There is the India that outrages over the Surf Excel ad and wonders how Yogi Adityanath maintains his mane. This is the India unperturbed by the brutalisation of women in “other India” that lives Pollachi, in Kathua, in Unnao. The general public, the news media, folks on social media, don’t hear of the other India.

National Highway 1A, the only road connecting Kashmir to rest of the country, often gets blocked and puts commuters to extreme hardships. At a number of locations, it’s little better than a patchwork of mud and rocks. It summarises the apathy of the rest of India toward the northern state.

Rahul Gandhi has decided that the Congress will go it alone on all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. But there was much more to gain in an alliance for the party, than there was to lose for AAP. The Congress might think it has bigger fish to fry, like UP, but the importance of a few hands-on-deck in Delhi cannot be undervalued.

From an assertive Uddhav Thackeray to the contrarian Mamata Banerjee, our prolific leaders are doling out relationship lessons — you just need to know where to look. If Priyanka Gandhi teaches you to stand by your bae, Mamata is the perfect example of how to be in a supremely happy relationship with yourself.

The reality of a war between India and Pakistan is not a pretty one. But social media provides a perfectly safe platform for a generation of smartphone-wielding jingoists to thump their chests, call for the destruction of the enemy, and signal their patriotism, while being at a safe distance from the actual frontline.

The Grand Old Party finding love with its 37-year-old rival in Andhra Pradesh – Telugu Desam Party (TDP) – had definitely made BJP, the earlier partner of TDP, feel jealous. But as the election results showed, could the TDP’s dominance be on the decline?

As the Lok Sabha elections approach and the industrial sector in West Bengal’s Asansol continues to dissolve, BJP MP Babul Supriyo’s chances of a second term look bleak. The problems facing Supriyo are symptomatic of the ones that have been haunting his party on a national level for some time now.

Over the past few decades the BJP and the AIADMK have been both friends and foes. For now, the national party and the regional one seem to be seeing eye-to-eye, but their latest partnership is a rickety bridge over some very troubled water.

Back in the ’90s, those who joined the Kashmir militancy were mostly uneducated, marginalised men. But the rise of educated militants like Adil Ahmad Dar has ushered in a new phase in the militancy, and the stark contrast from the ’90s cannot be overlooked.