#INDIA Bloc Politics

[jasminewilson143]

TMC’s Stance on Parliamentary Functioning: A Strategic Shift Within INDIA Bloc

TMC’s Stance on Parliamentary Functioning: A Strategic Shift Within INDIA Bloc The Winter Session of Parliament, which commenced earlier this week, has seen two consecutive days of disruptions, predominantly over the Adani issue raised by the Congress party. Amidst this uproar, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has adopted a distinct approach, diverging from the Congress-led strategy within the INDIA…

[wingedshoes]

dumb fucking NIFT students who barely passed 10th grade without knowing that nationalism tears people apart telling me "im some kind woke" fucking learn english or speak in hindi, but either way you're doing zero research so you're just illiterate in all languages, reposting the one right-wing hate curtain of an instagram page's post about hindus betraying hindus AND complaining about caste-based voting in the very same post. PICK A FUCKING LANE IDIOTS

[indianexpalert]

Mani Shankar Aiyar’s BIG claim: Rahul Gandhi will command greater respect if…

Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has suggested that the grand-old party should be ready to shun the leadership of the opposition INDIA bloc. “I don’t think it’s a relevant question. I think the Congress should be ready to not be the leader of the bloc. Let whoever wants to be the leader be the leader. There is competence in Mamata Banerjee… There is competence…

[kimskashmir]

J&K parties which did not join INDIA bloc might be sailing in two boats: G A Mir

SRINAGAR — Congress general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Tuesday said regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir which did not join the INDIA bloc might be “sailing in two boats”, suggesting that they could join hands with the BJP for the assembly polls in the union territory. Mir, who is contesting the assembly elections from Dooru segment in Anantnag district, was addressing his supporters. He…

[michaelsmith-us]

Friends Turned Foes Turned Friends: The Surprising New Camaraderie Between Sonia Gandhi and Jaya Bachchan

Friends Turned  : The Surprising New Camaraderie Between Sonia Gandhi and Jaya Bachchan In the world of politics, the only constant is change. One day you’re allies, the next you’re adversaries, and sometimes, you might just find yourself switching back to being friends. This unpredictable ebb and flow of relationships is a hallmark of political life. The recent rekindling of friendship between…

[townpostin]

Hemant Soren Vows to Fight Injustice on 49th Birthday

CM shares prisoner’s mark photo, symbolizing challenges to democracy Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren pledges to combat societal oppression and injustice on his 49th birthday. RANCHI – Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren marked his 49th birthday with a resolute commitment to fight against injustice and oppression in society. Soren shared a photo on social media platform X, showcasing…

[thehansindiaseo]

INDIA alliance MPs stage protest at Parliament demanding rollback of GST on health and life insurance premiums

INDIA bloc MPs stage protest at Makar Dwar, demanding rollback of 18% GST on health and life insurance premiums. Opposition leaders united against government's decision, calling it a burden on citizens.

[thelunaticghost]

UP did a surprise (I'm so pleased)

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s BRICS Balancing Act Is Getting Harder

The bloc’s expansion is amplifying its anti-Western tendencies, creating strategic risks for Brazil.

Since Brazil co-founded the BRICS in 2009, Brazilian analysts and politicians have largely agreed that membership brought tangible benefits to the country—including closer ties to China. But as this year’s summit approaches, the costs are adding up. The meeting in Kazan, Russia, will occur as the invasion of Ukraine, more than halfway through its third year, continues to cloud Vladimir Putin’s reputation.

BRICS membership (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) helped solidify Brazil’s status as an emerging power, a narrative that has held up remarkably well despite economic stagnation during the last decade. It also guaranteed Brazilian leaders regular facetime with China’s political leadership and bureaucracy, which became the country’s top trading partner in 2009.

