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It is now official - the call given by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat for amending the Indian Constitution to make it reflect "Indian" values. But Mr Bhagwat leaves no one in doubt that Hinduism being "the only true religion" in the world, our constitution and legal system should be aligned to its (Hindu) ethos, whatever it could mean for secularism or inclusiveness.

It is an irony that chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose political USP has been his claim of zero tolerance towards corruption and corrupt people, has been caught in the wrong company. What has been most scandalous is that an NGO, usually reviled by him for being the instrument for minting money, has been the public face of the biggest scam in Bihar. For the past six years most of the NGOs have had to suffer financial crunch ‘bure din’ as he had stopped the government grant to them on the plea that since the state has progressed and achieved extraordinary GDP growth, it has no place for NGOs and their activists.

After winning the bullet train battle in Indonesia, China has become suspicious of Japan in terms of the development of African economy. It suspects that the real aim of Indo-Japan joint partnership for Asia-Africa –Growth Corridor (AAGC) initiative to be an attempt for disruption of the Chinese Belt & Road initiative (B&R). Neither Japan nor India is a member of B&T. According to Chinese daily Global Times, “the two countries are trying to counterbalance the Belt & Road initiative with the AAGC plan”.

Early this month, Gen. Bipin Rawat, chief of the army, warned of the possibility of India having to fight a ‘two-front war’ with Pakistan and China simultaneously. He was speaking at a seminar of a defence think-tank – the Centre for Land Warfare Studies – in New Delhi. The possibility is, indeed, very real. In any future war with Pakistan, China may open a second front in the east, while China starting a local war (the face-off at Doklam might have led to one) is likely to tempt Pakistan into opening hostilities in the west. Keeping this possibility in mind, India’s defence forces have undertaken a number of short- and long-term measures.

Prominent senior journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead from a close range with seven bullets by a motor cycle borne assailants on September 5, 2017, was a fearless journalist, often raised voices of dissent against the establishment. She was killed outside her home in Bangaluru. She was an audacious critic of right-wing politics of Hindutva for its campaign of hatred, divisiveness, communal polarization, out to destroy the very idea of India, known for its time tested civilisational strength of unity in diversity, tolerance, non-violence, co-existence and plurality as provided for in the Constitution of India postulating Justice, Equality and Fraternity for all of its citizens, equally and alike. Right-wing Hindutva forces branded Gauri Lankesh as a “Hindu hater”.

Nuclear power financing is embroiled in a global bankruptcy with top two, Toshiba-Westinghouse, US subsidiary of Toshiba of Japan and its French equivalent, the state-owned AREVA facing financial debacle. Toshiba Westinghouse, afflicted with technical problems, time and massive cost overruns at construction projects V.C. Summer and Vogtle in the USA, filed for bankruptcy protection of its American subsidiary. AREVA went technically bankrupt as a sequel to a cumulative six-year loss of US$12.3 billion. The French government came out with a bailout for US$5.3 billion, allowing the process of break-up of state utility EDF, taken as a nuclear building and services subsidiary AREVA-NP. The rescue scheme was through by the European Commission, although AREVA remains delisted from the Paris stock market since August 2017.

BHOPAL: All India Muslim Personal Board after its two-day meet here seems to have chosen the policy of no-confrontation with the government or judiciary on the issue of triple talaq. Reiterating its well-known stand of no interference in matters of Shariah, the Board gave a call for reform to end the practice of instant triple talaq.

The ghoulish glee expressed in the celebratory tweets put out by Hindu “patriots” over the journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder in Bengaluru, underlines the insane hatred against what a saffronite calls “Leftist, Naxal sympathizer, anti-establishment and anti-Hindu” people.

LUCKNOW: State Congress president Raj Babbar MP has prepared a road map for the party to launch agitations to highlight people’s problems across the state.

One year has passed since Brazil’s first woman President Dilma Rousseff of the Brazilian Workers Party(PT) was removed from office by an unconstitutional coup by the right wing parties with the encouragement of the corporate media and the US business interests .During this period, the new president Michel Temer who is known as one of the most corrupt politicians, has made all efforts to undo all the pro-people measures introduced by the left wing government under Rousseff and earlier by Lula de Silva during his two terms as President, but the unelected President Temer’s actions have been strongly opposed by the Brazil’s workers, and the lower middle classes by holding massive demonstrations.