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BHOPAL: Although the BJP and Sangh Parivar are celebrating the Supreme Court judgment on triple talaq and claiming credit for liberating Muslim women from the male dominated Muslim society, their past behaviour betrays a striking callousness when it comes to the empowerment of Hindu women. On the contrary, they took every possible step to stall a major initiative taken by our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his law minister Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

The National Health Policy document 2017 has admitted that every year 6.3 crore people go below poverty line in our country. Nearly 70 percent of the out of pocket expenditure on health is on drugs. Therefore, pricing of the drugs is an issue of paramount importance. The drugs are being sold as branded medicines and also branded generic medicines. There is huge trade margin between the price to trade (PTT) i.e the price at which the manufacturer/ the marketing company sells the drugs to the distributor and the maximum retail price (MRP) in case of many drugs. Many a times this trade margin has been found to be 700 – 800 percent. Since the MRP is fixed by the manufacturer, the logic given for such a high trade margin is that if this margin is reduced the retailers will not sell their products. Since the company wants high sale and high profit, this trade margin has to be kept high. But in this the whole burden fallls on the consumer that is the patient.

The Modi-Shah duo are again on intense poll mode, leaving no chances to secure not less than 360 seats for BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. For all one knows, the Prime Minister who claims to be ever ready to take the "boldest Actions", may even call a snap poll at a time of his choosing.

The latest report of the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) confirms only which was already known.BJP has emerged as the darling of the Indian corporate and the ruling Party has beaten hollow its rival the Congress Party in terms of getting donations from the corporates. Corporate houses donated a total of Rs. 956.77 crore to the national parties between 2012-13 and 2015-16 - BJP getting the maximum of Rs. 705.61 crore while the Congress got Rs. 196.16 crore. Thus the BJP got nearly four times of the Congress during these four years. Significantly, out of these four years, the Congress led UPA ruled in 2012-13 and 2013-14 while the BJP rules in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

JAFFNA: A week back three former LTTE cadres, currently being held in remand at Anuradhapura prison launched a hunger strike in protest at the length of time it has taken for their cases to be heard by the court. They for quite some time have been urging the authorities to expedite their court cases. Though the officials admit that at least 20 former LTTE cadres are currently detained at the prison, the friends and family members of the LTTE cadres allege that the real number of detained Tamils accused of being LTTE cadres, remains unknown even after 9 years of the cessation of the armed conflict.

The Narendra Modi Government is bending backwards to proclaim that it has been farmer-friendly even as the elements ditched it when there was a back-to-back drought for two years immediately after its ascension to power in 2014. This was followed by a benign monsoon in 2016-17 with relatively well spread geographically when farm produce prices plunged to the dismay of growers who had to indulge in fire-sale lest they should burn their fingers too badly. News of agrarian distress, sporadic suicide of farmers across the nation and persistent plea for farm loan waivers characterized the nation’s bucolic segment in recent months so much so that starting from the Prime Minister Modi who announced farm loan waiver in the run-up to the UP assembly polls early this year, there was a spate of farm-friendly programmes to lift the spirit of rural people.

Some 110 Japanese firms went bankrupt in China last year, according to a Japanese research report. In 2015, Toshiba and Panasonic had announced that they would stop producing television sets in China. These are some of the manifestations of Japanese frustrations in China and underscore a trend of the Japanese exiting from that country. China has been losing its status as the hub for Japanese investment due to a drop in low cost competitiveness on account of wage hikes and heightened political tensions. A majority of these 110 firms were Japanese apparel manufacturing companies in China.

LUCKNOW: BJP leaders and workers are upset with the Gorakhpur tragedy in which 60 children died due to lack of oxygen and the manner in which the Yogi government handled the situation, creating further embarrassment for the government and the party.

BHOPAL: BJP national president Amit Shah virtually launched the campaign for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections scheduled for next year. During a three-day stay here, he interacted with organisational functionaries, ministers, former party MPs and MLAs, prominent citizens, intellectuals, literacy persons and also sadhu-sants.

Tamil Nadu is witnessing fast moving political developments and realignment of political forces. At last the two warring factions of the ruling AIADMK have merged on Tuesday sidelining the Sasikala faction holding on to what it calls the “Aatchi” (government) and “Katchi ” (Party) after a negotiated power sharing arrangement. With four more years to go for the next Assembly polls, no MLA wants elections. They have also decided to get rid of the current General Secretary V.K. Sasikala who is in jail.