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In 2017, West Bengal acquired the dubious distinction of the world’s longest internet shutdown on its citizens. That year in July, the Trinamool Congress-run state government stopped the functioning of the internet for a record 45 days running, from June 18 onwards, in Darjeeling town and adjacent areas.

Narendra Modi is no more the winning face for BJP notwithstanding what the party leaders, especially chief Amit Shah, claim. At least three incidents over the past couple of days testify to this. So far Modi has been the star campaigner for the party. But for the first time in nine years Modi is sharing the dais with someone else for a campaign speech. Modi and Nitish Kumar will jointly launch the NDA campaign for the coming Lok Sabha election in Bihar from Patna on March 3. The alliance would hold a mega rally in Patna in reply to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Jan Akanksha Rally’ on February 3.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The most significant feature of the seat allocation talks in the Congress and the party-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is the determined attempt by the Congress High Command to marginalise former chief minister and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy.

Balochistan is on the boil, encircled with evil signs all around. The coalition government, led by the Balochistan Awami Party with Jam Kamal Khan as the chief minister, faces an existentialist crisis.

The recommendation by a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to relax the criteria for appointment of members of the SC-ST as judicial officers, if implemented, will amount to another step in making India a Quota Republic. The recent constitutional amendment to provide for 10 percent reservation for economically backward sections of the forward castes, though a welcome move, has already muddled the waters, with more demands for such reservation being raised from various quarters and a slew of petitions challenging reservation based on economic criteria in the Supreme Court.

Our people are observing the Republic Dayat a time when the very basic ideological and theoretical concepts the Constitution of India propounded on January 26, 1950 by adopting the basic document of building a secular democratic society, are not only under threat but the Narendra Modi government during its tenure has did everything possible to destroy it. We are observing the Republic Day at a time when within a few months the people have to deliver verdict on the performance of this government and elect a new government. We are really at a cross-road.

If Narendra Modi could not be become Prime Minister, irrespective of his dismal record, for the second time, there will be chaos in the country. Such observations have been made by middle rung BJP leaders without realizing the consequences of such irresponsible statements. Some Congress leaders interpret this remark as a first step towards dictatorship, saying this may mean Modi will remain PM for his lifetime. Days of speculation, in worst days of instability, when it was feared that India was heading towards autocracy, were over long ago. The democracy has come to stay in India, Modi or no Modi.

The coordination between Trump administration officials in Washington and the Venezuelan opposition in Caracas couldn’t have been more obvious. On Tuesday evening, the night before mass protests called by opposition leader and National Assembly head Juan Guaidó were expected in Venezuela, Vice President Mike Pence suddenly released a video pledging support for overthrowing elected President Nicolas Maduro. Pence called him “a dictator with no legitimate power.”

The Punjab government through a public notice given in the newspapers has invited expression of interest from private NGOs, doctors or others for providing services in the government hospitals and running of health institutions situated in difficult areas. This has drawn sharp reaction from various sections in the state, including medical organizations, civil society groups and political parties. Such a decision by the Punjab government to hand over hospitals under its care to the private sector will have serious detrimental impact on health services in the state. It will escalate the cost of treatment and increase the out of pocket expenditure on health. Public health spending by the government in the state is already very low. The state has more of a curative-oriented healthcare. Public spending on preventive healthcare is only around 8 percent compared to the recommendation of the National Health Policy document 2017, which says that more than two-thirds of the resources should be allocated for primary care. Therefore, because of obvious reasons of lack of proper nutrition, lack of clean drinking water supply and sewerage facilities and absence of proper housing, poor households have to bear the catastrophic expenditure on healthcare.

China is now in fashion in the global circuit. The Davos Man, as the elite and the glitterati of the world are referred to, is only chattering about China and what is happening there.