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He is nearing 70 and he is a patient of several ailments. Branded an ‘Urban Naxal,’ he’s incarcerated in Navi Mumbai’s notorious Taloja Jail. Most ‘Urban Naxals’ are 60-plus, guys (‘guy’ accounts for both genders) who are not a flight risk (therefore no need to be kept chained to the wall in a dungeon in the bowels of the earth) or fit and strong enough to stick a knife to somebody’s throat.

Union ministers have claimed that the farmers agitation is being hijacked by ultras, Maoists and anti-national elements while prime minister Modi himself has blamed the opposition parties for misleading the innocent farmers to promote their own respective agendas. There may be an element of truth in both claims, but that is not the complete truth and does not reflect the real situation on the ground. The reality is that it is the government which is responsible for creating a situation, and cannot blame anyone else but for itself for the state of affairs.

Hunger and malnutrition is the index by which one knows the real level of development, the government may claim whatsoever. The result released for the first phase of the 5th round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) with reference year 2019-20 shows the decline, especially when compared with NFHS-4 with the reference year 2015-16, the period coinciding the Modi Raj in India. The country has the largest number of stunted children in the world. The substantial progress between NFHS-3 (2005-06) and NFHS-4 has been lost.

The recently enacted three Farm Laws became controversial and farmers across the country are agitating in a single voice for their complete rollback. The new laws have the potential to redefine Indian agriculture totally in areas of production, procurement, marketing, pricing, stocking and land ownership. Serious discussions are being weighed in favour and against the possible implications on the existence and livelihood of our farmers; however, very little attention is being paid to their effects on the landless and agricultural labourers of India.

On December 16, fifty years ago, the India-Pakistan war over Bangladesh liberation ended with great Indian victory under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. That year 1971 was the golden year of Indian diplomacy when beginning from March 1971 when Pakistan army cracked on the eastern part to nullify the result of the recently held elections and lakhs of the persecuted people, mainly Muslims as also Hindus crossed over to the Indian side, mainly West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, the Indira Gandhi Government took steps one by one to ensure that the nations throughout the world could understand the genuineness of the demand for a separate nation by the Bangladeshi people.

Fatorda, Goa: Mohun Bagan will target a return to winning ways when they host in-form Goa in the Hero Indian Super League at the Fatorda Stadium, here on Wednesday.

Goa: Riding on Aridane Santana's brace, Hyderabad continued their unbeaten streak as they overpowered East Bengal 3-2 in the Hero Indian Super League at the Tilak Maidan, here on Tuesday.

Gurugram: In-form Amandeep Drall, starts favourite when the ninth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour gets underway at the Classic Golf & Country Club here on Wednesday.

The NaMo fan club is busy these days in transmitting on the social media routes a list of achievements of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The message leaves an eerie feeling that like a magician NaMO moved magic wand and thirty achievements appeared in improving life in India. There is no reference to the base that the previous regimes laid in 70 years. In the list of his achievements is included the legislation to ban the prevalent custom of oral divorce to wives in the Muslim community. The item does not specify that six enlightened Muslim women had fought relentlessly the decade long legal battle to get the verdict as the final decree to get the oral divorce declared as illegal and invalid method. It ended the marital uncertainty in lives of the Muslim women especially in the economically weaker families.

Spectres of legendary communist leaders of yesteryears, Bhowani Sen and Somnath Lahiri, haunted the crucial West Bengal state committee meeting of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation last weekend when it declared unequivocally that the views of its general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya that Bharatiya Janata Party would be its "political enemy number one" – a party pushing the country along a fascist path.