Left, Right & Centre

The Supreme Court's landmark decision to allow passive euthanasia and a living will means someone is teiminally ill can say no to treatment that can artifically prolong their life. It is an issue that has divided people and doctors for years. But is the top court's ruling welcome? is it a progressive step?

Thousands of farmers in Maharashtra on Friday marched towards Mumbai protesting against what they are calling injustice by the government and broken promises that have left them helpless. If there is one issue that could really define the next general election it will be the issue of agrarian distress. Is the government paying lip service to farmer distress?

We are about a year away from the next general election. They could happen even earlier if rumours in Delhi are to be believed. For over four years now, Narendra Modi has ruled as Prime Minister with a thumping majority for the BJP - clearly the dominant force in the National Democratic Alliance or NDA. But next time, the BJP may just need a little more help from its friends. Allies may become more critical because if the BJP's own numbers come down in areas where they peaked, they will need help. But that's where the problem lies - in the BJP's handling of its coalition partners. The Shiv Sena has already said it won't contest with the BJP in 2019. The Akali Dal has openly expressed unhappiness at how it's being treated. And now the big southern ally of the BJP, the TDP, has left the government over granting a "special status" to Andhra Pradesh. Now the JDU is making similar noises - are restless allies rocking the BJP's boat?

Why is the government so keen to rewrite ancient Indian history textbooks? The Right says there has been a Left bias in our study of history. But is saffronisation the answer to that?

When the statue of Lenin was brought down in Tripura on Monday, those who immediately welcomed it were very senior BJP or right wing functionaries - there was the Tripura Governor Tathagat Roy who justified it in his first reaction and then backtracked much later. There was the BJP's Ram Madhav who tweeted in favout of it and then deleted it. And then a controversial BJP lawmaker in Tamil Nadu threatened that Periyar statues would be next. Well, a Periyar statue did get vandalized, and then suddenly the BJP realised this was going to backfire in a big way. Meanwhile, there was another shameful act - this time in Bengal, with a bust of BJP icon Syama Prasad Mookerjee also defaced. Will this ever stop? Will the PM's words be heard? Will the BJP's damage control work?

In a horrific attack on Karnataka's Lokayukta, he was stabbed multiple times in his own office in a massive breach of security. The former Lokayukta of Karnataka Justice Santosh Hegde hits out at the security arrangements.

The bank fraud scam widens and now it turns out that big private banks could be exposed. Chanda Kochchar, the very high profile head of ICICI and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank were summoned today by the serious fraud investigation office. This is about a case in which 31 banks lent over 5,000 crores to Mehul Choksi. However, neither appeared today. Axis sent representatives while ICICI sought more time. Public banks have already been compromised. Could private banks be compromised as well?

Over the last couple of years, Indian politics has focused on the most pressing issues of our times. Such as: is Nehru responsible for everything that's going wrong in India today? Would Sardar Patel have made a better PM? Should Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary be celebrated or not? Should a film on an alleged historical figure, Rani Padmavati, be released? And now, the last 24 hours have been consumed by Vladimir Lenin. The people of Tripura voted for change, they voted for development, to teach the Left a lesson. And so, a crowd shouting "Bharat mata ki jay" decided to topple a Lenin statue in the state after the BJP's big win. It is a move that's been supported by the governor Tathagta Roy, which shouldn't come as a surpirse but more on that later. It has been hailed by senior BJP leaders and there have been calls to bring down other statues of other historical figures. So the debate is: Should we, as a civilised democracy, condone any kind of vandalism or violence? Isn't that what the Taliban did? Or, should historical figures that represent tyranny and oppression, be obliterated from public memory?

The BJP just won a historic poll in the Northeast over the weekend, leading to a massive political churning. Here's how. For starters: the BJP's winning momentum is back. They lost some key bye elections recently, and Gujarat was uncomfortably close, but this huge win in the northeast, where they had zero presence earlier, has galvanised the party cadre ahead of crucial state polls this year and next year's general election. Here's the other big one: bitter rivals, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have decided to join hands for two crucial bypolls in Uttar Pradesh later this month. They're coming together after 23 years, in what could be a game changing move for 2019. And here's more: after the Congress' humiliating performance in the northeast, Mamata Banerjee has called them out for basically taking ill-advised political calls. She says she offered Rahul Gandhi an alliance in Tripura, he turned it down. Meanwhile in Telagana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has floated the idea of a non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front and he says Mamata Banerjee is among those supporting him. So the 2019 election is basically going to look like this: Narendra Modi vs the rest. The question is, how will the rest come together? Can they do it without the Congress? Is the Congress a liability or an asset? Do the elections in the northeast really indicate what may happen or will will other state polls this year hold the key?

On Left, Right and Centre, as the BJP looks all set to form or be part of governments in all three northeastern states that went to polls last month, unlikely allies Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party forge an arrangement for the UP bypolls and Chief Ministers KCR of Telangana and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal explore a third front. We debate: has the Congress become irrelevant in the countdown to the 2019 general elections?