View Articles

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India’s (CPI) list of candidates for the four Lok Sabha seats it is contesting from Kerala is a judicious mix of youth and experience.

BJP’s Sankalp Rally at Patna on March 3 was different from its other rallies. While at other rallies Narendra Modi would despise and deride the Nehru –Gandhi family, in Patna he was heard borrowing the political punch line delivered by Indira Gandhi in 1971 wherein she had said “I am fighting to finish Garibi, but the opposition was trying to finish me”. At the Patna rally Modi said “ I am trying to finish terrorism but opposition is plotting to finish me”.

Air Chief BS Dhanoa said Monday the “operations are still ongoing”, meaning what? Is he saying India has not de-escalated, doesn’t matter if Pakistan has or has not? Another question: Was Dhanoa fielded by the Modi government to answer some of the questions and “doubts” asked and expressed by the opposition parties? A valid question. BJP is in election-mode and wants to take full advantage of Balakote and the opposition is bent on denying Narendra Modi and Amit Shah any such advantage.

Judging by the increasing sharpness of the BJP’s attacks on the Opposition, it might appear that the party is no longer as confident as before about the favourable impact of Surgical Strike 2.0 on its poll prospects.

Travelling with Hugo Chavez, I soon understood the threat of Venezuela. At a farming co-operative in Lara state, people waited patiently and with good humour in the heat. Jugs of water and melon juice were passed around. A guitar was played; a woman, Katarina, stood and sang with a husky contralto.

A controversy has arisen about the effectiveness of India’s air attack at the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp at Balakot, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Doubts have been raised whether the actual terror base had been hit. Some doubting Thomases have also raised questions about the number of casualties caused by the air strike.. Or, whether there was any casualty at all. The official statement is that twelve Mirage aircraft took part in the raid in the early hours of February 26.

It is time that publicly held companies in India are managed by professionals and not by their promoters and family members. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs and takeover tycoons often think that they are also god-gifted managers. They refuse to recognise that vision and leadership define success, not ownership. While entrepreneurs are most welcome to run their private firms, they should resist the temptation of running listed public companies as their family concerns. Today, over 60 public companies, mostly under family management, are facing insolvency proceedings. Family management of listed concerns has become a major concern of ordinary as well as institutional shareholders and creditors.

No one knows the war better than an Indian. His greatest epic is the Mahabharata, a quarter of which describes in vivid detail the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The war did not last long. It lasted just 18 days but it killed 80 per cent of the menfolk in the country.

War is the one of the most serious threat to public health with catastrophic effects on infrastructure & environment and accounts for more deaths and disability than many major diseases combined. It destroys families, communities and sometimes-whole cultures. It channels limited resources away from health and other social needs.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi received a call from the Russian Foreign Minister Sergejay Lavrov Saturday morning. Qureshi said Russia is ready to offer a platform for Pakistan and India to hold talks and sort out all their differences. Also that China has appointed a special envoy to deal exclusively with India and Pakistan. The Pak Foreign Minister said Pakistan has welcomed both Russia and China’s offers but that it’s up to India to reciprocate, adding that there is very little likelihood of India even thinking of such a conclave, at least not for the next “40 days."