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I had privilege of covering two elections – 1962 and 1967 – when the polls to the Lok Sabha and State assemblies were held simultaneously. I have seen closely the strain it put on the state election commission and Chief Election Officer. It was a massive exercise for the Election Commission too after every five years. The governance, no doubt, then was better. One advantage to the ruling dispensation, at that time, was that most of the states and Centre were ruled by one party that is Congress.

Budget 2018-19 is a pre-election budget with a large number of schemes for deprived sections, from farmers to women to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and senior citizens. There are increases in expenditures on many existing schemes for the poor and in the rural areas but the hard arithmetic is in the detail.

The Congress is asking for an independent probe of the “truth” in the death of Judge M H Loya, “independent” meaning no involvement of the CBI and NIA. A bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra is hearing petitions asking for an investigation. The Congress wants a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Stung by the India shining campaign of ruling NDA in 2004, which did not go well with rural India and hence defeated in the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has come out with an election budget that brings cheers to struggling Bharat, hit by farm distress and collapse of informal sector in rural economy.

Since health is concern of all, lot of expectations await from the union budget. Only a healthy person can contribute to social development. There is thus need to move the country towards universal healthcare where every citizen gets desired quality health needs fulfilled. It is in this context that 1st February 2018 budgetary provisions on health to the amount of 52800 crore rupees have to be seen. The Finance Minster has admitted in his speech that 'lakhs of families in our country have to borrow or sell assets to receive indoor treatment in hospitals'. The National Health Policy 2017 document, to which he has referred to in his speech, too has expressed concern over that 6.3 crore people being pushed below poverty line every year because of out of pocket expenditure on health. Therefore there is need for strengthening public health funding to take care of the health of all sections of people. But ironically India’s budget allocation on health have been consistently very low. Last year the percentage of budget on health was 1.97% of total. This year's budget is meager 11.5 percent higher which because of increase in the cost may turn out to be less than that for all practical purpose.

In West Bengal, the political nightmare for the Opposition parties hows no signs of ending anytime. Asexpected, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) won the by-elections in the Uluberia (Lok Sabha) and the Noapara (Assembly) seats comfortably, as the gap between it and other contenders continued to widen in the popularity stakes.

The finance minister as an opening gambit stated that India’s was the seventh largest economy in nominal terms and third largest in purchasing power parity. Already, we are a $2.5 trillion economy. Even a 5 percent growth would mean adding $120 billion or so to the national income. These are big amounts. With that, the FM seems to have taken a few major steps without bothering too much.

Nitish Kumar is no more the plenipotentiary that he used to be. If the saffron sources are to be believed, patriarch Mohan Bhagwat has developed a sense of distaste. Nitish has become the victim of his own machination. It was his own betrayal of secular and socialist comrades and friends that made the BJP leadership skeptical. Though the BJP shares power with him, it never reposed trust in him in recent months. The BJP in fact has sent a clear message that the process of parting of ways has begun.

LUCKNOW: Communal violence in Kasganj area, which is only 100kms away from New Delhi, is continuing. This clearly shows a lack of will on the part of administration of the Yogi government. Daily shops are being set onfire, vehicles damagedand even religious places attacked. People of Kasganj are not feeling safe due to constant threats from communal and anti social elements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed himself in a paradoxical situation in the World Economic Forum at Davos. While he was assertive for protection of globalisation in the summit, he is toeing protectionism at home with the hope that it will give fresh life to the Make in India initiative, which flopped. He reverted to import substitution and increased import tariff to give protection to domestic manufacturers. In the summit, he said “many countries are now becoming more and more self-centred. It seems globalisation is sinking” .He quibbled, “As opposed to globalisation, the forces of protection are emerging.”