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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is right in his insistence on implementing universal financial inclusion programmes in the country to improve the living conditions of our people, but has proved himself ignorant of the brewing crisis in India’s financial sector, particularly the banking sector. He should have tried first to strengthen the banking sector, which dominates the financial sector by making it scam and corruption free, and compelling it to improve its beleaguered balance sheet having persistent deterioration in the asset quality. He was even wrong in his assessment that his financial inclusion programmes could be successfully implemented by ailing banks.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: No straying from the Left Democratic Front’s election manifesto; criticism against any wrong-doing and policy deviations would be unsparing and any attempt to weaken the anti-corruption campaign would be opposed tooth and nail. This is the clear and unambiguous message emanating from the CPI’s state conference which concluded on Sunday.

Is the Congress sliding further after its poor performance in the northeast though as a saving grace, it emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya? The BJP and its allies are in the process of forming the government in all the three states - Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura dampening the spirits of the Congress party. There was a time when the people of the northeast, especially the Tribals could connect with the Congress leaders but in the past few years the field has been left open for the regional parties and now to the BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, the two so-called non-dynasts, want to saffron India from crook to cranny. And the one cranny left is the sliver of God’s Own Country called Kerala, on Modi’s tongue ‘Keral’. In the flush of the Tripura victory, Modi and Shah believe Kerala has laid down arms and soon another state will speak the language of the Hindi BhaJaaPaa.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The stunning defeat of the Left Front in the Tripura Assembly elections has badly rattled the CPI(M) in Kerala.

BHOPAL: There is sharp division in the Congress over who should be given credit for the victory in the two MP assemblies by elections. Barring senior leader Kamal Nath and to some extent Satyavrat Chaturvedi, no other Congress leader of significance has cared to shower praise on Jyotiraditya Scindia for the success. Kamal Nath went to the extent of saying that he would not mind if Jyotiraditya Scindia is projected as the chief ministerial candidate ahead of the Vidhan Sabha elections, scheduled by the year end.

What was until recently esoteric has become mainline now. Nobody earlier would have bothered about some figures regarding national income, which were left best to some eccentric economists. But now? It is followed with fervor like cricket scores. Rivals are the countries and national income indicators are their vital statistics.

It is difficult to understand why is the government so hell-bent to privatise the assets of some of the country’s most reliable and best performing central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) at such a difficult time when a very large section of its private companies have failed dozens of state-owned banks, lakhs of investors, creditors and economy. Private enterprises have robbed government banks of over Rs.11 lakh crore as of September 30, 2017. The list of ‘wilful defaulters’ is continuously expanding. Individual business tycoons, including Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya, Jatin Mehta and Lalit Modi, all NRIs, have so far decamped with over 1.11 lakh crore from the banking system. Little is known or reported about the likes of Jatin Mehta, promoter of Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd and Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds Ltd. Mehta owed close to Rs 5,500 crore to nationalised banks. Reportedly, he is a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis, a tax haven with which India doesn’t have an extradition treaty.

It will be a mistake to regard the BJP’s success in Tripura as a harbinger of its future prospects elsewhere in the country because it is based on the quicksand of opportunistic politics.

OB-Van-loads of Doordarshan, AIR and Press information Bureau (PIB) employees will gladly campaign against Smriti Irani in Amethi, 2019. And if and when Rahul Gandhi wins, they will be the first ones to see Irani off with a flying kiss.