organisation itself becomes a subject of controversy, this cannot simply be dismissed as a &lsquo;local dispute&rsquo;. It is a symptom of the Congress&rsquo;s organisational illness. And if this illness continues until 2027, the BJP will be the direct beneficiary. The Congress needs to understand one basic reality: elections are not won through posters, press conferences and speeches by big leaders. Elections are won at the booth. The BJP&rsquo;s organisational machinery is active right down to the booth level. To challenge it, the Congress needs a strong network of workers, clearly defined responsibilities and a united district-level organisation. But here, the very formation of the district organisation is becoming a source of controversy. So where exactly will the Congress find the strength to challenge the BJP at the booth level?
&lsquo;Race Horses&rsquo; or Obstacles in Each Other&rsquo;s Way? Rahul Gandhi talks about identifying the &lsquo;lame horses&rsquo; in Gujarat and bringing the &lsquo;race horses&rsquo; to the forefront. It sounds attractive. But politics does not work that way. Simply choosing good horses does not guarantee victory in a race. The horses must run together rather than pull each other down. The direction of the race must be clear. And the coaching staff cannot be fighting among themselves. Only then can a team win. The Gujarat Congress&rsquo;s problem may not simply be about &lsquo;which leader should be promoted&rsquo;. The real problem is whether the leaders who are brought forward will actually work together. Mukul Wasnik is gone. Randeep Singh Surjewala has arrived. The state in-charge has changed. But if factionalism remains unchanged, internal power struggles remain unchanged, coordination between the district and state organisations remains weak, and organisational decisions themselves continue to trigger controversy, then what exactly is the Congress talking about when it talks of change? Changing faces will not change the Congress&rsquo;s fortunes. Its working style must change. Leadership accountability must be fixed. Factionalism must be brought under control. And above all, the party worker must be given confidence that the Congress is genuinely one team. Because if the Congress wants to fight the BJP, it must first stop its own leaders from fighting each other.
When Will the Political Infighting Within Gujarat Congress End? The biggest illusion for the Congress in the 2027 election would be to assume that public anger against the BJP will automatically translate into Congress votes. Politics does not work that simply. Reaching voters requires sustained ground-level work. It requires a booth-level organisation. It requires coordination among local leaders. It requires worker morale. And above all, it requires leadership running in one direction until election day. If even one of these five links is weak, the entire electoral calculation can collapse. For the Congress, this is no longer the time for experiments. It is the time for decisions. How many state in-charges will be changed? How many meetings will be held? How many times will the organisational structure be reshuffled? The question is no longer who the next Gujarat Congress in-charge will be. The real question is: when will the political infighting within the Gujarat Congress finally end? If every new in-charge is going to inherit the same old disputes, factionalism and internal resentment, then how can a new Congress emerge simply because a new face has arrived?
Will &lsquo;Race Horses&rsquo; Remain Just Another Political Slogan? If the Congress wants to win Gujarat, it must first win within its own organisation. It must win the trust of its workers. It must win the confidence of its district organisations. It must bring its leaders onto one platform. Otherwise, the Congress will lose its internal battle before its fight against the BJP has even begun. And then the talk of &lsquo;race horses&rsquo; will remain nothing more than another political slogan. The Congress has very little time left in the race for power in 2027. If it wants to take on the BJP, it must first stop its own leaders from fighting each other. Because power in Gujarat will not be won through statements from the Gandhi family. It will be won through organisational strength on the ground. The final question is simple: Is the Congress preparing to defeat the BJP, or is it still calculating whom it needs to defeat inside its own house? Want to win Gujarat? Then first, win the Gujarat Congress.

Congress has set its sights on defeating the BJP in Gujarat. But there’s a bigger battle brewing inside its own house.

Congress Wants to Defeat BJP in Gujarat, But Who Will Save Congress From Itself?

