Round The States

New Delhi, 22 August 2026

AAP Leader Jain Arrested

BJP EYES PUNJAB POLLS!

By Insaf 

The arrest of prominent AAP leader and former Delhi minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday last has raisedmany an eyebrow, particularly given the timing. Punjab, with AAP ruling goes to the polls early next year. Jain was appointed Punjab co-in-charge last March, giving him a critical role to play in the party’s preparations for the big battle. But he is now among six personsarrested by Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) in an alleged multi-crore sewage treatment plant (STP) tender fraud case. Says Jain: “It’s because of Punjab election.” Recall, he had served as a minister in all three AAP governments in Delhi and was also entrusted with party affairs in some states, including leading the party’s 2022 poll campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where the party suffered a debacle. Notably, one of the factors attributed for its tragic performance was that Jain was arrested by ED in May 2022, just few months ahead of the November 2022 poll. Obviously, it impacted the party’s organizational mobilisation in the state. He was released on bail in October 2024, which suggests a ‘sinister plan’. Says Sanjay Singh: “Before Delhi elections, Kejriwal, Sisodia, Jain and I were all arrested. The aim was only one, to disturb Delhi’s election. To win it in any way possible. The same thing they are doing now before Punjab elections.”Chief Minister Mann too echoes the same. Will the pattern adopted work for the BJP this time?

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 Soren ‘Betrays’ Students?

Jubilation has proved short lived for lakhs of students of Jharkhand. Barely two days after calling off their 26-day protest against alleged irregularities in the state’s recruitment exams following Hemant Soren government accepting their demands, anger and despair has returned. The students now accuse the government of ‘deceit’, after it failed to ‘properly defend’ its notification cancelling the appointments of employees selected through 11th and 13th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examinations. Hearing petitions filed by affected employees, the Jharkhand High Court stayed the notification and sought the State’s reply by September 15. It also stayed the cancellation of appointments of food safety officers. While the court’s order has brought relief to the employees facing cancellation of their appointments, it has left students feeling ‘betrayed and cheated.’ They ask: Why didn’t Advocate General appear? Why didn’t the government counsel make any submission before the court? The episode suggests their concerns have been brushed aside. The writing is on the wall: peaceful protests could resume. The government would do well to remember: a stitch in time saves nine.

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 TN Govt U-Turn

Gen Z has now the Tamil Nadu government worried. On Wednesday last, the Vijay-led government did a U-turn. It withdrew a controversial directive which sought to prevent students from participating in protests organised by Left parties and the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The directive called for coordinated action by directorate of Collegiate Education, police and district administrations to discourage students from joining their protests. All were asked to report on the action taken by August 20. The Higher Education Dept had on August 14, written to Commissioner of Collegiate Education, Director of Technical Education and registrars of state universities, citing the Chief Secretary’s directions for “interdepartmental cooperation” between the School Education, Higher Education and Police departments, as well as district administrations. The communication is interesting as it specifically called for efforts to prevent “students and youth from succumbing to the urge to participate in protests and agitations” organised by Left parties and CJP. Thankfully, the order was withdrawn, not because of a change in heart, but that it had become public and drew much criticism from both political and civil society activists. The democratic right to protest was upheld. Guess, Vijay realised it’s better to be safe than sorry.

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Manipur NRC Protest

Manipur is going through another flashpoint. People, led by various civil society organisations, are firm that the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), with 1951 as the base year, must be undertaken before the CAA, which must be postponed. With protests growing louder, the government on Thursday ordered closure of educational institutions for three days. This as a local outfit, the Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD), called for a two-day bandh beginning Tuesday and announced a boycott of central and state government institutions from Thursday on in support of the demand. Additionally, a delegation of ruling BJP legislators left for Delhi on Wednesday to press the same demand. Likewise, a 10-member delegation representing Manipur’s different communities and civil society organisations left for Delhi on Thursday to press the Centre for the NRC. The tension between the Meitei and Kuki groups refuses to ebb as the NRC issue is being differently viewed. The former in Imphal Valley has been pressing for it to identify ‘undocumented migrants’ since 1951’, whereas the latter accuse the Meiteis of trying to label them all in this category. The big question is will the Assembly, which had passed a unanimous resolution in August 2022 seeking an NRC before the Census, and reaffirmed in 2024, will make the Centre yield. After all, if there’s a will there’s a way.

