View Articles

A running feud with the RSS ideologues and mandarins and his inability to evolve a blue print of economic policies that suited the temperament and political needs of his political patron Narendra Modi dearly cost the Vice Chairperson of the NITI Aayog Arvind Pangariya and forced him to resign and say good bye to his old saffron friends.

By announcing a special grant of Rs. 400 crore to improve the Brahmaputra’s water-holding capacity that will, in turn, help flood control in Assam, the prime minister has indirectly echoed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s concern that the current spate of flood is ‘man-made’ and that not enough is done to maintain the depth of rivers. Mamata was concerned mainly about West Bengal, where 14 of its agriculturally-rich districts were flood-ravaged this time, killing at least 50 people and making lakhs homeless. A good part of the latest flood havoc in Bengal was caused by massive water discharge by Damodar Valley Corporation, the earliest public sector undertaking set up soon after India’s independence.

Some senior lawmakers from Tory as well as Labour parties are seriously contemplating to initiate a move to undo the Brexit. Their move is based on the peoples’ perception that Brexit has failed to do good to Britain instead it has simply complicated the economic and employment scenario prevailing in the UK.

If the BJP and its ideologues think they can erase the names of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and others by rewriting India’s history from the public memory, they are sadly mistaken. A quiz book prepared by the BJP to be used as the basic text to judge the general awareness of nearly 15 lakh school children in Uttar Pradesh has expunged name of Mahatma Gandhi from the list of India’s great personalities. A chapter titled “India’s first” covers everything except the country’s first Prime Minister Nehru.

BHOPAL: The health of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, who is on an indefinite hunger strike, is deteriorating at a fast rate. One of her supporters said on phone from the fast venue in Badwani district that this morning her blood pressure was recorded at 100/60. She, along with 11 other activists, is on fast to press the NBA demand for proper and foolproof rehabilitation of people whose houses and fields are going to be submerged the moment the water in Sardar Sarovar Dam reservoir rises to its maximum height.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Yet another peace meeting has come and gone. But peace has eluded violence-torn Thiruvananthapuram district, which has witnessed clashes between the CPI(M) and the BJP.

Strange things do happen when one’s heart in not in the right place. But most ‘well-hearted’ Indians would have felt at least a couple of beats in pain when they heard about the disqualification of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the country’s Supreme Court in the case relating to the so-called Panama papers. Not that Nawaz Sharif was a great friend of India, ever willing to go the extra mile to mend the genetical discord between the two neighbours. He may have been a little less venomous than most of his predecessors, or likely successors, including Imran Khan, the chief possible option, if it’s not a more plausible military alternative, and on whose petition Sharif has had to suffer the ignominy of having been prime minister for the longest term and yet failing to complete a full tenure.

Union minister Muktar Abbas Naqvi’s remark that not singing Vande Mataram is not an anti-national act seemingly marks a new and somewhat unexpected phase in saffron politics. This is the same Naqvi who advised those who want to eat beef to go to Pakistan and who denied in parliament that the lynching of Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan took place.

No one can find fault with Nitish Kumar for eulogising Narendra Modi. He has followed the beaten track. Often the turn coats sing paean in the praise of their new leader. Nitish is not an exception. He is politically correct in his assessment that no one is capable of defeating Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Looking at the prevalent political situation, with Congress in a bind, it is utopian to expect that it would lead a comprehensive opposition to unseat Modi.

In line with expectations of a cut in interest rates, the Reserve bank of India has complied with the requests. It cut its repo rate (at which banks borrow from the central bank) by a quarter of one per cent. This is neither here nor there.