The countless intra-BRICS meetings on areas ranging from defense and health to education and the environment helped Brazil’s bureaucracy, largely ignorant about China until recently, adapt to a less Western-centric world. Perhaps most importantly, however—and often overlooked by Western analysts—is that Brazil found common cause with other BRICS members in seeking to actively shape the transition towards multipolarity, which they regard not only as inevitable but also desirable and a development that will help constrain Washington.

Meanwhile, the costs of BRICS membership were largely seen as negligible, so neither center-right president Michel Temer (2016-18) nor far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-22) questioned Brazil’s membership. On the contrary, by the end of his government, Bolsonaro was a pariah in most of the West, but thanks to the BRICS grouping, he avoided complete diplomatic isolation. After all, it was only during encounters with fellow BRICS leaders that the former right-wing president could be sure not to face uncomfortable questions about his handling of the pandemic, deforestation or his unfounded allegations about electoral fraud.

Recent developments in the BRICS grouping, however, have the potential to undermine this relatively broad consensus in Brazil vis-à-vis the benefits of membership. Until last year, Brazil had, along with India, successfully prevented the bloc’s expansion, promoted by Beijing since 2017. Both Brasília and Delhi feared a loss of the grouping’s exclusivity and a loss of capacity to control intra-BRICS dynamics, having worked to fend off efforts by China and Russia to include anti-Western language in the summit declarations. Symbolizing the growing rift between an anti-Western bloc and another that opts for multi-alignment (or non-alignment), Russia often seeks to portray BRICS as a counterweight to the G7, while President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva likes to insist that BRICS is “not against anyone.”

Continue reading.

[darkmaga-returns]

By Mariel Ferragamo

The countries that comprise BRICS—which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and now five new members—are an informal grouping of emerging economies hoping to increase their sway in the global order. Established in 2009, BRICS was founded on the premise that international institutions were overly dominated by Western powers and had ceased to serve developing countries. The bloc has sought to coordinate its members’ economic and diplomatic policies, found new financial institutions, and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar.

However, BRICS has struggled with internal divisions on a range of issues, including relations with the United States and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, its growing membership is both expanding its clout and introducing new tensions. Although some analysts warn that the bloc could undermine the Western-led international order, skeptics say its ambitions to create its own currency and develop a workable alternative to existing institutions face potentially insurmountable challenges.

Why does BRICS matter?

The coalition is not a formal organization, but rather a loose bloc of non-Western economies that coordinate economic and diplomatic efforts around a shared goal. BRICS countries seek to build an alternative to what they see as the dominance of the Western viewpoint in major multilateral groupings, such as the World Bank, the Group of Seven (G7), and the UN Security Council.

The group’s 2024 expansion comes with a range of geopolitical implications. It represents growing economic and demographic heft: the ten BRICS countries now comprise more than a quarter of the global economy and almost half of the world’s population. The group is poised to exert influence over the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, the shape of the global economic system, the competition between China and the West, and efforts to transition to clean energy.

[mariacallous]

BRUSSELS (AP) — Far-right parties made major gains in European Union parliamentary elections Sunday, dealing stunning defeats to two of the bloc’s most important leaders: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In France, the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen dominated the polls to such an extent that Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for new elections. It was a massive political risk since his party could suffer more losses, hobbling the rest of his presidential term that ends in 2027.

Le Pen was delighted to accept the challenge. “We’re ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration,” she said, echoing the rallying cry of so many far-right leaders in other countries who were celebrating substantial wins.

Macron acknowledged the thud of defeat. “I’ve heard your message, your concerns, and I won’t leave them unanswered,” he said, adding that calling a snap election only underscored his democratic credentials.

In Germany, the most populous nation in the 27-member bloc, projections indicated that the AfD overcame a string of scandals involving its top candidate to rise to 16.5%, up from 11% in 2019. In comparison, the combined result for the three parties in the German governing coalition barely topped 30%.

Scholz suffered such an ignominious fate that his long-established Social Democratic party fell behind the extreme-right Alternative for Germany, which surged into second place. “After all the prophecies of doom, after the barrage of the last few weeks, we are the second strongest force,” a jubilant AfD leader Alice Weidel said.