There are some journalists who report events. And then there are a few, very rare ones, who become part of the story of a nation itself. Mark Tully belonged firmly to the second category. With his passing at 90, India has not merely lost a foreign correspondent; it has lost a conscience-driven chronicler, a patient listener, and a bridge between cultures.
To generations of Indians and millions abroad, his calm, measured voice on the BBC was instantly recognisable. For decades, when Mark Tully spoke, the world listened to India. Not the India of slogans and stereotypes, but the India of contradictions, complexities, faith, poverty, resilience and hope. That was his true achievement: he did not reduce this country into convenient headlines; he explained it with honesty and affection.
What made Tully exceptional was not just access to corridors of power, but his instinct to travel beyond them. He spent time in villages, sat with farmers, spoke to priests, shopkeepers, victims of riots and survivors of tragedy. His journalism was rooted in human dignity, not in spectacle. Long before &ldquo;ground reporting&rdquo; became fashionable, he was already practising it with rigour.
He covered India&rsquo;s most painful moments the Emergency, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the anti-Sikh riots, Babri Masjid&rsquo;s demolition yet he never sounded sensational. Instead, his reporting carried moral weight. He sought truth, not noise. His books&nbsp;No Full Stops in India, India in Slow Motion, The Heart of India&nbsp;remain essential reading because they capture the soul of this country, not merely its politics.
Despite being British by birth, Tully often seemed more Indian in spirit than many of us. He understood our contradictions, respected our faiths, and questioned our hypocrisies always with courtesy, never with contempt. That rare balance earned him trust across ideological lines.&nbsp;He became, quite simply, the world&rsquo;s most credible interpreter of India.
On a personal level, those who met him recall humility, warmth, and a gentle curiosity. No arrogance of reputation, no performance of intellect only a quiet commitment to listening. That is why his work endures.
In an age of shouting anchors and shrinking attention spans, Mark Tully&rsquo;s legacy feels almost radical: journalism as patience, depth, fairness and humanity. His voice may now be silent, but his standards remain a benchmark few can reach.
India will remember him not as a foreign correspondent, but as one of its most honest witnesses.

Veteran BBC journalist who interpreted India with empathy, integrity and rare depth

Mark Tully: The Voice That Explained India

When a government insists that every new mobile device in the country must come pre-loaded with its own surveillance-linked application, alarm bells should ring in any democracy. India&rsquo;s directive to phone manufacturers to compulsorily ship handsets with the Sanchar Saathi app is not merely a cybersecurity initiative. It raises profound questions about intent, transparency, and the creeping expansion of state surveillance over ordinary citizens.
The official justification is familiar: cyber fraud, stolen phones, and the need to &ldquo;secure&rdquo; citizens. Yet this narrative collapses the moment one interrogates it with basic facts. If cyber fraud is the real problem, why is the government not holding telecom service providers accountable? How do scamsters acquire hundreds of SIM cards without proper verification, and why do telecom companies escape scrutiny when police routinely seize massive quantities of unregistered or fraudulently obtained SIMs? In how many such cases have area managers or telecom officials ever been arrested? Citizens have not heard of even one.
Instead of fixing structural loopholes, the State now proposes to insert itself directly into every Indian&rsquo;s mobile device. The government claims Sanchar Saathi is &ldquo;optional&rdquo; because it can be deleted&mdash;but the order to manufacturers explicitly demands that the app must be pre-loaded, and its core functionalities cannot be disabled. An app that must be present, must run, and cannot be restricted, is an instrument of surveillance&mdash;whatever the official vocabulary may be.
This is not paranoia. A 2025 National Counterintelligence and Security Center report confirms that nearly 100 countries now purchase or deploy spyware to monitor their citizens. Surveillance is no longer the exclusive tool of dictatorships; it is the new currency of insecure governments fearful of their own people. France passed a law in 2023 allowing police to remotely activate cameras, microphones, and GPS on suspects&rsquo; phones. Fifty-country studies now reveal that police forces globally access mobile phone data in some form, and many governments actively use remote hacking tools.
History reminds us that mass surveillance is rarely about safety. It is about power, control, and the inability of ruling parties to trust their own citizens. Governments spy when they fear dissent, when opposition parties become inconvenient, and when ordinary people questioning authority become a perceived threat.
India&rsquo;s ruling establishment argues that Sanchar Saathi has helped retrieve 2.6 million lost or stolen phones, and that 14 million downloads prove public support. Yet these claims do not justify mandatory installation. A useful app can be voluntarily offered; only a suspicious government demands compulsory embedding in every device.
The Ministry of Home Affairs reported cyber fraud losses of ₹22,845 crore in 2024, a sharp 206% rise from the previous year. Global cybercrime is projected to cost $10.5 trillion by 2025. These numbers are grave&mdash;but they are not an excuse to intrude into private phones. India already has powerful agencies capable of lawful interception. If the government lacks manpower to analyse tapped communications, the solution is to hire analysts, not convert every citizen&rsquo;s device into a state-monitored terminal.
The deeper discomfort lies in what this mandate symbolises: the quiet normalisation of surveillance in a democracy. When governments fear losing power, they begin to monitor not just political opponents but citizens themselves. India must ask: Is Sanchar Saathi a cybersecurity tool&mdash;or the beginning of a digital panopticon where the State watches all, suspects all, and trusts none?
In a world where surveillance has become the operating manual of insecure regimes, India must choose whether it wishes to follow the same path&mdash;or defend the constitutional promise of privacy, liberty and democratic freedoms.

Mandatory pre-loading sparks debate on privacy, state control and unchecked surveillance

Is India Imposing Forced Phone Surveillance on All ?

India today finds itself in a perplexing economic moment: a robust domestic economy on one side, and a relentlessly weakening Rupee on the other. The contradiction is glaring. The second quarter GDP has surged by an impressive 8.2%, consumption is rising steadily, the services sector is flourishing, and financial markets are buoyant. And yet, the Rupee has crashed to an unprecedented ₹90 per US dollar, marking one of the sharpest phases of depreciation in recent years.
This decline is not happening in a global vacuum. Ironically, the US economy&mdash;against whose currency the Rupee is weakening&mdash;is struggling with high unemployment, near-stagnant growth, and internal tariff distortions that have disrupted its manufacturing and consumer sectors. Under normal economic logic, a weakening American economy should soften the Dollar. Instead, the Dollar remains aggressively strong, exposing the vulnerabilities of emerging market currencies&mdash;especially the Indian Rupee.
This is precisely why today&rsquo;s political silence becomes even more noticeable. A decade ago, when the Rupee fell sharply during the UPA era, then&ndash;Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi mocked Dr Manmohan Singh mercilessly. Every dip in the Rupee was turned into a political jibe, every fluctuation a weapon to demonstrate alleged mismanagement. Today, with the Rupee breaching ₹90, the silence from the same leadership is deafening. The mocking has evaporated, replaced with technical explanations and shifting blame&mdash;something Modi never offered his predecessor.
Economically, several structural realities explain the Rupee&rsquo;s fall:
<h3 data-start="1886" data-end="1946">1. Speculators and Importers Driving Dollar Demand</h3>
Market behaviour has worsened the Rupee slide. Speculators are building strong Dollar positions, sensing volatility. Importers, wary of further depreciation, are aggressively hedging. This frontloading of Dollar demand exerts immediate downward pressure.
<h3 data-start="2203" data-end="2249">2. Delays in the India&ndash;US Trade Deal</h3>
The prolonged absence of a trade settlement has created uncertainty in currency markets. With no clear signals on tariff structures, digital trade, and market access, the Rupee becomes vulnerable to global risk-off moods.
<h3 data-start="2473" data-end="2510">3. Persistent Trade Deficit</h3>
India continues to import far more than it exports. With exports shrinking for 13 consecutive months, falling by 14.75%, while imports dropped only 3.88%, the trade deficit has widened to $11.6 billion. This fundamentally pushes up Dollar demand.
<h3 data-start="2775" data-end="2810">4. Inflation Differential</h3>
India&rsquo;s inflation remains structurally higher than that of the US, steadily eroding the Rupee&rsquo;s purchasing power. Over time, this inflation gap forces the Rupee lower.
<h3 data-start="2980" data-end="3039">5. Non-Deliverable Forwards (NDF) Market Pressure</h3>
As NDF contracts mature, there is sudden dollar buying, adding to the short-term volatility.
<h3 data-start="3134" data-end="3173">6. Balance of Payments Stress</h3>
Despite strong forex reserves, India&rsquo;s BoP position has weakened because of higher import bills, global commodity prices, and uneven foreign investment inflows.
<h3 data-start="3336" data-end="3369">7. RBI&rsquo;s Defensive Role</h3>
The central bank has been forced into regular intervention to prevent a deeper fall. Without its support, the Rupee would already be far below ₹90.
All of this brings us back to politics. If a rising GDP, booming markets, increasing consumption, and strong services fail to stabilise the currency, then it is time for the government to confront structural weaknesses rather than hide behind rhetoric. And it is time for Prime Minister Modi to acknowledge the contradiction between his past criticisms and today&rsquo;s reality.
A mature democracy deserves economic honesty&mdash;not selective political memory.

