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Opposition from the Baloch national parties to the Sixth population and housing census of Pakistan that began in mid-March is problematic. Most of the Baloch political parties expressed their displeasure with the manner the census is being carried out. They apprehend that untrained officials would count the illegal Afghan immigrants living there ever since they had fled the war-ravaged hearth and home in Afghanistan. According to a rough estimate (not by Statistical survey) those immigrants number more than three million. They came pouring in since end-1979 when the Soviet army pushed in to fight Talibans who with the help of CIA entered Afghanistan interiors six months before the Russians.

The Trump Administration of the United States (US) is bent upon a hot pursuit of unilateralism on the trade front, refashioning its extant trade laws to “Make America First”, ignoring its post-war avowed commitment to bolster multilateralism and rule-based model for conduct of commercial engagements. Besides showing scant regard for reviving Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organization, it was able to make the WTO conform to its own agenda by getting Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) accepted by all members of the WTO sans much ado. In fact at the very first ministerial meeting of WTO in Singapore way back in 1996, TFA issue was opposed by many members including India which now got ratified by a majority of WTO members with New Delhi too abjectly surrendering.

Friend and house keeper of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu late J. Jayalalitha, V.K.Sasikala, now incarcerating in Bangalore jail following her conviction on account of having amassed Rs. 66.65 crore of disproportionate assets in the first tenure of Jayalalitha as CM, together with other relatives, has acquired enormous wealth, the size of which when monetized will be in thousands of crores. This indicates how close personal proximity of a minion to power that could be misused with limitless greed for material gains in flagrant violation of all norms of probity, public accountability, morality and law in our system of the rule of law based democratic governance, where government of the day, elected by the people, are accountable to them.

The Supreme Court’s recent judgment upholding the trial court conviction in the 21 year long disproportionate assets case by setting aside the Karnataka High Court orders of May 11, 2015, having convicted the deceased Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalitha, her close friend V.K.Sasikala along with two other relatives of Sasikala for having amassed disproportionate assets of Rs. 66.65 crore to their known sources of income during Jayalalitha’s first term as Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996, disqualification of Sasikala for ten years from contesting elections, her imprisonment for four years, appointment of Sasikala’s nominee Edappadi K. Planiswami, AIDMK Party Headquarter Secretary, a trusted aid of Sasikala, as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, points to multi-dimensional corrupt means for amassing unfathomable huge assets through gross misuse of public office and close proximity to power that be. This also dashed hopes of Sasikala from holding public office.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Whatever spin the government may put on, the conclusion inescapable is that the unceremonious exit of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau director Jacob Thomas constitutes a major setback to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government’s battle against corruption and nepotism.

The frequently criticized Air India deserves a round of applause for letting the Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad and his party know that they cannot get away with outrageous behaviour all the time.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has once again strongly come out in favour of a grand alliance of opposition parties to stop the surge of the BJP evident in the saffron party’s sweeping victory in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Nitish has underlined the need for a mahagathbandhan on Bihar pattern to meet the challenge of the Hindutva forces in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Nitish’s call has been immediately endorsed by the RJD president Lalu Yadav who has been consistent in his opposition to the BJP all through. Nitish has appealed to the Congress and the Left to take the initiative for forming this alliance.

More than 34 months after the installation of the Narendra Modi Government at the centre, the employment generation scenario in the country has turned pathetic with no signs of concrete programmes of job generation to employ the lakhs of youth who are joining the new workforce every year, fresh from schools, colleges and the technical institutes. On the other hand, the existing job opportunities are shrinking leading as a result of lay-offs and job cuts in both organized and unorganized sectors. In addition to this, the Hindutva policies of the BJP led Centre and the state governments have led to the closure of thousands of meat shops in different states leading to the job losses for the poor most of whom belong to the minority community. Overall, the employment scenario is grim though the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is talking of more than 7 per cent growth in economy and the Prime Minister is boasting of Digital India.

When Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister on May 26, 2014, he surprised everyone by inviting the heads of state from the neighbouring countries for his swearing in ceremony sending a signal that he is keen on ‘neighbours first’ concept. He had also taken it forward by visiting most of the neighbouring countries and improving the neighbourhood ties. . After seven and a half years of gap, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be visiting India from April 7 to 10. For both Hasina and Modi this will be an important visit to showcase the improved neighbourhood ties.

CHANDIGARH: India is being turned into a theocratic state which the BJP’s ideological mentor RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has been ‘euphemistically’(?) describing as “Hindu Rashtra”. Signs of the ‘radical change’ have been emerging since Narendra Modi’s assumption of prime ministership three years ago. The situation took a worrisome form last month with the elevation of the extremist saffron cleric Yogi Adityanath, head of the Gorakhnath Math as Chief Minister of India’s most populous heartland state of Uttar Pradesh. The controversial Yogi has been facing criminal cases for his provocative and communal utterances.