The four-day polls in the 27 EU countries were the world’s second-biggest exercise in democracy, behind India’s recent election. At the end, the rise of the far right was even more stunning than many analysts predicted.

The French National Rally crystalized it as it stood at over 30% or about twice as much as Macron’s pro-European centrist Renew party that is projected to reach around 15%.

Overall across the EU, two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remained the dominant forces. The gains of the far right came at the expense of the Greens, who were expected to lose about 20 seats and fall back to sixth position in the legislature. Macron’s pro-business Renew group also lost big.

For decades, the European Union, which has its roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, confined the hard right to the political fringes. With its strong showing in these elections, the far right could now become a major player in policies ranging from migration to security and climate.

Bucking the trend was former EU leader and current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who overcame Law and Justice, the national conservative party that governed Poland from 2015-23 and drove it ever further to the right. A poll showed Tusk’s party won with 38%, compared to 34% for his bitter nemesis.

“Of these large, ambitious countries, of the EU leaders, Poland has shown that democracy, honesty and Europe triumph here,” Tusk told his supporters. “I am so moved.”

He declared, “We showed that we are a light of hope for Europe.”

Germany, traditionally a stronghold for environmentalists, exemplified the humbling of the Greens, who were predicted to fall from 20% to 12%. With further losses expected in France and elsewhere, the defeat of the Greens could well have an impact on the EU’s overall climate change policies, still the most progressive across the globe.

The center-right Christian Democratic bloc of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which already weakened its green credentials ahead of the polls, dominated in Germany with almost 30%, easily beating Scholz’s Social Democrats, who fell to 14%, even behind the AfD.

“What you have already set as a trend is all the better – strongest force, stable, in difficult times and by a distance,” von der Leyen told her German supporters by video link from Brussels.

As well as France, the hard right, which focused its campaign on migration and crime, was expected to make significant gains in Italy, where Premier Giorgia Meloni was tipped to consolidate her power.

Voting continued in Italy until late in the evening and many of the 27 member states have not yet released any projections. Nonetheless, data already published confirmed earlier predictions: the elections will shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future. That could make it harder for the EU to pass legislation, and decision-making could at times be paralyzed in the world’s biggest trading bloc.

EU lawmakers, who serve a five-year term in the 720-seat Parliament, have a say in issues from financial rules to climate and agriculture policy. They approve the EU budget, which bankrolls priorities including infrastructure projects, farm subsidies and aid delivered to Ukraine. And they hold a veto over appointments to the powerful EU commission.

These elections come at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and an energy crisis fueled by the biggest land conflict in Europe since the Second World War. But political campaigning often focuses on issues of concern in individual countries rather than on broader European interests.

Since the last EU election in 2019, populist or far-right parties now lead governments in three nations — Hungary, Slovakia and Italy — and are part of ruling coalitions in others including Sweden, Finland and, soon, the Netherlands. Polls give the populists an advantage in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy.

“Right is good,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads a stridently nationalist and anti-migrant government, told reporters after casting his ballot. “To go right is always good. Go right!”

[warningsine]

BRUSSELS (AP) — Far-right parties made such big gains at the European Union parliamentary elections that they dealt stunning defeats to two of the bloc’s most important leaders: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In France, the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen dominated the polls to such an extent that Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for new elections, a massive political risk since his party could suffer more losses, hobbling the rest of his presidential term that ends in 2027.

In Germany, Scholz suffered such an ignominious fate that his long-established Social Democratic party fell behind the extreme-right Alternative for Germany, which surged into second place.

Adding insult to injury, the National Rally’s lead candidate, Jordan Bardella, all of 28 years old, immediately took on a presidential tone with his victory speech in Paris, opening with “My dear compatriots” and adding “the French people have given their verdict, and it’s final.”

