India plans to engage public via BRICS event

This is a week for intense diplomatic activity as India gears up to mark the eighth BRICS summit, which it will chair. The government's approach is that BRICS should be for the people. This involves having the summit meeting outside Delhi and conducting a host of other activities, meetings and discussions that draw in various sections of society before the event. So, while the summit will be held in Goa on October 15 and 16, other events will take place in several state capitals. This ties with the government's commitment to cooperative federalism. The government says during India's chairmanship, it will adopt a five-pronged approach: Institution building to deepen, sustain and institutionalise BRICS cooperation; implementation of decisions from previous summits; integrating existing cooperation mechanisms; innovation, that is new cooperation mechanisms; and continuity, or continuation of mutually agreed BRICS cooperation mechanisms. Planned are activities like an under-17 football tournament, youth summit, young diplomats' forum, film festivals, etc.

At Nagpur Utsav, Bhagwat to flag foreign incursions issue The Nagpur Vijayadashmi Utsav of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a much-watched event. This year, on Tuesday, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's address will put forward the Sangh's stand on important policy matters, including, presumably, the issue of Dalits. This year's address will refer not only to Uri but other foreign incursions. It is also the first Vijayadashmi, which will see swayamsevaks in their new uniform. The RSS will run a live webcast.

Rahul to begin campaign for Mumbai municipality polls

Sometime this week, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi will visit Mumbai to kick off the party's campaign for the crucial municipal election. Election for the municipality, the country's richest civic body, is scheduled for February 2017. The Congress, washed away in the 2014 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Mumbai, is desperate to revive its fortunes in the state with the civic polls. The campaign will centre around the accusations of corruption in the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-controlled civic body. Gandhi will hold interactions with the party's grassroot workers. He might address the complicated issue of the silent Maratha marches taking place all over the state. A public interaction by Gandhi is also on the cards. The party is still working out the outlines of this.

Gandhi had earlier planned to reintroduce the experiment of holding primaries for aspiring candidates who wanted the party's nomination. The plan was abandoned because local leaders were opposed.