A booming GDP, rising consumption and services strength still fail to prevent the Rupee’s fall

Why Is a Strong India Facing a Weak Rupee?

India&rsquo;s latest national accounts place the country once again in the league of the world&rsquo;s fastest-growing major economies, with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rising by 8.2% in the second quarter (July&ndash;September) of FY 2025&ndash;26. At first glance, this is a moment of national pride: growth has far outpaced the RBI&rsquo;s estimate of 7%, beaten most private forecasts, and marked the highest expansion in six quarters.
Yet behind this upbeat macro headline lie deeper structural cracks&mdash;ones India can no longer afford to ignore.
<h3 data-start="1174" data-end="1222">Growth Strong, but Narrowly Concentrated</h3>
The surge has been driven primarily by two engines: manufacturing (9.1%) and services (9.2%). Private consumption has also expanded by 7.9%, signalling renewed consumer confidence. But the real question is: is this growth broad-based enough for a nation of 140 crore?
The answer, sadly, is no.
India&rsquo;s growth story continues to be sectorally skewed, with the services sector carrying disproportionate weight, especially sub-sectors tied to global trade, financial services, infotech, and professional activities. Such sectors are inherently volatile and dependent on external markets, geo-economic tensions, and international trade policies, leaving India vulnerable to global shocks.
<h3 data-start="1948" data-end="1997">Industrial Output Tells a Different Story</h3>
While GDP has accelerated, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) paints a sobering picture. In October 2025, IIP growth crashed to 0.4%&mdash;a 14-month low, down from 4.6% in September. Manufacturing slowed sharply to 1.8%, while mining contracted by 1.8% and electricity generation plunged 6.9% due to unseasonal rains.
This disconnect highlights a structural imbalance: GDP is rising, but the industrial base remains fragile, oscillating with festive calendars, tariff pressures, and weather fluctuations. Even September&rsquo;s uptick in manufacturing, driven by GST rate cuts, proved temporary.
<h3 data-start="2630" data-end="2669">Employment: The Silent Red Flag</h3>
The most pressing concern is that GDP growth is not translating into jobs. The labour market shows partial resilience&mdash;LFPR improved to 55.4%, and EPFO added 21.04 lakh net members in July 2025. But the unemployment rate remains stuck at 5.2%, signalling stagnant job creation.
The core problem is the widening skill gap. High-growth service segments&mdash;IT, fintech, AI, professional services&mdash;demand sophisticated skills, but the workforce largely remains under-skilled or mismatched. India faces a dual paradox:
<ul data-start="3217" data-end="3326">
<li data-start="3217" data-end="3261">
High growth without high employment,
</li>
<li data-start="3262" data-end="3326">
High demand for skills but low supply of skilled manpower.
</li>
</ul>
<h3 data-start="3328" data-end="3384">Urban India Races Ahead, Rural India Left Behind</h3>
Consumption-led growth is overwhelmingly urban-centric, generating regional economic imbalances. While urban markets show buoyancy, rural demand remains subdued, limiting the depth and durability of India&rsquo;s growth pattern.
A growth model that bypasses rural India cannot be called inclusive, nor can it sustainably support a $5-trillion ambition.
<h3 data-start="3753" data-end="3796">Fiscal Strength but Social Weakness</h3>
Government accounts reveal robust receipts&mdash;₹18,00,475 crore collected till October 2025, with higher tax devolution to states. Yet ₹6,73,715 crore of revenue expenditure going to interest payments shows how limited fiscal headroom truly is. Capital expenditure is growing, but without broad-based employment, its multiplier effect remains muted.
<h3 data-start="4157" data-end="4213">A Growth Story to Celebrate&mdash;or a Warning Signal?</h3>
India&rsquo;s GDP numbers signal resilience, momentum, and economic potential. But they also raise a vital national question:
Should a nation of 140 crore celebrate a growth model powered by a few sectors, limited geographies, and inconsistent employment generation?
Unless India bridges its skill deficit, strengthens manufacturing, and ensures rural inclusion, its growth will remain impressive&mdash;but incomplete.