Macron acknowledged the thud of defeat. “I’ve heard your message, your concerns, and I won’t leave them unanswered,” he said, adding that calling a snap election only underscored his democratic credentials.

The four-day polls in the 27 EU countries were the world’s second-biggest exercise in democracy, behind India’s recent election. At the end, the rise of the far right was even more stunning than many analysts predicted. The French National Rally stood at just over 30% or about twice as much as Macron’s pro-European centrist Renew party that is projected to reach around 15%.

In Germany, the most populous nation in the 27-member bloc, projections indicated that the AfD overcame a string of scandals involving its top candidate to rise to 16.5%, up from 11% in 2019. In comparison, the combined result for the three parties in the German governing coalition barely topped 30%.

Overall across the EU, two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remained the dominant forces. The gains of the far right came at the expense of the Greens, who were expected to lose about 20 seats and fall back to sixth position in the legislature.

For decades, the European Union, which has its roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, confined the hard right to the political fringes. With its strong showing in these elections, the far right could now become a major player in policies ranging from migration to security and climate.

The Greens were predicted to fall from 20% to 12% in Germany, a traditional bulwark for environmentalists, with more losses expected in France and several other EU nations. Their defeat could well have an impact on the EU’s overall climate change policies, still the most progressive across the globe.

The center-right Christian Democratic bloc of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which already weakened its green credentials ahead of the polls, dominated in Germany with almost 30%, easily beating Scholz’s Social Democrats, who fell to 14%, even behind the AfD.

“What you have already set as a trend is all the better – strongest force, stable, in difficult times and by a distance,” von der Leyen told her German supporters by video link from Brussels.

As well as France, the hard right, which focused its campaign on migration and crime, was expected to make significant gains in Italy, where Premier Giorgia Meloni was tipped to consolidate her power.

Voting will continue in Italy until late in the evening and many of the 27 member states have not yet released any projections. Nonetheless, data already released confirmed earlier predictions: the EU’s massive exercise in democracy is expected to shift the bloc to the right and redirect its future.

With the center losing seats to hard right parties, the EU could find it harder to pass legislation and decision-making could at times be paralyzed in the world’s biggest trading bloc.

EU lawmakers, who serve a five-year term in the 720-seat Parliament, have a say in issues from financial rules to climate and agriculture policy. They approve the EU budget, which bankrolls priorities including infrastructure projects, farm subsidies and aid delivered to Ukraine. And they hold a veto over appointments to the powerful EU commission.

These elections come at a testing time for voter confidence in a bloc of some 450 million people. Over the last five years, the EU has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and an energy crisis fueled by the biggest land conflict in Europe since the Second World War. But political campaigning often focuses on issues of concern in individual countries rather than on broader European interests.

The voting marathon began in the Netherlands on Thursday, where an unofficial exit poll suggested that the anti-migrant hard right party of Geert Wilders would make important gains, even though a coalition of pro-European parties has probably pushed it into second place.

Casting his vote in the Flanders region, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency until the end of the month, warned that Europe was “more under pressure than ever.”

Since the last EU election in 2019, populist or far-right parties now lead governments in three nations — Hungary, Slovakia and Italy — and are part of ruling coalitions in others including Sweden, Finland and, soon, the Netherlands. Polls give the populists an advantage in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy.

“Right is good,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads a stridently nationalist and anti-migrant government, told reporters after casting his ballot. “To go right is always good. Go right!”

After the election comes a period of horse-trading, as political parties reconsider in their places in the continent-wide alliances that run the European legislature.

The biggest political group — the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) — has moved further right during the present elections on issues like security, climate and migration.

Among the most watched questions is whether the Brothers of Italy — the governing party of populist Meloni, which has neo-fascist roots — stays in the more hard-line European Conservatives and Reformists group or becomes part of a new hard right group that could form the wake of the elections. Meloni also has the option to work with the EPP.

