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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.

The die is cast. There is no escape route for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come out unscathed from the Rs. 58,000 crore Rafale scam. The report in The Hindu newspaper of February 8 makes it abundantly clear that it was the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) which conducted the crucial negotiations for finalisng the deal relating to the purchase of 36 Rafale jets from the French company Dassault overruling the prolonged negotiations carried out by the Defence Ministry and also the PMO finalized the deal by ignoring serious objections made by the Defence Ministry.

A specter is haunting Donald Trump—the specter of socialism. A century and a half ago, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels opened their Communist Manifesto with a similar line. In their time, it was the rising workers’ movement and communist groups of Europe that were putting the ruling class on notice across the continent.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In politics, as in life, what matters the most is perception. And the perception fast gaining ground in Kerala is that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has, once again, succumbed to the pressure of the Left Democratic Front(LDF) on the sensitive Sabarimala issue.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is all set to organise show of strength through road show as and when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrives Lucknow on February 10-11. Congress is preparing to organise grand reception of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on her arrival to Lucknow to take charge of Easter UP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls.