Left, Right & Centre

It has been 53 days since Rahul Gandhi announced his resignation as Congress President and there has been no sign of a new leader for the party. Meanwhile, internal bickering in the party has peaked between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot and now Navjot Singh Sidhu has resigned as minister from the Amarinder Singh cabinet.

They have been on the run since July 4 after eloping and even after getting protection from the court. Sakshi, 23, and her 29-year-old husband Ajitesh have been running for their lives, scared of Sakshi's powerful politician father who she says has threatened her with his goons. Ajitesh belongs to a Scheduled Caste and Sakshi says this is what enraged her father, the BJP MLA from Bareilly. Her video on social media a few days ago made national headlines as she desperately outlined their fears. Today as the couple went to Allahabad High Court seeking protection, Ajitesh was attacked, slapped and pushed allegedly by a group of lawyers. The court however directed the Uttar Pradesh police to extend full protection to the couple.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a huge mandate in May, one of the first things he talked about was "sabka vishwas" and said he will take everyone, including minorities, along. Many hoped that this comment by the PM would mark a shift in the way Muslims are perceived by his party BJP, while others have been more skeptical and pointed out that Muslims being beaten up and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram only demonstrates that nothing has really changed. Are India's Muslims being marginalised? Or are these concerns being exaggerated? At this time, former union minister Salman Khurshid has come out with his new book 'Visible Muslim, Invisible Citizen'.

Congress leader Salman Khurshid today called for immediate action to choose the next party president in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's resignation after the BJP's emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha elections. He also insisted that the party's top leadership conduct internal elections for the purpose. "I absolutely don't know why (the Congress has not chosen a new chief yet). But I sincerely hope and pray that whatever we need to do and whatever we plan to do, we will do it soon and then get on with the future," the former Union Minister told NDTV in a televised interview.

In just a few hours, India will have embarked on its biggest and most ambitious space adventure Chandrayaan 2, the mission to see if sizeable water exists under the lunar surface. The mission will see a lander touchdown on the moon and release a rover in September. For now, the focus is on the launch of India's biggest rocket, the GSLV- Mk III which carries the Chandrayaan payload - the orbiter, the lander and the rover.

India's ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission after its lift off from Sriharikota is headed close to the South Pole of the moon for a soft landing. Where is India going and why has ISRO chosen the spot close to the South Pole? Tonight on Left Right and Centre, NDTV speaks to Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, key team member of Chandrayaan 1, and discuss how Chandrayaan-2 will explore unchartered territories of the moon.

The Supreme Court today ordered the Karnataka Speaker not to delay meeting the rebel MLAs any longer. But the Speaker said after meeting the MLAs that he cannot work at lightning speed. In Goa too, the Congress has had a huge blow, with 10 out of their 15 MLAs joining the BJP. Is the BJP closer to a Congress Mukt Bharat?

The CBI raids Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover, both hugely respected constitutional and human rights lawyers who have also been vocal critics of PM Modi and Amit Shah. Were the raids anti-corruption or anti-activism?

The government in Karnataka has already been hanging by a thread, but today, 10 of the Congress's 15 MLAs in Goa have just broken away from the party to join the BJP, which is currently in power in the state. The crisis in both states comes at a time when the Congress in Delhi is completely rudderless, with no clarity on who will take over after Rahul Gandhi.

How higher taxes in the budget have spooked the stock market - some 30 billion dollars in market value have been erased from the Sensex after the announcement of a higher surcharge on the very rich, which apparently also applies to trusts, something many foreign funds use to make investments.