Sullivan Clears the Air

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan settled any ambiguity about how the Biden administration views Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, noting India values its strategic autonomy and while the US and India have an important relationship, they maintain ties with other nations too. India has long-lasting ties with Russia which it will not snap, he said, making it evident that the US has no such expectation. He also responded to criticism of the Modi-Putin hug saying the prime minister has a way of greeting people about which he has upfront knowledge. Analysing the Modi visit, Sullivan said he did not see any aspect that deepens India-Russia cooperation on defence or other strategic matters. Now it may be that Sullivan would want to see the outcomes of the visit in a certain way but it was significant that Modi decided to revive the annual summitry with Russia. Irrespective of how much Russia can aid India vis-à-vis China, it is important for balance-of-power considerations. Sullivan’s comments cast the spotlight on the likely reasons for US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti’s remark that India should not take ties with the US for granted. The buzz in foreign policy circles in Delhi is that Garcetti is keen to return to active politics in the US and may have sought a fit in Washington. Now that US President Joe Biden is out of the electoral race, things have changed again. As things stand, the Republican campaign seems to be on the upswing after the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. If Trump does return to office, it will be time for Garcetti to move on anyway. Hopefully, even in the event of a Democrat victory, he would have understood that India no longer fits older characterisations and trying to lecture Modi, who has worked successfully to take India-US relations to the next level, is not very useful.

BJP’s Maharashtra Campaign

The discussion and interpretation of Modi 3.0’s first Budget might linger but attention is turning to elections in Maharashtra and Haryana due in October, states where BJP suffered significant setbacks in the Lok Sabha polls. Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s sharp attack on Sharad Pawar over corruption and his criticism of Uddhav Thackeray for becoming a member of the “Aurangzeb fan club”—in other words, turning his back on Shiv Sena’s Hindutva legacy—makes it clear BJP is not going to alter its line of attack. The party believes it must fully occupy the Hindutva space and vacate any sympathy Marathi voters may have for Uddhav by arguing the leader no longer deserves their support, having embraced the very appeasement politics Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray opposed. By targeting Sharad Pawar, BJP wants to remind voters of the governments where the leader was a leading light and the controversies that unfolded, including the most recent edition where India’s top industrialist was targeted by an extortion plot and a senior minister tasked a controversial cop with extracting crores of rupees from Mumbai’s restaurateurs. Aware that it needs all the help it can get, BJP is not letting go of NCP leader Ajit Pawar despite reports that the alliance did not jell. BJP is signalling that an NDA government will not offer scope for corruption as was the case with the Maha Vikas Aghadi.

The NEET Story

The distribution of high scorers in the NEET-UG examination has been parsed by commentators keen on discovering anomalies but the results of the 2024 test show a diverse spread. The results of the examination show 35 students appearing from Lucknow, 27 students appearing from Kolkata, 25 from Latur, 20 from Nagpur, 19 from Faridabad, 18 from Nanded, 17 from Indore, 16 each from Cuttack and Kanpur, 14 each from Kolhapur, Noida, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, 13 each from Agra and Aligarh, 10 each from Akola and Patiala, eight from Davangere, and seven from Banaskantha were able to score 700 or more marks. This is just a sampling. In NEET 2023, the spread was smaller than NEET 2024. Even then, in NEET 2023, candidates scoring between 700 and 720 were spread across 116 cities and 310 centres. Candidates scoring between 650 and 699 were spread across 381 cities and 2,431 centres. Candidates scoring between 600 and 649 were spread across 464 cities and 3,434 centres. The spread was greater for 2024. All this shows that attempts to pluck a set of centres from a particular state to suggest an abnormality in scores are not very credible. For one, centres in states like Haryana are likely to have a large number of candidates from Delhi-NCR and also include coaching centre attendees from other cities who have based themselves in Delhi. These students are likely to do better as they are both coaching centre attendees as well as hailing from good educational institutions located in Delhi-NCR.

A Recap for Rahul

On the subject of NEET and the leak probe, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan turned the mirror on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Parliament, pointing out that UPA had failed to pass a series of education reform Bills it had tabled in 2010, including one on curbing the use of unfair means in national level tests. What was the reason these Bills could not be passed? Was it because UPA came under pressure? “Whose pressure forced you to abandon the Bills?” Pradhan asked.

Hall of Fame for Paes and Amritraj

The induction of Indian tennis greats Vijay Amritraj and Leander Paes into the International Tennis Hall of Fame is a proud moment. Paes was a young prodigy and the Calcuttan provided early evidence of his talent by winning the junior Wimbledon title in 1990, with the win captured by a newspaper headline ‘Leander brings home a touch of grass’. He won a rare men’s and a mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1999. Amritraj was the lone Indian hope through the 1970s and early ’80s when he pushed the greats of the game to five sets but somehow could not make it to a Grand Slam final. There was even a time when Amritraj-Borg-Connors were referred to as the ABC of tennis. Yet, despite not winning a Grand Slam, Amritraj was an inspiration to younger players who trained at the academy run in Madras. His later role as a television commentator was very successful as he was able to provide insights aided by an articulate and knowledgeable presentation. He remains a respected figure at Wimbledon, the venue of some of his greatest matches, including an epic quarter-final encounter with Jimmy Connors in 1981 which the American finally won, or the 1979 clash with Björn Borg where the Indian led 2-1 before losing in five sets. ‘Amritraj bows out’ was an all too common headline but the likeable Indian won a record 15 ATP titles, the most by an Asian.

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