On December 3, as news of the Congress rout in the assembly elections in the three heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh started drifting in, party president Mallikarjun Kharge called for a meeting of the partners of INDIA, or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, on December 6. The coalition of 28 Opposition parties was formed in June this year for the grand project of fighting the BJP collectively in the summer of 2024. This meeting was supposed to resume the stalled process of brainstorming and perhaps initiate discussions on a key pending issue: seat-sharing. Instead, the call for the meeting exposed the growing fault lines within the bloc, as allies challenged the central role the Congress has been trying to assert.
That there was little coordination among the allies was evident soon enough: less than 24 hours before the meeting was to take place, it was deferred to the third week of December. Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her counterparts in Bihar and Jharkhand, Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Hemant Soren, respectively, excused themselves, citing previous engagements. DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) supremo and Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin was busy with a different sort of turbulence: the devastation wrought by Cyclone Michaung. Mamata even publicly claimed that she was not consulted before the meeting was scheduled.
Denne historien er fra December 18, 2023-utgaven av India Today.
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Denne historien er fra December 18, 2023-utgaven av India Today.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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He gave the beat to the world
He would pick up the rhythms of each experience of mobility and weave them into his taals. Thus it was that he reflected joy and laughter in rhythmic cycles...such was the magic of Zakir's fingersText and photographs by Raghu Rai
KERALA TOURISM CAMPAIGN, 1989 - TICKETS TO PARADISE
All it took was a catchy tagline-'God's Own Country'-for the world to discover Kerala's wealth of natural beauty. It remains among the best tourism ad campaigns, earning the state a place among top 10 international destinations
SPIRITUALITY - THE GURUS OF COOL
Among the cult Indian gurus, no one had a bigger hold on western minds than 'Osho' Rajneesh. He's also perhaps the role model for the enterprise-building gurus of today
RETAIL SHOPPING - THE MALL MANIA
Shopping malls, a 1990s innovation in India, changed the way the Indian middle class shops. Their success now lies in being 'shoppertainment' destinations, offering something for everyone
CULINARY RENAISSANCE, 1978 - TANDOORI NIGHTS
ITC's Bukhara and Dum Pukht turned the world to tandoori cuisine and had an enormous impact on the F&B industry. Decades on, they are still a pit-stop for celebrities and heads of state visiting Delhi
INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH - REVENGE OF THE NATIVE
Rushdie lit the way but Indian writing in English has taken a life of its own in the past few decades, with translated Indian fiction most recently having its moment in the sun
INDIAN ART - A BRUSH WITH GOLD DUST
The 1990s economic liberalisation came as oxygen, lighting up the Indian art scene. Today, artworks by established masters routinely go for astronomical amounts
FESTIVAL OF INDIA, 1982 - CULTURE CAPITAL
The Festival of India grew into a symbol of our 'soft power', introducing our art and aesthetics to a global audience while also helping rebrand our domestic products
THE INDIPOP TREND - DISCO GOES DESI
For ages, the film song ruled. Nothing else was audible. Then came Nazia, charioteered by Biddu, and Indian ears went into a pleasant madness. Literally, Disco Deewane. A whole genre was born
SHOLAY 1975 - THE BIRTH OF THE FANDEMIC
India had seen hits before. But Sholay seared into its collective psyche like a badland bullet. The effect was on a scale never seen before- one film creating a new mass folk culture. And a trail of monster blockbusters that still continues
