Chitrabhanu Kadalayil

May 15, 2024 | thenationalnews.com | Chitrabhanu Kadalayil

What a difference a month makes. When India’s general election got under way on April 19, the popular assumption was that the Bharatiya Janata Party was primed for a third consecutive term in office. The dominant narrative was that the BJP’s stated target of winning 400 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, as the lower house of Parliament is called, was more than a slogan.

Apr 18, 2024 | thenationalnews.com | Chitrabhanu Kadalayil

“Whether they win, whether they lose, the BJP is going to be the centre of Indian polity – like it was for the Congress for the first 40 years [of India’s post-colonial history]. The BJP is going nowhere.”So said Prashant Kishor, a renowned political strategist-turned-activist, two years ago as he tried to explain why the Bharatiya Janata Party’s thumping victories in the country’s 2014 and 2019 general elections were no flukes.

Dec 18, 2023 | thenationalnews.com | Chitrabhanu Kadalayil

On Tuesday, the opposition alliance called “INDIA” will meet in Delhi to discuss its strategy for the general election in May 2024. As leaders of the 28-party coalition put their heads together to find the best way to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there is a sense that the writing is already on the wall. The BJP appears likely to win a third straight general election, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and govern the country for another five years.

Dec 13, 2023 | thenationalnews.com | Chitrabhanu Kadalayil

Irony came knocking on the Indian Parliament’s door, not once but twice, on Wednesday. Exactly 22 years to the day since a militant group mounted a deadly attack on the old Parliament premises in New Delhi, two people jumped from the visitors’ gallery of the newly inaugurated building right next door into the well of the lower house, and pulled out canisters emitting yellow smoke.

Nov 21, 2023 | thenationalnews.com | Chitrabhanu Kadalayil

Life imitates art far more than art imitates life, Oscar Wilde once asserted. In India, one might hope life can imitate cricket, because the country’s cricket team showed – even in the aftermath of Sunday’s World Cup final defeat against Australia – a true determination to achieve excellence. Despite the loss, there are important lessons that India’s supporters can draw from their cricketing heroes – and from how cricket itself is organised in the country. India is, of course, no cricketing rookie.