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Ahmed Patel was a soft spoken gentleman, never losing his temper. He was very close to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. So much so he was known as one of the Rajiv Gandhi boys. Whenever Rajiv visited Gujarat, a familiar figure was always rushing towards, carrying a plastic bag. He would hand over the contents— sev bhusa, chura, peanuts to the Prime Minister or to his private secretary, V George. Ahmed was treasurer of the AICC at the time of his death. He also held the position of political secretary to Congress President, Sonia Gandhi and popularly addressed as ‘Ahmed Bhai'.

November 26! It is a historic day for our nation and its democratic polity. On that day in 1949 the Constituent Assembly which was constituted on 9th December 1946, completed its work by submitting the draft Constitution. A day before the submission, Dr Ambedkar, head of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, made his concluding speech. It was a speech with great vision for India and its future. Dr Ambedkar has said: “On 26th January 1950, India would be democratic country in the sense that India from that day would have a government of the people, by the people and for the people”. He continued the speech expressing his fear that “what would happen to her democratic Constitution?” Now the Constitution is getting trampled by the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.

Prime Minister chairing a high level meeting with Chief Ministers to review the COVID-19 status and preparedness of response and management in the country has a special significance especially when the ‘situation is going out of control’, an observation that was made by the Supreme Court of India a day before asking Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Assam for a status report within two days. Obviously, we have somewhere gone wrong on our strategies in the past despite our several such high level meetings and assurances given therein. Thousands of patients are dying without medical care. Our medical facilities are overwhelmed.

The approach of the Internal Working Group (IWG) of the Reserve Bank in recommending that leading corporate houses be allowed to own banks can only be described as irrational exuberance, a term famously used by former American Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to describe the cause of the dotcom bubble.

The Afriican diamond mines are said to have given rare jewel only in a thousand years. Gujarat gifted its rare jewel Ahmed Patel to the national politics. He was in a position to impose his stamp on the national polity but he preferred a silent contribution without making much ado about it. In forty years of his active and dominating position and role in national politics no one can claim to have felt his anger and indignation if things went other way thatn he perceived. what was interest.

Goa: All roads in Indian football currently lead to one match — the Hero Indian Super League's first-ever Kolkata Derby that will kick off on Friday.

Goa: NorthEast United will hope to continue their impressive start to the season when they take on Kerala Blasters in their second game of the Hero Indian Super League at the GMC Stadium here on Thursday.

The modesty of the UK Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak has been earning him praise across the country for his assertion that he is “definitely not interested” in being the Prime Minister of the country. People appreciate this rare kind of gesture from Sunak. But at the same time feel that he would have to have a relook at his stand and cannot ignore the interest of the country.

RCEP is ready for launching. Fifteen nations (ASEAN 10, China, Japan, S. Korea, Australia and New Zealand) signed the trade deal in Vietnam on 15th November, 2020. India, even though the trade block is Asian based, opted out of the block in 2019. It will be the biggest trade block in the world, until USA joins TPP under the new regime of President Joe Biden.

Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health that private hospitals have been charging exorbitantly from the patients during the COVID Pandemic is a serious warning for the decision makers. If even in such situations as pandemic when there is need for a lot of empathy and sympathy, there are reports of fleecing by the corporate sector, then what must be the situation under normal circumstances? Healthcare as a profit making business, which is ruthless and devoid of any social concern is unacceptable.