Mumbai: Maharashtra has embarked on a highly ambitious journey to establish itself as the premier nuclear energy hub of the nation, driven by the escalating power demands of next-generation industries. As the global push for artificial intelligence, massive data centers, semiconductor manufacturing, green hydrogen production, and advanced electric mobility accelerates, the need for stable, uninterrupted, and clean base-load electricity has become paramount. The Maharashtra go

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav offers 'prasad' to people on the occasion of Bada Mangal in Lucknow on Tuesday. Pic: PTI New Delhi: In Uttar Pradesh politics, "saffron" has evolved from being merely a color to a potent political symbol encompassing power, culture, security, and social psychology. Once considered the distinctive identity of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), this color has now seeped into the lexicon of opposition politics as well. With the 2027 assembly e

The Congress’ crisis is not merely electoral decline, but the slow exhaustion of imagination, organisation and ideological clarity. For a long time, my understanding of opposition was deeply personal. It began at the dining table. I had just entered college. We had moved to a new house. New friends, new influences, and conversations that stretched late into the evening. At home, the dining table became a miniature parliament. Strong Hindu voices surrounded me in conversations

New Delhi: In Kerala, reaching the Chief Minister’s office is never merely about winning an election. Political legitimacy in the state is shaped through ideology, organizational work, public engagement, student politics, social balancing, and years of patient political labor. That is why the rise of V. D. Satheesan is not just another political appointment, but it also represents the return of a Congress tradition in which leaders who spend decades working within the organiz

Mumbai: The war between online and offline sales of medicines is set for escalation as the All India Organisation of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) announced a daylong token all-India strike on May 20 to protest against the ‘predatory discounting’ by web companies. The organization has warned that over a million retail chemists and wholesalers across the country face “economic ruin” due to online sales unless the Centre urgently intervenes. Drumming up support for the cause, a

Punjab’s politics reflects a deeper national malaise, where corruption, sensational rhetoric, and historical analogies overshadow policy, eroding public trust New Delhi: Indian politics has reached a juncture where the highest executive office in the land is increasingly viewed not through the lens of patriotism or policy, but as a target for ridicule. Recent events in Punjab have made this decline even more apparent. The political debate between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), le

Mumbai: The simmering discontent surrounding the Maratha reservation issue is poised to boil over once again, casting a long shadow over the state’s political landscape. Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil has officially blown the bugle for a renewed, aggressive agitation, announcing an indefinite hunger strike set to commence on May 30. Addressing a massive gathering of supporters at Antarwali Sarati today, a visibly moved Jarange Patil laid bare his frustrations with

State slashes VAT on jet fuel Mumbai: Even as the Maharashtra government moved swiftly to cushion the aviation sector by slashing Value Added Tax (VAT) on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) from 18 pc to 7 pc, sections of Mumbai’s cab unions demanded an immediate fare hike following the latest increase in compressed natural gas (CNG) prices by Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL). The VAT reduction on jet fuel will remain in force for six months - May 15-Nov 14 - vide an official notificatio

New Delhi: The power equation that emerged between the Congress party and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) during the selection of Kerala's Chief Minister has revived an old question in Indian politics that Is the Congress still compelled to make key political decisions under pressure from its Muslim allies? The results of the May 2026 Kerala Assembly elections and the developments that followed have given fresh momentum to this debate. In Kerala, the Congress-led United

Few states have shaped India’s political imagination as profoundly as Maharashtra. From the freedom struggle to labour agitations, from anti-caste reform movements to modern coalition politics, the state has repeatedly generated ideas that altered the country’s political vocabulary. Among the communities that most decisively influenced this journey, the Scheduled Castes occupy a singular place. Yet for all their ideological depth, emotional solidarity and historic legacy, Sch

Mumbai: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationwide ‘austerity’ drive gathers steam, Maharashtra appears to have embraced the campaign with a blend of seriousness, symbolism and political theatrics. With fuel conservation offering a windfall of photo opportunities, protest pageantry, bouts of comedy, the people and politicians took up the frugality challenge with gusto – on motorcycles and electric cars to white horses or horse-carriages and bullock-carts, or plain footing

Long before he became a minister, Dilipda had already earned our respect through his simplicity, discipline, and warmth. In 2007, my job brought me to Kolkata. Once there, I began attending the local RSS shakha and gradually became involved in Sangh work. I first met Dilipda during a visit to a swayamsevak’s home. Coincidentally, that same year, he had been appointed to our division. As everyone introduced themselves, Dilipda casually asked me in Marathi, “How are you finding

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for “austerity” triggered a blistering political broadside from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, who accused the Centre of hypocrisy, economic mismanagement, reckless political extravagance and attempting to shift the burden of its failures onto ordinary citizens. In a scathing statement, Raj questioned the moral authority of the PM to preach sacrifices to the country while the ruling establishment indulges in lavis

Mumbai: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon citizens to embrace austerity and voluntarily refrain from purchasing gold for at least a year, a nationwide furor erupted over India’s deep emotional, cultural and economic relationship with the precious, glittering yellow metal. The PM’s innocuous appeal for frugality quickly snowballed into a larger debate on the staggering quantity of gold lying idle in Indian households, estimated at over 35,000 tonnes. The PM’s rem

While democracy needs a credible opposition, it is not the BJP’s responsibility to create one. Elections in India since 2014 have increasingly generated an engaging debate- the “lack” of a political opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Barring a few setbacks, especially the 2024 general elections, most electoral contests since 2014 have recorded a steady and spectacular march of the BJP. The post-West Bengal iteration of this debate has an even graver existentiali

Who truly represents the Dravidian legacy today? Can Tamil Nadu’s two towering political rivals ever bury decades of hostility? Has the rise of new political forces exposed the fatigue within both the DMK and AIADMK?Would a united Dravidian front preserve Tamil identity or destroy the very opposition culture that shaped the State? And if the two parties continue to weaken separately, could national parties gradually fill the vacuum? These questions have begun echoing acros

Political and Geopolitical forces behind the killing in West Bengal New Delhi: The 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections have not only signaled a new trajectory in Indian politics but have also stirred ripples in global geopolitics. The unprecedented victory of the BJP in the state brought to light events that reveal how the long-standing cycle of political power struggles and violence is now emerging in a new form. The most alarming manifestation of this shift came late Wedne

New Delhi: India's Left parties have drifted so far from ground realities that they now appear reduced to instruments in the hands of other political blocs, which were once seen as champions of the working class. Their failure to translate communist ideology into a practical, development-oriented agenda stands exposed. In the years following independence, the Left held 27 seats in Parliament and over the past 75 years, that number has dwindled to just eight. From governing th

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Minister Sanjay Shirsat has inadvertently fueled opposition propaganda. While reacting to an editorial in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana on Saturday he suggested that his party and the BJP could contest the 2029 elections separately. The statement strengthens the UBT’s ongoing narrative that the BJP plans to sideline its current alliance partners. Shirsat essentially validated these opposition speculations instead of firmly dismissing them. The Saamana e

Assam and West Bengal signalled a broader political shift: traditional regional loyalties no longer guarantee voter allegiance. The political landscape of eastern India has undergone a profound transformation over the past decade, culminating in significant electoral victories for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in states like Assam and, to a more complex extent, its rise as a dominant challenger in West Bengal. These developments are not isolated electoral outcomes but refl