India’s former Foreign Minister, Salman Khurshid, says that Prime Minister Modi’s refusal to criticize the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei have let India down. The strikes are a clear breach of the United Nations Charter and India’s silence is a break with its well-established tradition of speaking out and take clear positions in the interests of its strategic autonomy. Mr. Khurshid has also sharply criticized the timing of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Israel, which happened roughly 36 hours before the US-Israeli strikes happened on Saturday. After explaining his view point, which is critical of the Modi government’s handling of this matter, Mr. Khurshid also answers questions about reasons why the government may have chosen silence rather than criticize and express concern about the strikes, which has been done by other leading BRICS members like Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa.

With the US-Israel-Iran war becoming a regional crisis how much worse could the situation become? Can decapitation really lead to regime change in Iran? How long can Iran fight on? Will UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia retaliate? And what more does President Trump have in mind? Those are the key issues Karan Thapar discusses with the Defence Editor of The Economist, Shashank Joshi.

The Editor of Desh Sanchar.com Yubaraj Ghimire says that the new Nepal government that will be elected by the polls to be held on the 5th of March is likely to be unstable and won’t last long. He also says that the interim administration under former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has been a failure and did not live up to the high expectation people had of it when it took over in September 2025. Ghimire says the final result of the elections to be held on the 5th may not be known for a month because Nepal has a hybrid system where 165 seats are chosen directly and the remaining 110 by proportional representation. It’s the proportional representation part that could take time to be finalised. Therefore, the new government may not take over till the end of March or even early April.

In strong and stinging criticism of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the hate speech against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Dushyant Dave, a former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, has said the top Court has made “a Himalayan blunder” and “let down 1.4 billion Indians”. Dave said the Supreme Court “insulted each one of us” by refusing to take up the matter and, additionally, it’s done a disservice to the institution and to the judges themselves.

In an interview to discuss the implications and consequences of the United States Supreme Court striking down President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs and his decision to impose 15% global tariffs on all goods from all counties, the Founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative Ajay Srivastava says that India should now walk out of the India-US interim trade agreement. He said India should now invoke the clause of the joint statement that permits it to modify its commitments if the other country changes its tariffs.

In an interview to discuss the arrest of former Prince Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office and its implications and consequences for the British monarchy, the former Editor of the Financial Times, Lionel Barber, has said this is a blow for the monarchy and it will become a very serious blow if Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is charged and convicted. However, Lionel Barber says that King Charles has done enough to distance the monarchy as an institution from the former Prince and there is no danger of Britain becoming a Republic. “Look, it’s taken a blow and if he’s charged and found guilty it will be a very serious blow but I think King Charles has done enough to distance the monarchy from Andrew and if they carry on in the way that they do there is no question of us turning into a republic or anything like that.”

Relying entirely on official data made available by the Election Commission of India and the Andhra Pradesh Chief Election Officer i.e. entirely official data, the well-known economist and current affairs commentator Parakala Prabhakar has revealed there is reason to believe serious mischief took place in the Andhra Pradesh polls of 2024, both at the Assembly and the Lok Sabha level. He points out that between 11.45 at night and 2 in the morning on 13th/14th May 2024 just over 17 lakh people cast their vote in 3,500 booths. This means that on an average 491 people would have voted in each of the 3,500 booths in just 135 minutes. That comes to 3.6 voters per minute or roughly 20 seconds per voter. If you deduct from this the time taken by VVPAT machines to reveal a vote (and remember there were two VVPATs because this was both an Assembly and Lok Sabha election) you come to the amazing conclusion that each voter got just 6 seconds to vote.

The well-known and popular Trinamool Congress MP, Mahua Moitra, has publicly called for Petroleum Minister, Hardeep Puri’s resignation and apology to the nation over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. “He owes it to the nation to apologize and resign”, she says. Mahua Moitra has also claimed that “Puri has lied repeatedly and brazenly about his relationship with Epstein.” Furthermore, his emails suggest a friendship and intimacy that he has not admitted to.