Left, Right & Centre

Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao said the question of a buffer zone along the Line of Actual Control, or LAC, in eastern Ladakh is not new. A local leader in Ladakh has claimed the grazing grounds for nomads are out of bounds now after Indian and Chinese troops disengaged in Gogra-Hot Springs as that area has been turned into a buffer zone. 

Eight cheetahs arrived in India from Namibia by a special flight on Saturday morning. Three of them were released by PM Modi in the Kuno National Park and the rest five by other leaders under the ambitious reintroduction project. The cheetahs had gone extinct in India seven decades ago.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his way to Samarkand, where leaders of the SCO are meeting tomorrow. There, he will come face-to-face with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif - with all three, India has a tricky relationship. Just two days before the summit, India and China finished disengagement at Ladakh's Gogra hotsprings --15 after a 2-year long standoff. On Left, Right and Centre tonight, we discuss what is on the table between the four leaders at SCO summit.

As Rahul Gandhi leads a Bharat Jodo Yatra in hopes of reviving the Congress, his party suffered another massive blow as most of their Goa MLAs defected and joined the BJP. This setback comes at a time when elections in Gujarat are also approaching, and the AAP is aggressively campaigning in the state where the Congress has been the main opposition. But is that now under threat? Arvind Kejriwal has even declared that the Congress is finished. But is it? And is Rahul Gandhi's yatra unable to unite his own party?

Ukraine's army, which was sustaining heavy losses, appears to have turned the tide on the Russians capturing 6000 sq kms of territory in the East and in the South of the country . The pace at which this has happened is truly incredible. In fact, it's going to be studied for years. How has this happened? Are Russian forces truly on the run in the East? Can Ukraine keep up with its offensive? Pushed to a corner, how will Russia react?

A court today agreed to hear the case of five Hindu women who want to pray at a shrine inside the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, next to the famous Kashi Viswanath temple. Their petition will be heard on September 22. The order will be challenged by members of the Muslim community and chances are that it will go to the Supreme Court. What are the implications? Some say the 1991 Places of Worship Act will be violated if there is a change in the status quo. Will Varanasi go the Ayodhya way?

200 days after the war in Ukraine began comes news of an astonishing fightback - no less significant than the fightback that we saw North of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Russian forces have withdrawn from key eastern towns as a rapid Ukrainian counter-attack makes further gains. Ukrainian officials said that troops entered Kupiansk, a vital eastern supply hub for Russian forces on Saturday and another key town, Bala-Klyia has been freed as well. Is this the beginning of the end of the Russian invasion?

With a trumpet fanfare and gun salutes, Charles III was officially proclaimed king at a pomp-filled ceremony on Saturday, at which he pledged to emulate his late mother Queen Elizabeth II and serve for the rest of his life. A court official wearing a feathered bicorn hat declared Charles "our only lawful and rightful" monarch from the balcony of St James's Palace after a historic Accession Council meeting of senior royals, clergy and government.

 

Two days before Brahmastra, the year's biggest release, hits the screens, its stars Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt have faced protests during their promotional tour in Madhya Pradesh. The couple were forced to cancel their visit to an iconic temple as protesters held up black flags and raised slogans to block them. The protests revolve around an 11-year-old comment by Ranbir Kapoor, 39. "I am a mutton, paya, beef...red meat guy. I'm a big beef guy," he had said during an interview conducted over a meal. Do goons get to decide who prays in temples? Also on the show, tax raids at three independent organisations - the Centre for Policy Research, arguably India's finest think tank; Oxfam, a global NGO which publishes the Global Disparity Report annually, and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF), a charitable trust that supports The Caravan, The Print and Swarajya.

Cyrus Mistry, who died in a car crash on Sunday, was cremated today in Mumbai. Industrialists, politicians and members of the Parsi community attended the funeral, besides the family. Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal recounts his memories of Mistry, who was a close friend.