The Wire Wrap | BJP's Defection Game, Cold Reality Behind Warm Modi-Trump Meet

It is the season of political defections in India. While a faction of TMC MPs have announced their merger with little known regional party Nationalist Citizens Party of India; 6 Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs are ready to jump ship having missed a parliamentary party meeting on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met US President Donald Trump in his first face to face meeting in 16 months, raising questions about the cold realities behind the warm meeting.

And 110 days After US-Israel attacked Iran, Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian have signed initial peace deal, mediated by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Is the BJP engineering defects to manufacture a majority? Will the peace deal hold?

The Wire's Sravasti Dasgupta is joined by Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor, The Wire and Zoya Hasan, professor emerita, Centre for Political Studies, JNU.