The case of Gauri Lankesh’s assassination has reached the most crucial stage with the arrest of the main accused. SIT officers arrested and have taken a person called Parashuram Vaghmore into their custody for 14 days.

Central government has announced ceasefire during the month of Ramzan against Kashmir extremists. Home minister Rajnath Singh had referred to the preparedness of central government to engage in talks provided the Hurriyat conference gave its concurrence to find solution to Kashmir problem. Though the issue has mellowed down for the time being, the instigating talks by BJP leaders is doing more harm than good. Rajyasabha member D P Vatsa stating those pelting stones at defence forces in Kashmir must be shot dead, has created a furore. This could add more complexities to Kashmir problem that’s already in a quagmire.

The Lingayat independent religion debate has been reopened with new government firmly in place. Last government had sent a proposal to central government to grant independent religion status to Lingayat dharma which sought to free itself from being part of Hindu dharma. Though this independent dharma cry had taken centrestage in the last elections, it did not yield any major advantage to Congress.  Sangh Parivar was bent upon defeating the Congress led by former CM Siddaramaiah, only to land a severe blow to the Lingayat issue.

Government seems to have decided to make a organized effort on silencing the dalit movements in the country, especially after the stupendous response Koregaon and Una marches drew. Politicians are restless over the steam Dalit and minority movements are gathering. Chalo Una march finally gave a totally new MLA to the country in the form of Jignesh Mevani. 

The entry of RSS into mainstream politics in India, using the window created by JP movement is part of history now. RSS was tainted with the accusations of having killed Gandhi. This organization was banned and rejected by people, for not having participated in the freedom movement and subsequently having killed the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi. 

The very first labour of coalition government has borne great results. History has shown that even absolute majority governments often face challenging situations while distributing the power offices to MLAs, and this government is resting on a weak foundation in terms of coalition partners. Cabinet expansion is much like proving the trust vote second time over, just so that no one leaves your side and the government remains safe and sound. And just as it happens, dissidence too has set in among the berth aspirants who weren’t made ministers this time.

The new adage of coastal Karnataka is that only a dead body gets MP Shobha Karandlaje’s attention. A dead body is found somewhere, and she makes her presence felt. This fact is now well known to media and commoners alike. She is famous to have included the names of those alive too, to the ‘dead Hindus’ list and had demanded an NIA investigation on the matter. She had tried to ensure more dead bodies fell in Karwar following the mysterious death of a person who met his end by drowning.

It has been four years since the Narendra Modi led government assumed power in the centre. Now it is time again for them to go seeking votes again. The overall picture of unfulfilled promises is pretty grim.