Political parties can survive scandals and electoral setbacks. What they often struggle to survive is the loss of purpose that follows a crushing defeat. The decision by 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs to merge with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and extend support to the NDA is best understood through that lens. Much commentary has focused on the arithmetic of Parliament and the legal intricacies of anti-defection laws. Yet the deeper story is about what happens to

Barely a month after the BJP’s historic landslide ended 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule, Mamata Banerjee’s once-invincible party is rapidly disintegrating into a spectacle of opportunism, defections and panic. The speed of the collapse has been breathtaking. The first crack appeared in the Assembly last week when 58 TMC legislators openly defied the party line and backed rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee’s claim to the post of Leader of the Opposition. The revolt was a publ

For years, India’s eastern frontier has been a study in political evasiveness. While past governments spoke of illegal immigration and border security, their actions rarely matched their rhetoric. That era now appears to be definitively ending. With the BJP now in power across the states adjoining Bangladesh, India’s political message is now unmistakable. For the newly installed BJP government in West Bengal under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, border management is no longe

Suvendu Adhikari’s visit to Belur Math heralds a tectonic shift in West Bengal’s political and cultural landscape. In one of his first acts after being sworn-in as the newly elected Chief Minister of West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari visited the historic Belur Math in Howrah. In a profound gesture of reverence, he offered a Sashtang Pranam (full prostration) before the assembled monks. For political observers and those deeply acquainted with Bengal’s socio-cultural fabric, this v

The shocking murder of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s closest aide Chandranath Rath on a public road in Madhyamgram, immediately aftert he BJP scored a historic landslide in the West Bengal Assmebly election by toppling Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, is not merely another political killing in the state. It is the logical culmination of a culture of gangsterism that has flourished under Mamata Banerjee’s rule for over a decade and a half. Bengal has long witnessed violen

Writing this piece, I find myself thinking of Shakespeare’s Margaret. Those who have read the Henry plays or Richard III will understand why. Margaret rose from nothing to the heart of English royal power. She fought, she governed, and she eventually became an irrelevant shadow haunting the court of her enemies, clutching at past glories, refusing to accept defeat. On the political stage of West Bengal, that scene has just been performed again. Let me go back a little to some