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Collectors Empowered

The Union Home Ministry appears to be in a tearing hurry to expedite the process of CAA applications. District Collectors in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam and Tripura (except tribal areas), J&K, and Ladakh have been authorised to process these applications. They are now empowered to grant citizenship under the CAA. Interestingly, the change in order is significant as the amendments to the CAA Rules, which had first come into effect on March 11, 2024, have been notified after the BJP came to power in West Bengal this year. The processing of the pending citizenship applications has been transferred from empowered Committees, comprising Central government officials, including those from the Census, IB and postal departments, to DCs, as per the August 19 order, making the earlier arrangement of multi-agency committee redundant. Recall, the CAA was opposed by the then ruling TMC in West Bengal, but the MHA chose to bypass the role of State government and constituted at least four Empowered Committees, two at district level, headed by Central government officials, to clear the applications. With the new order, the Collector is required to verify the documents submitted by an applicant, conduct any necessary enquiry, administer the Oath of Allegiance and determine whether the applicant meets the eligibility requirements. If satisfied, the Collector can grant Indian citizenship. The question is: why this sudden urgency to decentralise and accelerate the process now? Worth a watch.---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The World

New Delhi, 21 August 2026

Sergio Visits Kashmir

A REPLY TO PAK’S DIPLOMACY

By Dr. D.K. Giri

(Prof. of Practice, Inst of Management Bhubaneshwar) 

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor was in Kashmir last week, along with a bevy of American officials.This was not a tourism visit. Nor was it a recce for American travelers. It was diplomacy, direct and deliberate. And he left behind a loaded statement: “Kashmir is an important part of India.” 

India does not need anybody’s endorsement on Kashmir being an integral part of India. That is settled in our Constitution, in our history, and in the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Yet, in a highly globalised world marked by sensitive geopolitics, New Delhi must remain alert to how other countries speak about, and act on, India’s unity and integrity. 

Let’s talk about the internationalisation trap. I have written copiously about the undue internationalisation of Kashmir. It began, tactically and wrongly, with Nehru taking the issue to the UN in 1948. It has been repeated, and weaponised, by Pakistan ever since.The Simla Agreement of 1972 was clear: India and Pakistan will resolve all issues, including Kashmir, bilaterally. That remains the only valid framework. 

To complete the integration of India, left incomplete in 1947, the logical next step is for Pakistan to vacate the portion of Kashmir it has illegally occupied. PoK is not “disputed territory.” It is Indian territory under forcible and illegal occupation. 

That said, world powers have used Kashmir to needle India for decades. The Soviet Union, and now Russia, has often dangled its veto in India’s favour at the UN, and in return sought concessions from Delhi. Western countries have used Kashmir as a reason to push-sell arms to both India and Pakistan. For long, Kashmir became a key determinant in India’s foreign policy calculations. 

Of late, India has consolidated its position decisively. By reorganising Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory in 2019, and by bringing security management directly under the Centre, Delhi removed the ambiguities that outsiders exploited. The next step in strategic clarity is to assert India’s claim over PoK, and to place Pakistan diplomatically in its place with the simple message: Islamabad has no case in any part of Kashmir. 

Why Sergio came now? His visit to Kashmir must be read in the context of Pakistan’s duplicitous behavior with America, especially since the Iran conflict.For reasons best known to him, in his second term Donald Trump made a volte-face on Pakistan and tried to prop it up. My reading is three-fold. 

