News and Views

American journalist-writer-professor Steve Coll’s book Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016 offers a gripping account of the combined might of the US’ security agencies, at war with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, writes Chandan Nandy.

After Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s successful visit to India in February 2018, his Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has sought to ‘assuage’ Pakistani concerns about his country’s cooperation with India, especially to develop the Chabahar port.

Nations lose face in the eyes of the world. Political parties lose face in the eyes of the voters. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thinks that 14 March 2018’s electoral verdict was the result of the Bharatiya Janata Party's "overconfidence." But the BJP's recent decisions have been making it difficult for voters to support it.

Tabnapping is a new phishing threat that you should be aware of. It is even harder to detect than regular phishing links.

The results of Uttar Pradesh bypolls have surprised many political pundits. In less than one year, there has been a massive turnaround in the caste and demographic equations. Initial reports suggest that Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has successfully managed to transfer their vote to the Samajwadi Party, writes Bilal Zaidi.

At the end of the first week of the resumed Budget session of Parliament, the BJP looks dangerously poised to head back to those days of “majestic isolation’’ after the demolition of the Babri Masjid when no political party was willing to ally with it.

The Lok Sabha became a battlefield the entire week with the BJP on one side and every other party, including its allies, arrayed against it.

MPs of all political hues shouted slogans, waved placards, didn’t allow ministers to speak and created so much pandemonium that the Speaker was forced to adjourn the House every day without doing a stitch of work.

When I saw the morning newspaper, I felt terrible. A statue of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Tripura had been razed down by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers using a JCB machine. Not just that, those responsible for the act proceeded to play ‘football’ with Lenin’s head.

Tripura had a Left government for 25 years and the statue of Lenin was installed during that time. Lenin is undoubtedly Communism’s biggest leader and the prime symbol of the 1917 Communist Revolution.

A week before the first anniversary of the Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab, its public relations (PR) department bombarded media with aerial photographs and press releases, admiring his prompt action against the mining mafia in the state.

Photographs taken from a helicopter he was riding showed trucks parked along a river bed. The release indicated that an enraged chief minister ordered an immediate raid and arrest of the alleged culprits. The state machinery swung into action, nabbed them and seized the trucks.

Supreme Court on Tuesday offered extension for users to link their bank account and mobile number with Aadhaar, but Paytm and MobiKwik like prepaid wallets have been left out. Why? Read more to know the answer.

China is currently both India’s largest trading partner and fastest growing source of FDI. Despite this, the bulk of India’s governmental engagement with China occurs in the political sphere. In 2017, India-China political relations were dominated by two major events: the Doklam standoff and India’s boycott of the OBOR plan (now renamed as Belt and Road Initiative).

The Doklam incident was the second longest standoff between armies on both sides and was accompanied by bitter anti-India rhetoric in the Chinese press.