🎭 Political Theatre | Tragic air crash, claims of election malpractices, and muted fete of governance

Hello Readers!

This week has been particularly harrowing for many of us. Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick from Ahmedabad, tragically crashed shortly after takeoff, claiming the lives of over 250 individuals. Among the 242 passengers and crew on board the ill-fated flight were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese, and one Canadian. The aircraft crashed into a residential area with the quarters of doctors of the B J Medical College taking the brunt of the crash, thus resulting in additional fatalities. A British national, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, miraculously survived and is currently receiving treatment.

As the nation grapples with this devastating tragedy, the global community has extended heartfelt condolences and support. While this incident dominates the news cycle, we take a look at other significant events that unfolded in the political corridors of the nation - the row following the stampede that occurred outside Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during celebrations for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s maiden IPL title, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s ‘match-fixing’ claim over Maharashtra elections, and the not-so-easy to comprehend love-hate story between friends-turned-foes Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Let’s dive into the details right here!

11 years of Modi government: Triumphs and criticism

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government marked its 11th year in office, with BJP, along with its two allies celebrating what they termed a “golden era” of governance. While they were buoyant by their achievements and confident of delivering on their promises, the Opposition, I.N.D.I.A. bloc highlighted what it believes are the Modi dispensation's failures.

The Congress accused the prime minister of committing 33 mistakes during this period with party president Mallikarjun Kharge going further to state that he had never seen a PM who “lies so much”, "traps" people, and deceives the youth.

Controversy erupts over claims of ‘match-fixing Maharashtra’

A political controversy erupted with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Election Commission locking horns over the former’s article in a newspaper that alleged widespread and ‘desperate’ rigging in the Maharashtra assembly elections. Rahul called for publishing consolidated, digital, machine-readable voter rolls for the most recent elections to the Lok Sabha and Vidhana Sabhas of all states, including Maharashtra.

The Congress leader’s allegations didn’t go down well with the EC, and the BJP, with the election body responding that leveling “unsubstantiated” charges is an “affront to the rule of law”. The BJP also rushed to save the constitutional body, saying that Rahul attempts to ‘undermine’ people's trust in the electoral process to pre-empt his party's defeat in the upcoming elections as he cannot garner public support.

From RCB stampede row and its fall out to re-enumerating caste in Karnataka

A day, not a week, in politics is such a long time. While it was the stampede and its fallout that had the Congress rushing into damage-control mode with the BJP blaming the ruling party in Karnataka for ‘state-sponsored’ deaths, the focus has now shifted to caste-census once again.

The Congress High Command, succumbing to pressure from several communities, including the dominant Vokkaligas and Lingayats, which are opposed to the current caste census report, directed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar to conduct a fresh count of castes to ‘clear all doubts’ from the public’s mind.

This, in a way, has put the final nail on Siddaramaiah’s dream and pet project of the 2015 Social and Educational Survey. The decision to conduct a fresh caste survey has evoked a sharp response from the BJP, which dubbed the move a diversionary tactic employed by Siddaramaiah to divert attention from the stadium incident. The Congress has countered by questioning the BJP’s previous inaction on similar issues.

G7 Summit - Initial snubbing, thaw, and loads of questions

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited to the upcoming Group of Seven summit in Canada after the initial snub, with Ottawa having originally decided to leave him off the list. But sigh! His Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, however, later extended the invite to India, defending his decision by asserting that India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy, the most populous, and central to many global supply chains. But he called it the ‘fifth-largest economy’, when we are already at 4th, surpassing Japan right? Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at PM Modi, describing him as "Swayam Udghoshit Vishwaguru", and asking whether, during his meetings at the G7 Summit, he would update his Canadian counterpart, on India being the fourth-largest economy. Ahem ahem!

Op Sindoor delegation back with finished tasks and business

The multi-party delegations, tasked with global outreach to convey India's stand following Operation Sindoor, are back. The teams met PM Modi and other ministers to appraise them about their meetings with world leaders. PM Modi hosted the members of the multi-party delegations, comprising parliamentarians and former diplomats, who travelled to 33 world capitals over the past few weeks.

While the mission ended on a 'successful' note, the coming days are expected to be a little uneasy for many opposition leaders, including Shashi Tharoor, who were not the first choice of Congress to be sent abroad for the task.

Love, Dhokha, and reunion!

The world stage has been unimaginably busy this week. President Donald Trump recently referred to Elon Musk as a 'friend' who 'got a little bit strange,' acknowledging a period of tension between the two.

Despite past conflicts, including Musk's criticism of Trump's policies and calls for impeachment, there are indications of a thaw in their relationship.

This week, Musk admitted feeling regret for some of the posts he made on the US President. And, Trump also signalled the start of reconciliation by saying he "thought it was very nice that he did that’. What is love without fights and sorrys’ aplenty!

But this is not all that is making the world stage busy. There has been a protest in Los Angeles against Trump's immigration policies. Anger is widening over immigration raids and the administration’s response to the demonstrations by deploying the Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles, in what is seen as a rare use of active-duty military forces on US soil.

Iran, and Israel are on the boil again

In what Israel termed as the beginning of a prolonged operation to prevent Iran from building atomic weapons, it targeted the country's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories, and military commanders on Friday. Tehran has now warned its ‘sworn enemy’ to expect decisive retaliation. This is still a developing story with the two countries sticking relentlessly to their stance.

We leave you with these, and more to ponder and reflect on. We will be back with more next week. Till then, stay safe and stay tuned to DH to catch all the breaking news and latest updates.

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DH Newsletters Team