Daily Briefing: Nitish Kumar all set to go with the BJP again; Fighter movie review; and more

The BJP has dropped clear hints of considering a coalition with the Janata Dal (United) once again, paving the way for Nitish Kumar’s anticipated return as Chief Minister, leading the NDA government in Bihar. How did the change come about and what’s at stake for each of the parties involved? We take a look. 

India and France Friday adopted a Roadmap on Defence Industrial Cooperation after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with visiting French President and Republic Day chief guest Emmanuel Macron, writes Shubhajit Roy. The roadmap will identify opportunities in co-design, co-development and co-production in the defence industrial sector and it will cover a range of domains: air and space technology and AI.

Uttarakhand Assembly has been convened for a special one-day session on February 5 to discuss and pass the Uniform Civil Code, reports Liz Mathew. A 5-member committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge is expected to hand over its report to the government on February 2 or February 3. According to sources, two other BJP-ruled states – Gujarat and Assam – will also introduce a UCC bill, which is more or less the same as Uttarakhand.

At Ayodhya PM Modi used new vectors of language to articulate Hindu supremacy. But to see temple consecration as a decisive victory of Hindu theocracy would be an overstatement, writes Ashutosh Varshney. “India will be a Hindu state if the BJP wins central and most state elections. Ayodhya is not a Hindu nationalist closure. It is simply a big start,” he says.

Two things prevent Fighter from being a total humdinger: excessive jingoism ans shmaltz, writes Shubhra Gupta. The desire to get easy claps with dialogues like ‘baap kaun hai’ and ‘har galli will become Indian Occupied Pakistan’ could have been kept at bay. Meanwhile, Hrithik and Deepika make a great pair and Anil Kapoor, as fit as the hero, provides able support.

Until next time, 

Aradhana Kalia

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