Q2 GDP hit 8.2%, yet jobs stagnate and rural India remains outside the growth arc

Is India’s GDP Surge Truly Inclusive?

Across India, an institutional tragedy is unfolding quietly, buried beneath official press notes and hollow claims of electoral reform. The Election Commission&rsquo;s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, reportedly launched to ensure that illegal migrants do not get voting rights, is today pushing booth-level officers to death. The irony is devastating: the system responsible for protecting democracy is killing the very people who sustain it.
This week, two booth-level officers died by suicide under the crushing burden of SIR workload &mdash; Arvind, a teacher from Devli village in Gujarat&rsquo;s Gir Somnath, and Shanti Mani, a BLO from Jalpaiguri, Bengal. Their deaths are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms of a collapsing structure. In just one week, three suicides linked to SIR have been reported, the earlier ones from Rajasthan and another state. One week. Three deaths. One merciless system.
Arvind, entrusted with SIR responsibilities on top of regular teaching duties, was drowning in relentless documentation, digital uploads, verification rounds and constant pressure. His family found a suicide note &mdash; a tragic testimony to a life crushed under bureaucratic brutality. He reportedly suffered from sleeplessness, panic and fear of disciplinary action.
The story repeats in Bengal. Shanti Mani, overburdened and struggling with linguistic and procedural challenges, collapsed under inhumane workload, no support, and constant fear of errors. Her family says she was pushed beyond breaking point.
Behind every death runs a common spine-chilling truth:
<blockquote data-start="2199" data-end="2366">
The system demands perfection without providing manpower, training, or mental-health support. It punishes instead of supporting. It extracts instead of enabling.
</blockquote>
Meanwhile, BLOs across India are openly challenging top officials, daring them to personally undertake SIR fieldwork to understand the inhumanity and frustration of the process. They ask a legitimate question:
<blockquote data-start="2588" data-end="2695">
Can any IAS, IPS or Election Commission officer complete these tasks under such impossible deadlines?
</blockquote>
Instead of reform, frontline workers face late-night calls, intimidation, threats of suspension, unattainable numeric targets, and public humiliation.
And here lies the darkest allegation &mdash; whispered widely but never acknowledged publicly &mdash;
<blockquote data-start="2945" data-end="3143">
Is the SIR exercise being weaponised to benefit the party in power? Is this truly about electoral purity, or about voter-list engineering and demographic manipulation ahead of elections?
</blockquote>
If so, the cost is blood. Arvind. Shanti Mani. Three others in a week. Different states, one pattern. Different lives, same sacrifice to a machinery without conscience.
India must ask:
<ul data-start="3341" data-end="3553">
<li data-start="3341" data-end="3380">
Who is accountable when BLOs die?
</li>
<li data-start="3381" data-end="3553">
Who answers for stolen lives &mdash; the Election Commission, district collectors, or a political regime shielding itself with patriotism while destroying its own citizens?
</li>
</ul>
This is no longer administrative failure. It is a moral collapse.
Democracy cannot be defended by dead teachers and broken public servants.
If these deaths do not force reform, what will? If this system does not change now, more coffins will follow. And when the next BLO dies, silence will be complicity.