First, there appears to be Trump family business interests in Pakistan. Second, Washington wants to decouple Pakistan from China’s orbit. Third, Trump sought to use Pakistan as a lever to manage India, while also courting Delhi to address his own misgivings about trade and tariffs.That strategy has clearly failed.Trump tried to lift Pakistan’s image by projecting it as an interlocutor in the Iran war. This was absurd on two counts. Pakistan is widely recognised as a hub of terrorism. And it commands no credibility either with Israel or with Iran. At best, Islamabad could act as a post box, not a peace-maker. 

The optics were even more jarring: Trump’s meeting with the Pakistani Army Chief; the US Vice President calling the Pakistani Army Chief “his next best friend after his wife.” These were not just undiplomatic. They were ridiculous. 

America has now realised the mistake. Embracing a military establishment that sponsors cross-border terror does not buy Washington influence. It erodes it. West Asia is shifting. Look at the latest developments in West Asia. We are witnessing the end of an era of unquestioned American dominance. 

A flurry of new alignments is reshaping the region. A Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan defence pact is in the works. Fourteen countries have endorsed a Saudi-led maritime defence coalition to secure the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden. Pakistan and Kuwait have advanced a five-year defence cooperation framework.Regional powers are no longer waiting for Washington’s nod. They are forging their own paths, often in directions that run counter to US interests. 

For India, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is a more volatile neighbourhood, with terror networks getting new patrons. The opportunity is to step in as a stabilising, developmental power — one that offers trade, connectivity, and security without ideological baggage. 

America perhaps realises that equations in West Asia are changing, partly at Pakistan’s behest. These new equations aim to chip away at America’s traditional predominant influence, and even to tear away the security cover the United States provides to Israel. 

America seems to embark on a course-correction. So, it is no coincidence that Sergio lands in Kashmir on 19 August. That Trump makes a statement that India’s electoral system is “perfect” and that America should emulate it. 

That on August 8, 2026, the US Vice President called the Indian Prime Minister to review regional and global developments, reiterating US commitment to the Indo-US Strategic Partnership.These are not random events. They are signals of a course correction. 

Washington understands that if it wants credibility in the Indo-Pacific and West Asia, it cannot outsource South Asia policy to Rawalpindi. It must deal directly with New Delhi. And it must acknowledge facts on the ground: Kashmir is, and will remain, an integral part of India. 

What India must do now? While these developments augur well for India, we must grab the opportunity with both hands.Vis-à-vis Pakistan: Continue to expose its duplicity. Keep the focus on terrorism. Internationalise Pakistan’s role as the epicentre of terror, instead of allowing it to internationalise Kashmir. Diplomatically and politically, keep asserting the claim on PoK. Let the world know that the unfinished business of 1947 is the vacation of illegal occupation.

Vis-à-vis China: Deepen border management, build infrastructure, and strengthen partnerships in the Quad and beyond. China watches how seriously the US treats India. A strong Indo-US partnership is itself a deterrent. 

Vis-à-vis the World: Use culture, economy, and democracy as instruments of foreign policy. India’s story today is not just about GDP. It is about digital public goods, about a successful electoral system serving 1.4 billion people, about civilizational continuity. That is soft power with hard consequences. Kashmir today is peaceful, connected, and aspiring. Tourists are back. Investment is coming in. Youth are looking to the future, not to the past. That is the strongest answer to any propaganda. 

To conclude, Sergio’s statement in Kashmir was not news to Indians. But it was news to those who have been playing games with India’s territorial integrity.The message from Delhi should be equally clear: India welcomes friends who respect its sovereignty. India will deal firmly with those who donot. 

In a world of shifting alliances and transactional partnerships, India must stand on principle: principle of bilateralism, principle of zero tolerance to terror, principle of Viksit Bharat — a self-reliant, confident India that contributes to global stability. 

