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GENEVA: The International Labour Organization (ILO) is demanding the world’s governments enact and commit to new worker protections to meet the changing nature and demands of modern workplaces. The demands come as billionaire representatives of the world’s ruling class gathered in Davos, Switzerland to discuss the world economy and as most media in the U.S. report only on how embarrassing it is that those rulers see the inability of the Trump administration to get its act together here in the U.S.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who incidentally happens to represent Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, should take serious note of the advisory issued by the Darul Uloom Deoband appealing to its students to avoid travelling on Republic Day if possible. The advisory was issued citing the possibility of security checks creating situations that could lead to a sense of fear and insecurity. In the past some students were harassed and even arrested by the UP police on the pretext of being terrorists.

BHOPAL: The appointment of Jyotiraditya Scindia and Priyanka Gandhi as Congress general secretaries has been welcomed by the leaders and common Congress men of Madhya Pradesh. Many party leaders have expressed the hope that besides UP, Priyanka will also tour Madhya Pradesh. They hope that her visits will boost the morale of the party men. As for Scindia’s appointment, it is being viewed as an attempt to keep him away from the state’s affairs. Scindia has high stakes in the politics of Madhya Pradesh. If he is kept away, it may give Kamal Nath a free hand while grappling with the manifold problems of the state.

LUCKNOW: There was complete demoralisation in Congress camp when SP-BSP-RLD alliance left only two seats for Congress in Rae Bareli and Amethi. But the announcement of Priyanka Gandhi becoming AICC general secretary for Eastern UP has had an electrifying effect on Congress workers, who are now counting the seats they can win UP.

Congress leader Oommen Chandy faces a dilemma. He may be called to contest the Lok Sabha polls and everybody is like ‘Will he, won’t he?’ Nobody can imagine Chandy in Delhi. If Delhi is North, Chandy is South! Chandy can grow only in Kerala soil. Bloom in Kerala air. Shine under the Kerala sun. He wouldn’t go out of Kerala for all the wealth in the vaults of Padmanabha Swamy temple.

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.