🎭 Political Theatre | Monsoon mayhem, Dhankhar's 'shock' exit, and a deal to bring cheer

Hello dear readers, and welcome to another edition of DH’s Political Theatre.

With the commencement of a turbulent Monsoon Session that has thus far seen politicians target each other without any business conducted, India's political arena is facing choppy waters.

At the same time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making waves abroad, bolstering existing ties and forging new ones.

Let’s take a deeper dive in this week’s developments in politics.

Fiery Monsoon Session in need of some rain

Centuries ago, a man by the name of Tānsen was chosen by the Mughal Emperor Akbar’s and became a part of his court. Colloquially known as Miyan Tānsen, he was renowned for his impeccable voice and his musical prowess, So enamoured was Akbar by his talent that he immediately made Tānsen one of his Navaratnas (nine Jewels).

Legend has it that when Tānsen sang Raag Deepak, lamps around the emperor's court lit up. However, his singing had such intensity that it could also ignite his surroundings, ultimately turning everything to ash. To curtail this fiery musical performance, he sang Raag Malhar, a song that could induce rain, bringing about an atmosphere of calm and peace.

If that were true, then the Parliament’s Monsoon Session could certainly use a dose of Tānsen’s Raag Malhar, with proceedings in both Houses increasingly seeming to resemble what school teachers called a ‘fish market’

Amid this cacophony, the voices which boomed the loudest were calls for a debate on Operation Sindoor and the ongoing special electoral roll (SIR) revision exercise in poll-bound Bihar.

After immense fighting, the government relented and is slated hold a 16-hour debate on the Pahalgam attack in the coming week. However, not wanting to lose on all fronts, the Modi government vehemently refused to hold a discussion on Bihar’s electoral roll revision.

Amid all this, the Election Commission came out in support of the exercise, with CEC Gyanesh Kumar remarking it is not fair to democracy if the dead can vote—a reference to the removal of some names from Bihar's electoral rolls.

However, not one to give up easily, the Opposition rallied to protest against the government. Holding a huge banner that read ‘SIR: Loktantar par war’ outside the Parliament, the parties decided to exercise their democratic right of protest by tearing apart posters reading 'SIR' and chucking them into waste disposal bins.

Unfortunately for the Opposition, a small grammatical mistake dampened the impetus of the protest, with the BJP quickly reminding the protesters that ‘Loktantra’ was spelled incorrectly in Hindi on their banner. This small mistake allowed the BJP to one up the Congress with remarks like ‘They can neither spell nor save Loktantra’.

But hey, A for effort!

While the aforementioned episode sums up much of how the week went in the Parliament, the only bit of business that was conducted was the induction of four new MPs in Rajya Sabha, including actor-turned-politician and Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan.

VP brings his own cloudburst

The Monsoon Session saw fiery exchanges alright but the biggest one didn’t happen within the walls of Parliament—it occurred outside.

To everyone's surprise, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar who had been a vocal backer of the Modi government, unleashed his own cloudburst by suddenly announcing his resignation, which was greeted with a curt acknowledgement by the Prime Minister. 

Despite being caught off-guard, the Opposition jumped on the development to suggest a growing rift within the ruling BJP. However, the Centre remained tight-lipped,and has strongly maintained that the reason behind Dhankhar’s alleged ‘ouster’ was his health. 

The word on the street is that his sudden departure occurred after there was some disagreement between Dhankar and the current powers that be vis-a-vis his decision to admit an Opposition-moved impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Verma. 

Regardless of the reason, Dhankhar now holds the honour of being the first Vice-President to resign owing to health issues.

A hug paves the way for high sprits 

There is nothing quite like a tax cut to lift our ‘spirits’, especially when it allows us to enjoy the choicest produce from our erstwhile colonisers. 

And so it was on Thursday that PM Modi, after (rather predictably) hugging his British counterpart PM Keir Starmer, inked a free-trade agreement, eliminating tariffs on products ranging from cars to alcohol. However, it was the slashing of tariffs for premium scotch whisky that won the most hearts, giving Indian connoisseurs reason for cheer. 