Pakistan’s duplicity is being seen for what it is. America’s rethink is underway. And India’s moment is here. We must not waste it.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The World

New Delhi, 13 August 2026

Chinese Incursions into Arunachal

HOW DOES INDIA RESPOND?

By Prof (Dr) D.K. Giri

(Prof of Practice, Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar) 

The villagers in Arunachal Pradesh have lodged complaints that the PLA is taking their land inch-by-inch and even whisking away their livestock. People in Ladakh have been making similar complaints. 

The initial reaction of the Government of India is often denial, or the assurance that the matter will be investigated. Some TV channels have even suggested, rather viciously, that these complaints are orchestrated by vested interests to tarnish the image of the Indian Army and embarrass the Union Government. 

Be that as it may, there is no gainsaying the hard fact: China took away 38,000 sq km in Aksai Chin and the Shaksgam Valley in 1962. Since then, through “salami-slicing” and disputes along the LAC — Line of Actual Control — it continues to contest and occupy another 4,800 sq km of Indian territory. 

To trace the chronology of Incursions, the pattern is old, but the intensity is new. 1956: China built a road through Aksai Chin and issued maps showing it as Chinese territory; 1959: The first serious military clash at Longju in NEFA. The same year, the Dalai Lama sought asylum in India after the uprising in Tibet, adding a strategic dimension to the border; 1962: A full-scale war. China advanced, declared a unilateral ceasefire, and retained Aksai Chin.  

One is reminded of a famous anecdote in Parliament. When Nehru, replying to a debate on Chinese incursion, said, “The land on which the Chinese have built the roads is such that there is not a blade of grass nor a human being,” a Member of Parliament, Mahavir Tyagi shot back: “Sir, for the last several years there is not a single hair on this head, but for that reason shall I surrender my head to the enemy?” 

Then, 1967: Nathu La conflict in Sikkim. 80 Indian soldiers died; 1975: Tulung La ambush in Arunachal; 1986-87: Sumdorong Chu standoff; 2013: Depsang incursion in Ladakh; 2017: Doklam standoff on the China-Bhutan-India tri-junction. The faceoff lasted 73 days; 2020-2022: The most serious period since 1962. In June 2020, PLA and the Indian Army clashed at Galwan Valley. An Indian Colonel was killed during a flag meeting. In the subsequent combat, 20 Indian soldiers died. Indian media claimed 40+ Chinese casualties, though China never confirmed. Since then, China has enhanced its position through infrastructure development and salami-slicing tactics. 

Thereafter, multiple friction points emerged in Ladakh: Galwan, Depsang, Pangong. Both sides have deployed in large numbers ever since. Observers contend that incursions by the PLA are now a frequent occurrence. 

The core problem: the borders have not been concretely demarcated. They are managed on the basis of the LAC. China does not adhere to this convention and seeks to alter it unilaterally. As NSA Ajit Doval once noted in negotiations, China has a habit of claiming any disputed territory as its own by default. This claim is untenable. 

How Should India Respond? Revisit the 3Cs. India’s traditional China strategy has oscillated between Confrontation, Containment, and Collaboration. New Delhi shifts from one to another depending on geopolitics. For instance, when, Donald Trump, in his second term appeared hostile to India and propped up Pakistan as an interlocutor in the Iran issue, New Delhi seemed to move closer to China, the main strategic rival of the United States. One hopes this was optics, not a substantive shift in China policy. 

What we need now is a fresh strategy with four pillars: Military, Diplomatic, Economic, and Civil Societal. Military: Deterrence through Presence, the Indian military is not what it was in 1962. Beyond loyalty and commitment, it has evolved in R&D and now produces sophisticated weaponry. The BrahMos missile is in demand across the developing world. 

But one lesson of 1962 remains: we lacked connectivity to the borders. We still lag China. Therefore: Build border roads, airstrips, and bridges along the LAC on a war-footing. Galwan showed that presence matters. You cannot claim what you cannot reach. Maintain parity and quick reaction capability in Ladakh and Arunachal. Use drones, satellites, and sensors to detect salami-slicing early and react before positions harden. 

