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BHOPAL: Chief Minister Kamal Nath has ordered a high level enquiry into the sordid affairs of Makhan Lal Chaturvedi National Journalism University. The enquiry committee is headed by M. Gopal Reddy, additional chief secretary, and has Bhupendra Gupta, public relations. officer on special duty in the office of the chief minister, and Sandeep Dixit, former MP from New Delhi, as members.

RJD leader Tejashvi Yadav dashing to Lucknow for meeting SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati and asserting that this alliance would wreck the ship of BJP in the 2019 elections has caused uneasiness in Congress. The Lucknow meetings have given rise to the feeling that Tejashvi was also not comfortable with Congress. It is believed that he has refrained from airing his views only for the sake of his father, who is in favour of a strong relation with Congress.

The credibility of the Supreme Court was considered to be at the lowest ebb during the tenure of chief justice Dipak Misra. The so-called ‘mutiny’ by the four senior-most judges was described as the darkest hour of Indian judiciary, amidst allegations of the CJI misusing his Master of the Roster powers to constitute ‘pliable’ benches ready to do the bidding of interested parties, planting serious doubt in the minds of people about the integrity of the institution. Justice Misra has even been accused by a retired colleague of having behaved like an ‘agent’ of some external force, which the judge stopped short of identifying, but the reference was quite obvious.

With every passing day there are new innovations in the field of medicine. New drugs and devices are coming out. It is therefore important for the medical professionals to be regularly updated through continued medical education (CME) programs. Academic bodies hold their annual national meets as well as state and local CMEs. As the advancement is very rapid, the number of such events has increased manifold in the past few years. Various state councils made it mandatory for the medical professionals to attend such CMEs and obtain credit hours for renewing the registration. The medical council also gave broad guidelines about organizing such events. The clause 1.2.3 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette & Ethics) Regulations, 2002 states ‘A physician should participate in professional meetings as part of Continuing Medical Education programmes for at least 30 hours every five years, organized by reputed professional academic bodies or any other authorized organization. The compliance of this requirement shall be informed regularly to Medical Council of India or the State Medical Council as the case may be’.

The Kerala government has ‘51’ reasons to hang its head in shame. And Pinarayi Vijayan is the ‘head’. The only place Vijayan can hide is Pinarayi, the village with the rock that delivered CPM. Friday, Pinarayi Vijayan was on a slippery slope. He is atheist who contracted the job to get converts to the Hindu-fold and never in history have so many godless shown such devotion to lay obeisance at the feet of Swami Ayyappa than under Pinarayi.

India is all set to enter coalition era with the single-party rule appears to be ending. As the situation obtains now neither the BJP nor the Congress is in a position to form government at the Centre or in States on their own. The BJP, perhaps, for the last time got a massive majority in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In this year’s general elections—in April and May—the saffron party does not appear to get a majority and has to form coalition if it emerges as Single largest party. So is the case with the Congress. Coalition means instability and lack of good administration. Remember ‘Ayaram, Gayaram” days of sixties and then prevalent instability.

Two of the women most in the news these days delivered blows to two of the nation’s most powerful and increasingly unpopular men. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually pulled off on January 16 what might be the only good thing to result from the government shutdown: the possible cancellation of President Trump’s State of the Union address.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has managed to emerge as a probable opposition candidate pushing other regional leaders like West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Telangana chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao behind for the post of prime minister. At this moment, only Congress president Rahul Gandhi seems to be ahead of Mayawati in the race.

The final version of the World Development Report (WDR) 2019 of the World Bank released at the end of November 2018 landed like a bombshell. It was a powerful refutation of World Bank’s own 2016 WDR, which declared that the proportion of jobs threatened by automation was 69 percent in India and 77 percent in China. With such startling figures, the 2016 WDR figures stunned not only India but the entire world.

After having failed in setting agenda of choice by raising various emotional and sectarian issues, this week the Narendra Modi government is back on using old cases and filing new cases on the charges of sedition against those who had dared to speak against the government. In Assam a Left intellectual has been charge-sheeted for sedition as he has opposed the government on the issue of citizen’s bill.