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BHOPAL: Almost every day when you open your newspaper you read news about some or other officer found involved in corrupt practices. Invariably property and cash running into several crores is recovered. The latest to be caught owning property worth more than Rs. 100 crores is Alok Khare, an excise officer.

The political development in Britain is moving along expected lines. Boris Johnson has failed to persuade the Commons to bail out his Brexit deal. His political advisers have made him to believe that the Parliament would stand by him and winning a clear majority for his Brexit plan was not at all a problem.

Two chief ministers, Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee, have severely weakened their positions at a time when the next Assembly election in their states is not far away. Yet, both started on a high note, none being more upbeat than Kejriwal.

Veteran banker and financial wizard Deepak Parekh is absolutely right to lately express his concern about the system of loan waivers and write-offs “every now and again” while there is little “to protect the honest, common man’s savings.” The HDFC chairman’s comments came in the wake of the crisis at the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC), affecting over four lakh depositors who are in deep distress and fighting to withdraw their savings. The latter’s money is stuck with the urban cooperative bank after RBI put a withdrawal limit at Rs 25,000 per account last month.

Justin Trudeau won in 2015 on a left-leaning platform filled with pledges to tax the rich, make elections more democratic, and save the world from climate change. But four years, a number of scandals, and several broken promises later, it’s getting harder for his Liberal Party to make Canadians think it’s the modern progressive force it claimed to be.

With the election dates for Haryana and Maharashtra approaching nearer, one picture that emerges very clearly is that of the paralyzed opposition battling against the BJP, which is leaving no stone unturned — not only to win both the states but to register a victory with a strong mandate. In doing so, the saffron party — which is the incumbent in Haryana and sharing power in Maharashtra as the big brother along with its ally Shiv Sena, is even constantly talking about nationalistic issues — including BJP-led Union government's decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Not only this, from the election rallies, top BJP leaders are also not missing any opportunity to attack Pakistan, which currently is frustrated for the rejection it faced in the global forum regarding the Kashmir issue and is in an envious mood to provoke fires in the valley.

The last minute volte face by the Muslim parties to the Ayodhya dispute rejecting the terms of the so-called settlement as reported by the mediation panel is a clear case of grandstanding meant to influence the court’s decision.

Falling of India from 55th position in 2014 to 102nd position in 2019 in Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a terrible global indictment of the miserable performance of Modi government on tackling incidents of hunger in the country. On GHI severity scale, the country scored 30.3, indicating serious level of hunger prevalent among Indians. Among the children born under Modi rule, 20.8 per cent are wasting (low weight for height), which is extremely high, and the highest rate for any country in this report. Its child stunting (low height for age) rate at 37.9 per cent is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance.

The Taliban leadership today regrets its adventurist stand of ‘smashing the rare sandstone relief of Lord Buddha in the Bamyan province of Afghanistan in the very early March 2001. Although the Islamic fundamentalist outfit, is yet to admit this openly, the repentance was writ on the face of Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, while speaking to the Reuters last week. "All antique artefacts will be preserved in their place. They should be preserved for the history and culture education of the upcoming generations." This is a posture in the affirmative to the grand project of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul in its centenary year for ‘restoration of heritage, identity, and the past’.

LONDON: Apparently the UK prime minister Boris Johnson has got the Brexit deal, but an insight into the development gives rise to suspicion about the true nature of the deal and whether it prove to be successful. The deal is to be ratified by the parliament and Boris is ‘very confident’ that his deal will be approved by the parliament.