Before leaving for another island nation, Modi sealed the deal by gifting the British monarch a sapling.

Game’s a foot: Detective Rahul on EC’s heels

LoP in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Sherlock Holmes once said, ‘It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data’. If that were true then Rahul Gandhi would certainly be getting a pat on the back by the fictional world’s most famous detective for he has claimed that he has ‘100% concrete proof’ that EC had a hand in robbing the Congress of a Karnataka seat in Lok Sabha Polls.

Armed with said proof, Gandhi went on threaten the electoral body, saying that he was ‘coming for' them. His ‘vendetta’ was backed by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who too accused the commission of wrongdoing and said that the Congress’ setback was “not due to public opinion but due to the illegal manipulation of the electoral process”. 

However, the EC promptly hit back and maintained its innocence.

Siddaramaiah’s damage control

This week Siddaramaiah wasn’t just colluding with Rahul Gandhi, he was also facing a few issues at home.

Small vendors and traders in Karnataka were up in arms after those conducting transactions of over Rs 40 lakh per annum through UPI received GST notices issued by the state commercial tax department.

Enraged over the notices, traders began foregoing UPI transactions and announced a bandh in order to bring Bengaluru to a standstill. However, Siddaramaiah did some damage control and called a meeting of trade representatives, wherein he announced that old tax dues of the small traders who got the notices would be waived.   

Kokate caught red-handed 

Card games like rummy are said to be addictive, and perhaps no one knows better than Maharashtra Minister Manikrao Kokate

During the Maharashtra Assembly proceedings, Kokate was filmed ‘playing’ rummy on his mobile phone. Whether this incident was just bad timing captured on record or whether it was a reflection of his addiction winning over his resolve, the fact remains that Kokate’s actions have upset the top brass of Maharashtra government.

Here's hoping that Kokate has an ace up his sleeve, for his fate is slated to be decided next week.

Of old friendships and sealed reports

While India saw its fair share of drama this week, the world wasn't far behind.

If repeating something twice doesn’t make it true…try 25 times—that seems to be the philosophy that US President Donald Trump has followed ardently. This week he once again proclaimed himself as a ‘harbinger of peace’ and claimed that he halted an all-out nuclear war between India and Pakistan, saving the world from frightful death and destruction. 

But that is old news. What’s new is the development in the Jefferey Epstein-Donald Trump fiasco. 

This week, Trump made good on his earlier promise and sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation. This beef grew after the American newspaper published a lewd birthday greeting that Trump had sent to Epstein decades ago. Not to anyone’s shock, Trump vehemently denied these allegations and hid behind the claim he doesn’t draw pictures.

However, what did come as a shock to everyone was Trump relenting to release the grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case.  But, as luck would have it, the Department of Justice’s request to unseal the transcripts were denied.  

While the episode seemed to be dying down, another piece of information emerged during the week which is likely to make the US President squirm a little. 

In May 2025, Trump was made aware that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files as reported by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Though the White House tried to dismiss the news, it eventually surfaced, much to Trump's chagrin. 

While all these ‘accusations’ can’t legally do any harm to the US President, at least not yet, in the court of public opinion, the people’s perception reign supreme and Trump might see himself facing ire from supporters and detractors alike for his alleged association with Epstein.

In other news, France made a surprising statement by announcing that it wouldbecome the first G7 Nation to recognise the state of Palestine. France's recognition comes at a time of widespread global concern about famine in Gaza, which, unsurprisingly seem to be falling on deaf Israeli ears.

East Asia, perhaps feeling left out, also decided to start a conflict of its own, with neighbours Thailand and Cambodia going at each other's throats in a clash that has claimed the lives of several already.

That about sums up the political drama that unfolded this week.

DH's Political Theatre will be back again next week with more political chatter, both home and from abroad.

Exit Stage Left,

DH Newsletters Team