Diplomatic: Carrot, Stick, and Third Parties, use existing mechanisms for dialogue — SR (Special Representative) talks, WMCC - Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs— but remember: talks can become a delaying tactic while facts change on the ground.  In the BRICS Summit next month on 12-13 in New Delhi, Russian President Putin has decided to come. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping is also expected. Should he come, Govt of India and Indians should make a strong presentation of our concerns on the border. 

China’s playbook is well known. It penetrates a distance into “no man’s land” or even Indian territory, and after negotiations retreats half of it as a “concession,” retaining the other half. It keeps pushing while offering to talk. As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, deception is central to Chinese strategy. We must not be induced into believing that “all is normal.” 

We should also involve third parties. Unlike Pakistan, China is a bigger and more dangerous rival. Bilateralism alone will not suffice. Doklam was defused partly because Bhutan issued a demarche. ASEAN matters. And the Quad should be the most formidable bulwark against China, notwithstanding the ambivalence of any single leader. The Quad’s strategic value must not be diluted. 

Economic: Raise the Cost, India is a big market. China has huge exports to India. New Delhi must use this interdependence as leverage. Sadly, Indian imports from China are phenomenally increasing, widening the trade deficit. Trade cannot be delinked from territory. We must connect economic access to responsible behaviour on the border. Concessions in trade cannot be given as goodwill while territorial integrity is challenged. 

Civil Society: Voice from the Ground, in a democracy, the government is not the only player. Media, market, and masses must respond. The cries of villagers in Arunachal and Ladakh should not go unheard. Their security is also our first line of defense. When civil society raises its voice against incursions, it sends a message both to Beijing and to our own citizens living precariously on the frontier: the nation stands with them. 

China’s incursions are not random. They are calibrated, incremental, and aimed at changing facts without war. India’s response cannot be ad-hoc either. We need roads that reach the last post, diplomacy that does not concede ground, an economy that raises costs for aggression, and a society that refuses to normalize encroachment. 

The land in Aksai Chin may have “not a blade of grass,” but it is still our head. And as Mahavir Tyagi reminded Nehru, we do not surrender our head.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 19 August 2026

Educational Mess

DROP IN ENROLMENT, FUNDS

By Dhurjati Mukherjee 

The Cockroach Janata Party’s launching of “School Thik Karo” campaign with an aim to improve condition of government schools in rural areas across the country, is refreshing. Imagine the state of education which has its share in the Union budget having declined from 4.6 to around 2.5 per cent over the past decade and the number of government elementary schools across the country decreasing by nearly 10,000 in a year with Meghalaya, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh recording the steepest decline. 

The government has been harping on progress, but recent data showed that though the population has been increasing, the enrolment figures are not encouraging. Even after the much publicised ‘Right to Education’ Act came into existence, there has not been any perceptible change in tackling the number of dropouts. The poor are affected as a significant section cannot afford higher education in private schools.  

The recent Unified District Information System Plus [UDISE+) report for 2025-26 found the number of students in government schools dropping from 12.16 crore in 2024-25 to 11.89 cores in the last fiscal despite a marginal increase in total enrolment in private and government-aided schools. The number of government schools also decreased at a faster rate from 10.13 lakh to 10.05 lakh to 10.05 lakh during the same period than the total number of schools. Though the rationalisation of schools may be justified, there is need to modernise schools and equip them with adequate numbers of teachers. 

It is distressing to note that over one lakh schools – government, government-aided and private – are functioning with a single teacher as revealed by government data in the Rajya Sabha. It highlights several deployment gaps despite the country’s overall pupil-teacher ratio remaining within the national norms. Additionally, teaching has been affected by teachers’ involvement in the Special Intensive Revision and census work. Educationists have decried the roping in of teachers for non-academic activities, thereby affecting their educational obligations. It’s a well-known fact that students in government schools come from poor backgrounds and most of them cannot afford private tuition. It has been contended, and quite rightly, that this is a design to deprive the poor of quality education. 

