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The Swachh Bharat Mission ostensibly aims to achieve safe sanitation for all by 2019 but even with the arrival of the year, the mission has not acquired a pan-India shape. Worst still, it has become a mechanism to usurp public money. From the babus to big ticket NGO operators, many have been looting government funds allocated for the project. In fact, the babus have been virtually auctioning the plan to make money by putting projects on sale areas wise and the NGOs usurping crores of rupees on the name of social service.

One of the important lessons that political parties should learn from the assembly election results of the last leg of 2018 is that the voters are more concerned about issues which affect their daily lives. The three states namely Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan that went to polls are mostly agrarian states and voters voted for the opposition Congress to replace incumbent BJP.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s 40 minute reply to Rahul Gandhi’s attacks on the Rafale deal on Wednesday in Lok Sabha had all the qualities of a legal luminary and an orator but it had no answers to the pointed questions raised by the Congress President against the manner the Prime Minister Narendra Modi unilaterally announced the deal. The FM made all the insinuations against the Congress leader and his family without touching the pertinent issues regarding the decision making process. The only point which had some relevance was the point that the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions demanding court mentioned probe but this judgment of the Supreme Court given on December 14 last year, was also based on the government note with documents given in sealed cover which had not been verified.

‘Yuvatis’ Kanaka Durga and Bindu sneaked into Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple in the wee hours of January 2, 2019. Victory! Temple Chief Tantri Kandraru Rajeevaru closed shut the temple doors and “purified” the temple precincts. Humiliation! Only then was the temple reopened for male Ayyappa devotees. A team of 70 cops in mufti assisted Kanaka and Bindu gain “backdoor” entry. They did not climb the “18 sacred steps”. Kerala society stands divided, polarized.

On the New Year’s Day the Reserve Bank of India put in place a mechanism for restructuring the stressed assets of the medium and small scale sector. Individual banks have been advised to take up stressed loans of these units and work out schemes which will enable them to continue getting funds for their operations.

Delegates of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power on December 22, 2018 unanimously approved extensive revisions proposed for Cuba’s Constitution of 1976. The Assembly authorized a national referendum on acceptance or not of what is in effect a new constitution. That vote takes place on February 24, the day in 1895 when Cubans launched their second War of Independence from Spain.

BHOPAL: The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has averted a political crisis by agreeing to withdraw all "politically motivated" cases filed by the previous BJP government as demanded by BSP leader Mayawati.

It is a spring back moment for the global Left. It might not have reached a point of renascence yet. But the Left revival, though inconspicuous and asymmetrical across countries, is unmistakable. It is a bouncy aftereffect of the all too common right wing surge all over the globe. Writing off the Left or berating it for inaction is passé. The call of the hour is to seize the moment and grasp the less-noticed left effervescence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken his mounabrata by giving an extensive interview on New Year’s Day to ANI which elaborates in a big way his strategy to fight the Lok Sabha polls in April/May 2019. Three things are clear. First, the Prime Minister will keep the pot boiling for the BJP and its allies on the Ram Mandir issue till the elections. Expectations will be roused to rally the Sangh Parivar activists, but the PM may not take the final plunge before the Poll as is being demanded by the VHP and the RSS as also Shiv Sena. He will try to keep his appeal to the moderates who think that India needs a strong political leader and Modi has those elements.

Mr. Incidental Prime Minister your record in fulfilling 2014 general election promises stinks to high heaven. The Rs 15 lakh in every man’s bank account is a pipe-dream Pied Piper sold. All the people got was Jan Dhan bank slips showing little or no money. You made all the promises and then when you got what you wanted – BJP rule and the PM chair – you went off on tangents, doing Tughlak-things – demonetization and the midnight tryst-with-GST.