For a long time in Bihar, the Muslims who constitute 16.5 percent of the 9 crore population, have been lulled into smugness by the relatively peaceful communal atmosphere in the State. This has been largely due to the unabashed pro-Muslim policy adopted by RJD Chief Lalu Yadav in all these almost 20 years that he [...]

By Girish Nikam
The dust is finally settling down. The game of alliances has assumed some discernible form at last. And what do we have? A different United Progressive Alliance (UPA) which is not really as it exists in the present Government. A National Democratic Alliance which looks pretty emaciated. A third front which is making [...]

By Girish Nikam
A few months ago when the left parties were virtually out of the media gaze, following Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh dumping them, a non-congress southern satrap was in constant touch with the left parties hoping to revive the third front. The conversations would go on, with little hope of being able to cobble [...]

By Girish Nikam
Five years back when Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh was “hoisted” on the nation by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi after rejecting the demand for herself to occupy the throne, he had made it clear that the “mandate was for Sonia Gandhi, and not for me”. For some this statement was an act of [...]

By Girish Nikam
When the United Progressive Alliance was formed following the defeat of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2004 general elections, many did not give the newly cobbled up alliance much time for survival. The BJP leadership in particular in fact gave it only six months and later kept revising the fall-date, only [...]

By Girish Nikam
The forthcoming general elections will be throwing up many issues which are bound to be taken up by the political class and the media for discussion as the campaign hots up. One however wonders whether what happened over five months back at the Batla House in the capital will be an issue, at [...]

By Girish Nikam
The countdown for the next Lok Sabha elections has begun in right earnest, and for the first time probably in the Indian elections, we have a happy situation where the voters are faced with two clear alternatives for the Prime Ministership.
Despite the media’s penchant for creating confusion regarding the UPA’s choice, or rather [...]

By Girish Nikam
A couple of weeks back when The Hindu broke the controversy about the bickering in the Election Commission between the Chief Election Commissioner N.Gopalaswami and his colleague, Election Commissioner, Navin Chawla, all hell seemed to have broken loose, just on the eve of elections.
The media and the polity as well as the legal [...]

By Girish NikamThe last few weeks in this country has been an eye opener. When those ten trigger happy young men (were there really only ten?), landed on the shore of Mumbai and caused mayhem, the chattering classes woke up for the first time to this form of terror in their lives. So far the [...]

By Girish Nikam
In the year 2003, around the same time when elections to the five states, where it is underway now, was on, all the talk centred around the impact of those elections on the Lok Sabha and its longevity. When the results came out in favour of the BJP, which managed to wrest, Madhya [...]