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The enigma of Mayawati continues. As the major opposition parties try to outsmart the ruling BJP with their proposed ‘mahagathbandhan’, Mayawati has given them a major shock by announcing her party’s tie-up with former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi’s party for the forthcoming assembly elections.
The show didn’t end here. Going a step further, she declared a list of 22 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections and ensured her Man Friday, Ramachal Rajbhar, tells the media about the party’s intentions to contest all 230 seats solo.
However you interpret it, the message to the opposition is loud and clear: Either you accommodate me well, or else I’m going to spoil your party. She had made the opposition jittery when she declined to join the Congress-led Bharat Bandh against rising fuel prices.
And, of course, Buddha (read BJP) is smiling. As ThePrint had reported in May, a Congress-BSP alliance has the potential to send the BJP to the opposition benches in Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the astute politician that he is, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has sought to placate the state’s protesting upper castes by announcing that no arrests will be made under the SC/ST Act without an investigation. The anger of the upper castes was spilling over on the roads in multiple protests.
It’s official. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi will meet next week in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar was at pains — understandable as India faces a general election soon — to explain that it was just a “meeting”, not resumption of “dialogue”.
The ministry also made it clear that India agreed for the meeting after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting as much.
Given the hostility between the two countries on the border, the Modi government is treading cautiously. The last time two ministers met formally was in Islamabad in December 2015. With the thaw, it is expected that India will shed some of its reluctance to join the SAARC summit. The previous edition of the summit, in 2016, was cancelled after several members pulled out over concerns about cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
According to a report in The Times of India, the government will also take up the Kartarpur corridor issue with Pakistan.
Prime Time
Is the India-Pakistan meeting a PR stunt?
On Republic TV, the debate was centred on Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s letter to PM Narendra Modi, with panelists asked whether talks with India were a “PR stunt” for Pakistan.
BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam opposed bilateral dialogue. “The MEA spokesperson clearly said there is not going to be any resumption of bilateral talks with Pakistan,” Islam said.
Pakistan defence expert Haris Nawaz, meanwhile, said dialogue was necessary for a peaceful relationship. “We want to talk because we want peaceful relations with India,” he added.
Fake friendship?
On Zee News Hindi, panelists were asked whether Imran Khan’s goodwill for India was only for optics.
On the one hand, Pakistan PM Imran Khan has asked Indian PM Narendra Modi to open channels of bilateral communication, and, on the other, BSF soldier Narendra Singh was murdered on the international border.
Singh’s son Mohit Dahiya said the government should take action against attacks on jawans posted at the border.
“There is fear among the families of Army jawans posted at Kashmir,” he added.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia assured Dahiya that the administration stood with the family. “We feel their pain,” he added.
News it’s kinda cool to know
A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims ancient civilisations engaged in globalisation more than previously believed.