The Congress cannot rest on its oars in Karnataka even if it gets, as predicted by several exit polls, a clear majority in the state assembly. Its real test will be in the Lok Sabha polls when the electorate will vote for the next government at the Centre. Read more

Congress leaders need a crash course in media interaction. Not just that. They need to be trained to talk the right thing at the right time, rather than talking out of turn they so often do. Read more

Are early elections a possibility? Mamata Banerjee’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA at the Centre has triggered afresh the old debate. The studied ambivalence of the Congress-led regime’s outside supporters—the SP and the BSP—has only compounded the uncertainty. Read more

It’s about time the UPA began worrying— not as much for its own survival but that of India. One doesn’t really care who spread the rumors that made people from the north east return home in panic from across India. Read more

Autobiographies that aren’t self-commendatory help chronicle history better. That’s the least top leaders and constitutional functionaries can do to empower public opinion or disabuse it of motivated propaganda. Read more

The UPA cannot afford to lose the Presidential election due in July. The government at the Centre wouldn’t last if the combine fails to send its candidate to the high office. Read more

Differences within Anna Hazare’s team and between some of his associates and Baba Ramdev are hardly a reason for the government to rejoice. One can question their tactics, not their resolve or persistence. Despite diminishing appeal, their credibility among sections of the population is higher than the ruling combine’s. Read more

On weekends I have some fun on twitter and get in return a sense of the popular mood. So this Sunday when I tweeted in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s defense against charges hurled at him and some of his cabinet colleagues by “Team Anna”, the response was overwhelmingly negative. Read more

It’s always a pleasure to see the Treasury and the Opposition lock horns over issues in Parliament. One saw it happening in the Rajya Sabha over the Aircel-Maxis case in which allegations have been leveled against the son of Home Minister P Chidambaram. Read more

The presidential elections are widely predicted to be the UPA’s biggest challenge to prevent future erosion of its authority depleted by scams and electoral reverses. But I do not foresee any major problem in the election of the ruling combination’s candidate, be it Hamid Ansari or Pranab Mukherjee. Read more