Some facts need to be considered. A recently released NITI Aayog report titled ‘School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis & Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’, reveals that nearly one lakh government schools closed down between 2014 and 2024, playing a significant role in the decline of 2.26 crore in children’s enrolment during this decade. It found that while 26.95 crore children were enrolled in schools in 2014-15, their numbers declined to 24.69 in 2024-25. During this period, the number of government schools also declined from 11.07 lakh to 10.13 lakh, while the number of government-aided schools followed the same pattern. As against this, in that decade the number of private schools increased from 2.88 lakh to 3.39 lakh! 

As pointed out in the report, the reduction in school enrolment is “partly attributable to demographic shifts, particularly falling fertility rates, leading to a smaller school-age population, alongside the effects of a school consolidation and challenges in retention at higher levels of education”. Another aspect is the merger of schools, which may be attributed to the drop in school enrolment. Two states, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh witnessed the merger of nearly 40,000 schools. Plus, the dropout rate was the sharpest at the secondary level or Class IX and X, where it has been as high as 11.5 per cent though unofficial figures point out that it may not be less than 20 per cent. 

Reports also indicate that subjects such as mathematics, specially algebra and geometry, may be a reason for dropouts. According to some activists, the merger of schools defeats the objective of universalisation of education, which the government is committed under the SDG  2030. The policy of merging schools may become a hindrance in achieving goals of spreading education while in some cases it may be justified. 

Importantly, the report highlights inadequate laboratory facilities which are intrinsic to quality education in the science stream fell to 54.6 per cent in 2025-26 from 57.4 per cent in the previous fiscal. Obviously, the report notes this may lead to more dropouts at the secondary levels unless corrective action is taken. At the same time, it’s gratifying to note that over the years government schools have made the sharpest gains in internet connectivity. The coverage increased, says the report, from 46.2 per cent in 2023-24 to 63.1 per cent in 2025-26 and narrowed their gap with aided and private schools. It showed 67.4 per cent of schools had internet facilities, up from 63.5 per cent in 2024-25. 

Many experts consider Class VIII a kind of academic watershed for children, which has caused the increase in dropout rates. This is surprising as mid-day meals are being given to students, but perhaps the economic compulsions of students’ families is greater, specially for girl students which may be the overriding factor. 

The question arises what will happen to students who come from the poor and backward sections but some of whom have merit, if properly groomed. Education is on the Concurrent List and the Centre has a responsibility in helping the states to spread education, specially in the remote and backward districts.   

The project PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India) of the Centre has sadly not been successful in opening schools in all districts of the country though it should have a target of starting classes IX and XII immediately in backward districts. Higher education needs focus with a proper curriculum so that students, who do not want to pursue further studies, can eke out a living. It’s critical that an expert committee should frame a policy paper in consultation with educationists at the earliest.    

As for higher education, enrolment in under-graduate programmes at educational institutions declined for the first time with experts attributing the trend to the government’s increased emphasis on vocational education, growing disillusionment among young people about the value of higher education and job availability. As per reports of the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for 2022-23 and 2023-24, Under-Graduate enrolment fell by one lakh students in 2023-24 compared with previous year. 

Prof. S. Thorat, former UGC chairman and other experts attributed the decline to greater emphasis on skill education at the school level, multiple exit options at the UG level, reduced public funding for higher education institutions and discontinuance of several scholarship schemes, both at the school and college levels. 

Based on the above data and ground realities in rural schools, it can be established without any doubt that the prevailing situation fails to raise much hope. Other than the reasons cited, education per se doesn’t receive priority as a crucial facet of life. Thus, there is an urgent need for the government to ponder over the grim state of affairs and act by taking corrective and concrete steps.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)