Suicides of BLOs expose brutal workload, moral collapse and political motives behind SIR

SIR Revision or Systematic Human Destruction?

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Gujarat&rsquo;s storied prohibition has survived decades of political grandstanding, moral sermons, and official circulars. What it hasn&rsquo;t survived is the honesty&mdash;perhaps accidental&mdash;of its own Minister of State for Tribal Development, P.C. Baranda. In a public event at Chhota Udepur, the former Deputy Superintendent of Police cheerfully declared that, during his tenure, liquor sale was &ldquo;allowed.&rdquo; Not overlooked, not slipped through&mdash;allowed. One almost applauds the sheer candour; it takes a unique kind of courage to broadcast one&rsquo;s own dereliction of duty while occupying a ministerial chair.
And thus emerges the great Gujarat paradox: prohibition for the people, permission for the powerful. A regular Police Inspector faces suspension the moment liquor worth more than ₹2.50 lakh is seized in his jurisdiction. But a DSP who admits to permitting illegal liquor sale? He is promoted to ministerial rank&mdash;because in this state, violating the law is not a crime; it is evidently a qualification.
Baranda&rsquo;s defence is even more staggering. He invoked the tribal community&mdash;suggesting that liquor sale was tolerated because &ldquo;Adivasis drink.&rdquo; This convenient stereotype is more than insulting; it is a tacit admission that an entire state machinery was willing to look away, if not actively abet, illegal trade. If liquor was indeed being sold with official blessings, are we to believe only Adivasis consumed it? Or is this the latest chapter in the long-running political anthology titled: &ldquo;Excuses That Fool No One&rdquo;?
The real question, however, transcends Baranda himself. Will the Director General of Police, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), or even the Chief Secretary initiate action against a former DSP who openly admits to enabling illegality? Will the Chief Minister, Bhupendra Patel, sack his minister for misconduct he has confessed in broad daylight? Or are there two sets of rules&mdash;one for the powerless and one for the politically precious?
If a suspended PI must bear the full weight of departmental proceedings, why shouldn&rsquo;t Baranda face the same? Will the government recover his salary for the period during which he failed to enforce the very law he was duty-bound to uphold? Or is selective accountability now the state&rsquo;s official policy?
There is an old Gujarati proverb, painfully apt here: &ldquo;When the fence itself grazes on the crops, what harvest can one expect?&rdquo; And in Gujarat&rsquo;s prohibition landscape, it appears the fence hasn&rsquo;t merely grazed&mdash;it has devoured the field, built a farmhouse over it, and called it governance.
Baranda has not just exposed himself; he has exposed the farce of a system where the
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A minister’s proud confession tears apart Gujarat’s selective rule of law