A more worrying scenario for pro-European parties would be if the ECR joins forces with Le Pen’s Identity and Democracy group to consolidate hard-right influence.

The second biggest group — the center-left Socialists and Democrats — and the Greens refuse to align themselves with the ECR.

Questions also remain over what group Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party might join. It was previously part of the EPP but was forced out in 2021 due to conflicts over its interests and values. The far-right Alternative for Germany was kicked out of the Identity and Democracy group following a string of scandals surrounding its two lead candidates for the European Parliament.

The election also ushers in a period of uncertainty as new leaders are chosen for the European institutions. While lawmakers are jostling over places in alliances, governments will be competing to secure top EU jobs for their national officials.

Chief among them is the presidency of the powerful executive branch, the European Commission, which proposes laws and watches to ensure they are respected. The commission also controls the EU’s purse strings, manages trade and is Europe’s competition watchdog.

Other plum posts are those of European Council president, who chairs summits of presidents and prime ministers, and EU foreign policy chief, the bloc’s top diplomat.

[kuch-toh-garbad-hai-daya]

Indian Elections (Part 2)

Part 2 of the result and campaign opinions is here!

I know I said that Rajasthan was Congress's biggest comeback, well I take it back because INDIA alliance won in Maharashtra with Congress getting 13 seats, Shiv Sena (og one) with 9 and NCP (again, og one) with 8. With BJP getting 9 seats, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde one) and NCP (new one) getting 7 and 1 seats respectively, NDA lost 28 of its seats. And honestly, what a banger. Sharad Pawar probably deserves credit for this, that man is a shrewd politician. Also, the Congressi responsible for campaigning in Maharashtra also deserves credit, because Congress performed well and beyond the expectations here.

Tamil Nadu my beloved. Major INDIA sweep! DMK (22) and Congress (9) while BJP remained on the zero mark. As expected of the Tamil public. Everyone say thank you to DMK's campaign and BJP's incompetency to get the Tamilians on their side.

Chhattisgarh is an almost BJP sweep, with BJP getting 10 and Congress getting 1. Expected for Congress, given the Vidhaan Sabha results last year.

Another almost BJP (25) sweep is Gujarat, again, as expected. It is, after all BJP's garh, as my mother calls it. Very heavy campaign that paid off for BJP. Hats off to the Congressi who won 1 seat, probably worked very hard on his own.

Things get tricky in Karnataka, where BJP won with 17 seats and Congress got 9. Again, not much familiar with Karnataka politics, but BJP did lose 8 of its seats, so I guess a part of the public is losing trust in the government but it's not a majority yet. A Rajasthan like situation.

TDP shines in Andhra Pradesh with 16 seats, BJP with 4. Congress remained on its zero mark. Chandrababu Naidu come to the INDIA bloc you can be deputy PM

Congress (14), Muslim League (2) and CPIM (1) lead INDIA alliance to an almost sweep in Kerala, BJP getting 1 seat. I'm so glad that Shashi Tharoor won from Thiruvananthapuram, he is a delight to watch.

Things are perfectly balanced as all things should be in Telangana, with both Congress and BJP winning 8 seats each. I guess the public has major divide on issues and opinions.

That's it for this part, I thought this will be done in 2 parts, but guess not.

[elbiotipo]

I'm doing some political fixing to my Campoestela setting...

The main thing that was bothering me is how humans fit. Since this is a setting with multiple sentient species, each with their own civilizations and cultures (because I dislike the recent trend of human-only sci-fi setting, it's an intentional retro throw). However, the main thing here that allows such a diverse setting is the presence of diplomats/traders (because no universal translator!) and standarized equipment. Where did the latter come from, though? If there are older space civilizations than humanity, it must be humans who adapt to that standard, and I'm not nearly creative enough to build an entire alien technology set. If it was humans who "created" space civilization, it would mean they're way too important in the setting and I want humans just to be one civilization out of many.

