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Donald Trump has put off his proposed tariffs by ninety days; but countries like India have to respond to Trump’s measures whether now or after ninety days. These measures are not just an episodic act. Trump clearly threatens with tariffs any country that dares to act in a manner not approved by him; he is weaponising tariffs to assert US hegemony, quite apart from using them for economic ends like raising domestic activity and reducing the US current account deficit. We are in short witnessing a new phase of world capitalism; and for countries like India to pretend otherwise and carry on with “business as usual” would be absurd. “Business as usual” had brought great suffering to the working people of the country even in its heyday; to persist with it in the new situation will bring even greater suffering and even greater subservience to American dictates.

BHOPAL: The politics in Madhya Pradesh has got fresh heat with the confrontation between the Congress and the pro-BJP Baba Ramdev. The Congress veteran leader Digvijay Singh issued strongly worded statement against Baba Ramdev. Not only that, he went to the extent of filing a complaint against him at the police thana.

The game of political hunting, which is typically characterised in India by cases, raids, seizures, and arrests, which generally do not lead to conviction, but enable the government to pin its adversaries down for years without trial in cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), seems to be reaching its climax. The latest chargesheet alleging money laundering has been filed by ED against the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi the leader of the main opposition Congress, which has triggered a nationwide massive agitation of Congress rank and file outside ED offices on Wednesday April 16 across states terming action against Gandhis as ‘political vendetta’.

The euphoria surrounding the enactment of ten Tamil Nadu legislations without presidential assent may be short-lived. What initially seemed like a landmark assertion of state rights has now been complicated by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s subsequent decision to form a three-member panel under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph to study state autonomy. While the initial legislative move was celebrated as a bold stand against the overreach of the Centre and the governor’s discretionary powers, the decision to constitute a panel risks neutralising the very momentum that had been gained. In fact, it not only threatens to blunt the significance of the legislative assertion but also opens the door to a reimagining—perhaps even a restoration—of the governor’s role in ways that were recently curtailed.

India’s stock markets recovered smartly on Tuesday, emerging from the turmoil post Trump tariffs. The unprecedented tariffs declared by Donald Trump had roiled the global financial markets from which the major global centres have yet to recover. On Wednesday till the time of writing, the Indian stock markets had marginal fall taking into account the day before its bouncing back, but the signs were apparent that the Indian market is no panic mode. There is a feeling of restraint and control.

With Rahul Gandhi tightening his proverbial grip on the political neck of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the latter in his desperation has directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to pounce upon Rahul and Sonia Gandhi and implicate them afresh in the long-drawn National Herald case. The case was filed in 2012, but incidentally since then the ED has not succeeded in collecting evidence to legally indict them.

LUCKNOW: Is BJP unhappy with former chief minister and BSP national president Mayawati’s decision relating to induction of her nephew Akash Anand back in party fold? The manner in which security cover of Y plus of Akash Anand was removed within 24 hours of Mayawati's decision to take him back in party is an indication.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court’s order fixing a time-frame for the President and the Governors to act in the case of bills passed by the State Legislatures in Tamil Nadu’s case has given Kerala a booster shot.

Two recent interim orders of the Supreme Court have pushed the lives of people living with rare diseases to the edge. These two orders were passed in two separate special leave petitions (‘SLP’) filed by the Union challenging the High Court orders of Delhi and Kerala which advanced access to treatment for rare diseases. These interim orders virtually blocked any possibility of affordable treatment to many people living with rare disease (‘PLRD’) who need treatments that are available at a high cost such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy (‘SMA’), Cystic fibrosis (‘CF’), Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (‘DMD’) etc.

With quota within quota notification for Scheduled Caste (SC) reservation in Telangana, a new phase of Dalit politics in India has just begun. The gazette notification has made Telangana, the first State in India to implement sub-categorization of Scheduled Caste reservation which coincided with Dr B R Ambedkar’s 135th birth anniversary.