Left, Right & Centre

The Congress-JDS government in Karnataka falls after weeks of political chaos. HD Kumaraswamy loses his majority and the BJP's BS Yeddyurappa is all set to be the Chief Minister. Has democracy won or lost in the state?

India denies Donald Trump's outrageous claim that PM Modi wanted him to mediate on Kashmir but the opposition demands clarification from the PM on the matter. Congress's Shashi Tharoor speaks to NDTV on how even though Donald Trump sometimes gets things wrong, it is not appropriate for PM Modi to hide behind the foreign ministry and not speak on the matter.

As India takes a giant leap and successfully launches Chandrayaan 2. On Left Right and Centre, we discuss what's next in terms of the mission and what technical snags did ISRO have to battle with to make this mission a roaring success.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath finally visited UP's Sonbhadra district, days after 10 people were gunned over a land dispute. He announced more compensation for the families of those who died, and also for the injured. But he continued the attack on the Congress, holding the party responsible for the shocking murders. He also alleged that the village head and his family were linked to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Can the Chief Minister deflect his own government's responsibility?

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday launched her fightback with a mega rally in Kolkata-her first since Trinamool's 12 seat setback in the Lok Sabha elections. She took the bull by the horns, calling on BJP to return black money to offset BJP's cut money campaign. She also said the BJP's Bengal result was a mystery and not history and a return to ballot boxes would wipe out the party's mysterious gains.

A bill which seeks to take away the stature of Information Commissioners from equivalent of Election Commissioners and give the Centre the power to set their salaries and service conditions was introduced in Lok Sabha today amid protests by opposition parties. Introducing the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh said that it aims at institutionalisation, streamlining and ease of delivery of RTI Act. He said it strengthens the overall RTI structure and described it as an enabling legislation for administration purposes. Activists have criticised the amendments, saying it will weaken transparency panels in the country. Opposing the introduction of the bill, leader of Congress party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the draft law is a threat to independence of Central Information Commissioner (CIC). While 224 members supported its introduction, 9 opposed it. Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK and the Bahujan Samaj Party opposed the introduction of the amendment bill before staging a walkout.

There's high drama in the Karnataka assembly as the debate on the trust vote begins. But while the BJP demands a vote right away, the Congress-JDS coalition tries to stall it. The House is adjourned till tomorrow, but BJP MLAs will sit in the House in protest all night. Meanwhile, the murmurs have begun that the governor is preparing a report to send to the centre, which isn't ruling out dismissing the government. With the Supreme Court clear that a floor test must happen, would such a move be blatantly illegal?

Kulbhushan Jadhav, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled today in a big win for India. Kulbhushan Jadhav's death sentence "should remain suspended until Pakistan effectively reviews and reconsiders the conviction and sentence," said the UN court, agreeing with India's stand that Pakistan had violated the Vienna convention by denying consular access to Jadhav after his conviction in a "farcical" closed trial. "Truth and justice have prevailed. I am sure Kulbhushan Jadhav will get justice," Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

It is a piece of legislation that has created a huge controversy but the government is determined to push it through. A bill regulating surrogacy in India has been introduced in the Lok Sabha which will essentially ban commercial surrogacy and allow only close relatives to act as surrogates to infertile couples for "ethical altruistic" reasons. The bill also says surrogacy will only be allowed for an Indian married couple between the ages of 25 and 50 for women, and 26 and 55 for men. The intending couple must have no surviving child biologically or through adoption or through surrogacy earlier. A woman should be allowed to act as a surrogate mother only once and should be between 25 and 35 years of age and should be a close relative of the intending couple. She should be married and have a child of her own as well.

Several people are dead, many trapped and injured as a decades-old four storey building came crashing down in south Mumbai today, in a very congested neighbourhood called Dongri. It turns out that the BMC, which is Mumbai's civic body, had warned of disaster way back in 2017. In a letter dated August 7, 2017, the BMC had said "the building is to be evacuated for demolition at the earliest... In event of any mishap this office won't be responsible." Every year, it is the same, tragic story in Mumbai, India's financial capital, where urban infrastructure has virtually collapsed, leading to these deaths - from buildings to bridges what is even more shocking is how authorities haven't been able to act and get people out of buildings that as classified as dangerous.