Baranda’s Bombshell Exposes Dry Law Farce

India marked 15 November with rare solemnity and pride this year, celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, the iconic tribal freedom fighter revered as Dharti Abba&mdash;the Father of the Earth. His birth anniversary, now observed nationally as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas, is not merely a ceremonial remembrance; it is a reminder of a revolution forged by a young Adivasi who dared to challenge the British Empire and rewrite the spirit of tribal identity.
Born in 1875 in present-day Jharkhand, Birsa emerged from a landscape exploited under colonial land policies that dispossessed Adivasis of their forests, farms, and dignity. His childhood was marked by migration and hardship, yet his intellect stood out early. At Ayubhatu, he studied at a missionary school where his teacher advised him to join a German Mission School. The condition&mdash;conversion to Christianity&mdash;forced Birsa to accept a new faith, renamed first as Birsa David and then Birsa Daud. This phase exposed him to structured learning but distanced him from the spiritual moorings of his community.
By the late 1880s, during intense conflict between German and Roman Catholic missions, Birsa&rsquo;s family withdrew from the school, renounced Christianity, and returned to their ancestral religious practices. This marked a turning point. Birsa, disillusioned by missionary influence, began articulating a new spiritual path, creating the Birsait faith, which preached one God, moral discipline, rejection of witchcraft, alcohol, and forced labour. His message electrified the Mundas, Oraons, and Kharias, who saw him as a prophet, healer, miracle-worker, and ultimately, as a living god.
As spiritual awakening merged with political consciousness, Birsa transformed into a revolutionary. The British had imposed feudal structures that handed tribal lands to outsiders, reducing Adivasis to labourers on their own soil. Birsa responded with the historic Ulgulan&mdash;The Great Tumult, a movement that demanded the end of British rule and restoration of tribal self-governance.
His most powerful slogan, still chanted across Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, captured the heartbeat of tribal resistance:
&ldquo;Abua raj seter jana, maharani raj tundu jana.&rdquo; Let the Queen&rsquo;s rule end, and let our rule be established.
With unmatched charisma, he organised a guerrilla army. His followers attacked police stations, disrupted revenue networks, and challenged colonial authority. The British responded with brutality&mdash;deploying forces, burning villages, and placing a bounty of ₹500 on him. A fierce battle at Dumbari Hills saw hundreds of his followers massacred. Birsa escaped, but only briefly. He was later arrested and died in Ranchi Jail on 9 June 1900, aged just 25.
A life so short, yet a legacy so towering. Birsa Munda did not merely resist the Raj; he reclaimed tribal identity, dignity, religion, and land rights. His revolution compelled future legislation protecting Adivasi land. His worship continues because he was more than a leader&mdash;he was the voice that restored a people&rsquo;s pride.

A tribute to the tribal icon whose 150th birth anniversary marks a timeless legacy

Birsa Munda: The Fire That Never Died

The thumping victory in Bihar, delivered through a combination of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar&rsquo;s women-centric welfare architecture and the BJP&rsquo;s deep-rooted micro-level planning, has rewritten the State&rsquo;s political landscape&mdash;raising both admiration and uncomfortable questions about the health of democratic opposition in India.
Nitish Kumar&rsquo;s calibrated focus on women as decisive political stakeholders has once again proven electorally transformative. Programmes such as Jeevika didi, targeted livelihood support, and direct financial transfers like the ₹10,000 cash benefit, have created a strong perception of tangible and personal empowerment. For women voters&mdash;often the most consistent beneficiaries of government welfare schemes&mdash;this election became less about ideology and more about guaranteed delivery and stability. Their turnout appears to have created a cushion for incumbency, shielding Nitish from routine political fatigue.
Parallelly, the BJP executed a precision-level grassroots strategy, especially in rural and semi-urban belts where political behaviour shifts in fine margins. The party&rsquo;s cadre-driven machine, extensive booth-level mapping, and aggressive narrative-shaping enabled it to expand its existing vote bank. What worked for the BJP is not just organisational muscle but its ability to segment-target communities, castes, and regional pockets with near-surgical micro-messaging. This is the kind of consistency that other parties&mdash;or even alliances&mdash;have struggled to match.
The much-discussed debutant, Prashant Kishor&rsquo;s Jan Suraaj Party, despite the hype and curiosity it generated, seems unlikely to cross even a single seat. While full constituency-wise data is still awaited, the real question is: Whose votes did Jan Suraaj dent? Early trends indicate localised disruptions where the party may have sliced into anti-incumbency votes, inadvertently aiding the ruling formation. This requires a detailed examination once final numbers surface.
In stark contrast stands the Mahagathbandhan, which appears to have been virtually wiped out. The RJD&rsquo;s promise of &ldquo;one job per family&rdquo;, though ambitious, could neither counter the ruling coalition&rsquo;s narrative nor rebuild its credibility among undecided voters. The Opposition&rsquo;s inability to craft a cohesive message&mdash;combined with internal contradictions&mdash;amplified its downfall.
This landslide, however, carries echoes of Gujarat&rsquo;s 2022 Assembly elections and the 2014 Lok Sabha sweep, where the Opposition was reduced so dramatically that even the post of Leader of Opposition became vacant. Such outcomes raise deeper concerns. Even in situations of anti-incumbency or public dissatisfaction, voters rarely punish the Opposition so heavily that they vanish from the electoral map. Yet this pattern emerges repeatedly when the BJP is either in power or poised to take power.
This phenomenon must be critically examined, not dismissed as routine electoral behaviour. Democracies are designed around competitive politics, not around the disappearance of alternatives. The emerging narrative&mdash;intentionally or otherwise&mdash;that &ldquo;people do not want an opposition at all&rdquo; is both unprecedented and unhealthy. No mature democracy thrives when dissent is electorally irrelevant or politically annihilated.
Bihar&rsquo;s mandate is significant not just for its winners, but for what it implies about the future of democratic balance in India. If elections consistently produce overwhelming mandates with negligible opposition space, the question will not only be who wins power, but what remains of democratic contestation.

