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The migrant workers who were treated like stray dogs and thrown out of their work place are now the most sought after commodity. The rich farmers and big business have opened their gates for them and these poor labourers are virtually being treated like newlywed grooms. The labour of these poor workers did not deserve any respect before the onslaught of the deadly corona virus. But now the same people are providing them preferential treatment and according the façade of respecting the value of their labour.

Till the outbreak of COVID 19, China was the biggest trade partner of India. Trade increased due to a surge in imports from China. It outsmarted oil rich countries and became the biggest source of imports. Imports from China accounted for over 13.7 percent of India’s total imports in 2019-20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government champion a special style of functioning. Saying something and doing the opposite is the crux of it. Even in framing the slogan " sab ka sath sab ka vikas" this was the approach. During the last six years the country could witness many a time the ease of the Prime Minister doing this business. Atmanirbhar Bharat was the latest propaganda piece that came out from his storage of sloganeering. It came in the middle of crisis and hardships which the country is passing through. From next day onwards when the inspiring slogan was put into practice, his real intention was unveiled. The earth and the sky, along with everything around were put for sale. And FDI became the chanting mantra for the Atmanirbhar drive. The crisis faced by LIC today is to be understood in this background.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has undergone a drastic change in his basic perception of Indian beings or he has come under tremendous pressure of some invisible entity to transform the basic tenets of his governance in six years at the helm of national affairs. The wide variance in his approach and stances of his supporters in the ruling ensemble cannot be missed. The confirmation of this reality was easily discernible in his announcement that 800 million poor Indians will continue to receive free supply of food till November.

BHOPAL: It is now crystal clear that the BJP central leadership did not approve the list of probable ministers suggested by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Thus it is for the third time that the process of cabinet expansion has been postponed. Despite spending two days in New Delhi on intense lobbying, meeting Home Minister Amit Shah, party chief J. P. Nadda and even the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chouhan drew blank and returned to Bhopal empty hand. On reaching Bhopal he remained tight-lipped and resumed consultation with state leaders. The only thing Chouhan said was that cabinet expansion will not take place on July 1.

India banned 59 Chinese smartphone applications, including some popular ones like TikTok, Shareit, UCBrowser, Club Factory and Cam Scan this Monday. The reasons cited by the Modi government has indeed been of very serious nature. If the officials of the Modi government are to be believed these apps were endangering the security integrity and sovereignty of India. Obviously any government which has been concerned of the national interest would not allow theses apps to be operational in public domain.

The government claim that the money raised through the daily hike in fuel prices is going into the hands of the poor people is a joke more cruel than the one-paisa cut it announced at around the same time two years ago.

India-Nepal relations soured recently after the Nepal Government claimed three Indian territories to be their own – Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura in Uttarakhand. The total area is 335 sq. kms. The Nepali side not only claimed these Indian territories but published a new map showing these areas to be in Nepal. The map was later presented to and approved by the Nepali Parliament. Nepal quoted the Treaty of Sugauli, signed in 1816 in support of its claims. The Treaty of Sugauli was between the East India Company and Rajguru Gajaraj Mishra with Chandra Shekhar Upadhyaya for Nepal after the Anglo-Nepalese war (November 1814 to March 1816).

My mind pulls me backward to 1938 when I was not even born. A national inter-university debate competition was taking place at the University Institute Hall in Kolkata. The motion was that ‘the only way to achieve the independence of India was the Gandhian path of non-violence’. The student who was judged the best was Majhar Ali Khan of Lahore in his early twenties, having spoken against the motion. He was later an outstanding journalist of the sub-continent and was the father of Tariq Ali, the famous leader of student uprising in the late 1960s. A yet- to-complete seventeen lad became the third speaking in support of the motion. He was Jolly Mohan Kaul whose mundane innings came to a halt at 98-plus on 29 June 2020.He was the last living member of the national council of the undivided Communist Party of India at the fifth party congress (Amritsar 1958).

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crisis bedevilling the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has deepened with the Congress leadership expelling the Jose K Mani-led faction in the Kerala Congress(M).