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Jam Saqi, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan passed away on March 5. Suffering from multiple ailments, he died of renal failure. He was 73.

The Supreme Court has upheld the right to die in dignity, saying such right must be considered inherent in one’s right to life. It naturally follows that if a person has the right to die in dignity, it also implies the right to live with dignity, although the court has not elaborated on this aspect. And that opens a pandora’s box.

Two important events happened last week; a rash of statue vandalism has broken all over the country after Lenin statues were toppled in Tripura following the Left Front’s defeat. Secondly two arch rivals—Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi party and Mayawati’s BSP decided to join hands in by polls in two Lok Sabha seats ,in Uttar Pradesh—Phulpur and Gorakhpur. Politics, it is said, makes strange bed fellows. Nobody could have imagined few months back that Mulayam and Mayawati can come on same platform.

The resounding success of the BJP in the assembly elections in Tripura by trouncing the CPI(M) which ruled the state for the last twenty five years, has led to an unprecedented churning in the top echelons of the CPI(M) leadership. The magnitude of the success of the BJP in the three states of the North East signifies the big advance of the saffron forces in this region which was a weak zone for the BJP till three years back. The vandalism resorted to by the pro BJP elements in the wake of the Tripura victory, also signals to the CPI(M) leadership what is in store for the democratic forces in the coming period if the saffron forces are not checked from further advance.

The majoritarian BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now embroiled in the complicated power games playing out in the South, where it still remains a Party of the North, until it gains a beach-head, wielding power of some sort either by itself or in uneasy coalition in some state or the other.

Corruption in India is still rampant. The so called steps taken in the name of ending corruption have failed. These steps brought only harassment for the common people, while the corrupt seem to escape easily. The Corruption Perception Indices for the last four years released by the Transparency International have also found rampant corruption in the country and placed India among the most corrupt countries of the world.

The transfer of Bhupendra Singh, Chairman National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), has evoked strong reaction from the medical fraternity as well as civil society groups working for affordable healthcare to all. This reaction has come in the wake of several positive steps taken by him to bring down and streamline prices of drugs, which include medicines and medical devices. His order to drastically cut down the price of coronary stents in February 2017 has been seen as a bold initiative on his part.

Farooq ‘Takla’.

Hear the name and a picture flashes: Of barren landscape where nothing grows. Farooq’s mother could not have nicknamed him better: Pat to the pate, ‘Takla’ is Mumbaiya Hindi for bald. And Dawood aide Farooq ‘Takla’ fits the name to the last non-existent strand of hair on his head.

HONG KONG: President XI Jingpin has called for “full opening up “of the Chinese economy towards the realisation of his vision of making China strong, including the ambition to take a global lead on technological and industrial change.

The young of India do not articulate their disappointments but they also do not hide their despair at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi showing signs of his surrender to the conventional politics.
His drive for unconventional politics during the election campaign in May 2014 had motivated them to vote for his side. The young had expected that he would deliver them from the tradition bound concepts of politics and economic development. For seventy years, the country was driven at very slow pace of economic development as the ruling regimes had refused to realize the need for modern approach of empowering every citizen to reach the maximum of his or her ability. Instead they were pegged to outdated concepts of life changes.