Nitish’s women-centric push, BJP’s micro-strategy and Opposition’s wipeout reshape Bihar mandate

Thumping Victory: Mandate or Democratic Warning?!

The twin blasts that tore through Delhi, killing ten innocent citizens, have left the nation stunned &mdash; not just by the horror of the act, but by the glaring collapse of our security apparatus. The capital, supposedly on high alert, witnessed suicide bombers slip through its security web to strike near one of the most guarded zones, the Red Fort. The question arises: how did this happen in the heart of the national capital?
Only a day before the explosions, the Gujarat ATS arrested two suspected terrorists, who had allegedly conducted a reconnaissance of the Red Fort area. Yet, the security perimeters around the monument remained lax. Why were preventive measures not escalated, especially when the suspects had direct links to the region? This points to a systemic failure of coordination between central and state intelligence networks &mdash; a flaw that has repeatedly cost lives.
Reports had surfaced earlier that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar was developing a launch pad in Bangladesh to mount terror operations in India. If such intelligence inputs were available, why was the security grid not fortified across sensitive installations in Delhi and other metros? Was the threat underestimated, or were intelligence warnings buried under bureaucratic complacency?
The use of an IED-laden car in such a highly monitored area raises further alarms. How could such a vehicle breach the city&rsquo;s multiple checkpoints, especially when the capital was under a heightened alert? With a National Security Advisor renowned for strategic acumen and a Union Home Minister celebrated for operational control, such lapses demand accountability.
After the Pulwama attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, striking deep into terror camps across the border. The government had claimed that these camps were neutralised. If that were indeed the case, then how have these networks resurfaced? Have sleeper cells reactivated, or were they never truly dismantled?
Is this blast a renewed act of terror, or a calculated provocation to draw India into a broader confrontation? The government has often maintained that Operation Sindoor was not concluded but merely paused. If so, this attack could be a deliberate attempt to test India&rsquo;s resolve &mdash; and perhaps to ignite a new phase of hybrid warfare.
Ultimately, the larger question remains unanswered &mdash; is hatred the root of this unending cycle of terror, or has Pakistan&rsquo;s proxy war machinery yet again succeeded in penetrating our defences? The tragedy of Delhi must serve as a wake-up call, not just to our intelligence agencies but to the political establishment that oversees them. Empty assurances can no longer mask operational failures. The nation deserves accountability &mdash; and action.

How did suicide bombers strike Delhi despite high alert and intelligence inputs?

Editorial