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A jubilant Mamata Banerjee declared the Supreme Court order on Rajeev Kumar episode to be a victory of people of the nation. She also said that any decision on continuation of “dharna” will be taken by her after consultations with the leaders of opposition parties. Magnitude of face off on display through “dharna” by Mamata Banerjee, which is now almost 48 hours’ old has been unprecedented in the history of 72 years of India’s independence.

BHOPAL: Rahul Gandhi’s stern warning to the Chief Minister and Ministers to perform otherwise they will be replaced, declaration by Kamal Nath and Scindia that “Rahul Gandhi is the next Prime Minister of the Country”, and veteran BJP leader Ram Krishna Kusumaria embracing the Congress were some of the highlights of the party’s rally held in Bhopal on Friday.

When petrol and diesel prices were heading up to their historical heights in the middle of last year, this column had made a contrarian projection (Modi's oil stars may be turning benevolent again, June 29) that by the time Prime Minister Modi would be about to demit office at the end of his tenure, his 'oil stars' may turn favourable again. Of course, the projection was made on the basis of likely developments in t he international crude markets as understood by analysts, although such a drastic change within the projected timeframe may have appeared highly unlikely at that time.

Reservations for SC and ST have been there since the Constitution of India came into force. Mandal Commission was constituted by Mrs Gandhi and V P Singh initiated its implementation. In 1990s, the question of back log came before the apex court and suggestions for rosters were given to be implemented by governmental and autonomous institutions. First the 13-point department basis rosters, then 100 point institution based rosters and later 200 point institution base drosters came to be enforced.

Manner and timing of the CBI action in West Bengal reeks of political vendetta. The graceless spectacle in Kolkata captures a drama that officers, landing up allegedly unannounced and warrantless, at the residence of the state police chief. Leave the common man; if a top police officer has to be interrogated, the minimum requirement is prior information and a warrant. Also rules provide that the state government has to be informed the purpose of the CBI visit.

Just a day after President Donald Trump, speaking to a world audience, declared that there would be no legislation signed by him if Congress didn’t stop investigating him, the Congress of the United States opened broad new investigations into his affairs.

BHOPAL: On the eve of Rahul Gandhi’s visit, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath announced several populist decisions. The decisions include stipend of Rs. 4,000 per month for unemployed urban youth, 100 days employment in a year for urban youth, 10 HP electricity at half rate for farmers, 62 lakh domestic consumers to get up to 100 units of power at Rs. 100 per month, Rs. 600 per month social security pension for BPL elders and widows. Till now they were getting Rs. 300 per month.

Despite advances in health care there persist gross inequalities as far as access to it is concerned. Even today the low socio economic groups have difficulty in getting modern healthcare. Inequalities also persist in terms of geography, caste, religion and gender. High out-of- pocket expenditures, with the rising financial burden of health care adds to these inequalities. Out-of-pocket expenditure by the patient constitutes 63 per cent of Total Health Expenditure. As a result every year 6.3 Crore people are pushed below the poverty line in India due to health care costs.

Narendra Modi’s five-year record in office shows that he has confused the wave of support to him in 2014 as mass support for authoritarianism. It is now time to pay dearly for that. There may not be a visible strong anti-Modi wave yet but an undercurrent of growing anti-incumbency is unmistakable and can be seen even beyond the 3 States where the recent poll outcome went against him.

After getting assured that the Sangh Parivar has got what it wanted on the Ayodhya issue, the Narendra Modi government has intensified new attacks on the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. In the last fortnight, the government officially floated the idea of handing over the most part of the acquired land around Babri Masjid and got approval from its supporters. Not much surprising, the so called secular forces too kept mum or endorsed the idea.