My solution is that there would be a mix of both; humans have their own set of technology but they have adopted some alien tech and customs. This also throws me back to the early history of this setting. My idea is that humanity spread on its own on the Solar System, developing some standard space technology (perhaps there are equivalents of the Soyuz running around) before they invented FTL and added other alien standards to their own technological base. So human spaceships are similar and quite compatible, but they are very different to other civilizations. FTL is a whole discussion on itself, how did things come from big slow generation ships to aircraft-sized spaceships? I'll deal with that later.

Another thing I was never happy with was with the "Confederación Esteloplatense" thing, it's an ugly name (ironically it sounds better in English, Silverstar Confederation). OF COURSE there is a Space Argentina, and more accurately they are the descendants of the generation ship Esperanza, which had a mostly Argentine crew. But I've decided that, at least loosely, Argentina is part of a larger whole that includes the whole of South America or Latin America. I'm going to call it the Cruzur Union, the Union of the Southern Cross (Cruz del Sur). Rioplatenses, or Esteloplatenses, are just one nation inside of this wider... nation.

To see it from a wider perspective now, I'm picturing humanity in Campoestela much like the Ancient Greeks and Phoenicians (the Poleis model), establishing trading posts, colonies, communities and such all over space, but these are mostly independent from each other and only organized in very loose trade leagues and cultural alliances, with exceptions, there are few truly interstellar states beyond that. This is the Poleis model I made in my Space Empires post.

Ancient Greeks poleis were sorted by dialect and cultures (Doric, Aeolic, Attican, Ionic, real stuff) and their mother cities (the metropolis. And so, the human communities, all very independent and belonging to many overlapping organizations and alliances are also loosely grouped by their origins back on Earth. I'm imagining there were a couple wars and conflicts between the Western Powers (US/Europe) and the Eastern Powers (Russia/China), with other blocs such as the Cruzur, the African Union, the Arab League, India and more eventually overtaking the two. This is in the far past by now, it's like talking about the Habsburgs in the context of the modern European Union.

So, in this context, Beto, our loveable Argentine space trucker, is from the Esperanza Federation (name pending), a loose interstellar trade alliance of the descendants of generation ship of the same name. However, this alliance itself is part of the Cruzur, the old goverment of South America which still has a deep cultural and political influence. And Beto himself considers himself Rioplatense or Argentine, depending on the context. Oh, and he is part of a spacer syndicate that might or might not be international too. And of course he does belong to a wider human civilization or cultural sphere. If this is all complicated, it's because it's supposed to be, this setting is a bit of a reaction against single-culture, single-empire civilizations in space opera.

Why am I not making it the URSAL? Because this is a retro setting in the style of space opera. In real life sooner or later, we're gonna become all Star Trek communists (this is not a joke)

It's funny that this is all just background for a space trucker and a gamer girl having silly adventures.

[townpostin]

Hemant Soren To Face Floor Test Within A Week Of Taking Oath

Governor Asks New CM To Prove Majority In Assembly INDIA bloc claims support of 43 MLAs as strategy meeting called for July 7 RANCHI – Newly sworn-in Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has been asked to prove his majority on the assembly floor within a week. "The Governor has invited Soren to form the government and prove majority," stated Rajesh Thakur, Jharkhand Congress President. Governor…

[urbangeographies]

BRICS Adds Six New Members Yesterday, the BRICS group of nations (Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa), announced the bloc's expansion to include six new members: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. It is the first expansion of the group since South Africa joined in 2010. The group of emerging economies has been described as an effort to create a counterweight to Western economic and political dominance and to bring greater relevance to the concerns of the Global South. With China as the group's most powerful member, the group has become more active in developing alternative financial systems, particularly since the imposition of Western-backed sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

This map depicts the current members of the BRICS group of countries in orange, with the members who have been approved to join the bloc in yellow. Click on the map to learn more.

Source: American Geographical Society. Further Reading: Reuters, Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, American Geographical Society. Graphic Source: Al Jazeera