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At long last, the Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been acting as the unifier of the anti-BJP forces giving up the arrogance associated with the grand old party that it is the natural party of governance. Karnataka assembly elections results set the process and frankly speaking, the emergence of the BJP as the single largest party in Karnataka assembly bringing down the Congress strength from 122 to 78, was a blessing for the opposition unity. If the Congress would have got majority like the 2013 elections, the party would have remained arrogant like before and the Congress President would not have opted for all out efforts to build a unity of the anti-BJP parties even including the smaller ones.

For the Modi Government, the celebration of the four years of corruption-free governance with the receipt of the mixed message of the latest batch of by-polls to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies across the nation behind, the crucial final year of its first term is replete with existential challenges on the economic front. Politically, Modi may be invincibly in a pole position to lead his party for a second term with the rank and file adoring him as the mascot of the BJP with all the adulations due to a celebrity leader, despite the manifest protests of the party’s elders, who were left high and dry during the last few years. Though there is not much of a difference between a dynasty and a single-party supreme leader in terms of his or her writ being run unquestioned, the fact remains that a voluble democracy like ours always throws up puzzling results at the hustings whenever people feel short-changed or betrayed by leaders who promised a lot but delivered precious little in making a qualitative difference to their otherwise morose existence. Inflation, rising crude oil prices and agrarian distress remain by far major challenges now.

Like his illustrious leader, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh is also a brainy politician and can dare to come out with any statement. Taking a leaf out of his past experience, he described the two-day-old farmer agitation a publicity stunt. According to him, the farmers resort to such gimmicks only for cheap publicity. Singh said, "Any organisation will have 500, 1,000, 2,000 or 40,000 farmers, and they have to do something unique to appear in the media. The country has 12 to 14 crore farmers and an agitation by a few would have no impact.”

India’s business houses and entrepreneurs are going all out to acquire companies across the world, thanks to the support from the government, RBI and banks. The global deal-street now seriously takes note of Indian bids and transactions. India’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in equity, loan and guarantees is largely funded by the Reserve Bank of India. Funds invested are large, running into billions of dollars, every year. Unfortunately, most of them generate little benefit for India, by way of corporate remittances. In contrast, foreign companies or MNCs operating in India remit profits — regularly and unfailingly — along with their other earnings such as technical fees, commissions, royalties, head office expenses, etc.

In Nipah-spooked Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala, the state has asked for desperate measures to handle an expected second wave of infections. Already 17 of the 20 ‘Nipah infected’, who were hospitalised, are dead. That is a kill-rate of over 89 percent, much more than what heaven can accommodate in such quick-time. No ‘Maafi Mushkil’ or ‘Khuda Hafiz’. Not even a ‘Kannam Cheta’, see you brother! Just a quickie ‘Al Vidaa’ in the head while on the deathbed. The Nipah-dead are being incinerated to ash no sooner than they depart.

Apparently it has taken nothing less than a BJP rout in the latest round of by-elections for the petroleum ministry to realise that the petrol and diesel price situation in the country was untenable. On the day the results were announced Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan is reported to have called a midnight meeting of senior officials and top executives of oil companies to figure out how to reduce fuel prices. One does not know whether the timing was prompted by a discovery during the day about the high prices or he was really hard-pressed for a more respectable time.

CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), a new law in the U.S armoury, if implemented by Trump Administration, could have disastrous consequences to India’s security. The law provides for sanctions against India’s arms purchase from its traditional ally Russia. It is, however, a double-edged weapon in the sense if imposed could have serious implications to India’s growing defence cooperation with the United States and that’s one of the reasons that saner voices in Washington are against it being used on India.

The Delhi government’s proposed regulations to cap the profit margin on several medicines and consumables at 50 percent from their procurement price is a welcome step. A committee on high trade margins on sale of drugs was formed by the government of India under the chairmanship of Sudhanshu Pant. It submitted its report in December 2015 and noted that some drugs were being sold at a trade margin of 1,800 percent. The committee recommended graded trade margins with maximum margin to be 50 percent.

Modi government has completely four years in office and next year—May 2019—it will go to poll. Various ministries have come out with four years of achievements. Naturally, they have painted a rosy picture of the work done. Among the ministers, who listed their achievement, the account of her ministry given by the External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, has been most impressive. In the sphere of foreign affairs the BJP led NDA government has done some commendable work.

Attributing the defeat of the BJP in the by-elections to the anti-incumbency factor is nothing but a move to protect the party and Narendra Modi from further alienation and sullying. Anti-incumbency has always been a factor in deciding the fate of the ruling party, but in the case of the Modi government it is not so relevant.