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What is likely to be Punjab’s future political scenario after the 2017 assembly polls whose outcome has thrown up some surprises? The answer cannot be attempted without analyzing the factors which have played an important role in the polls outcome. The piece begins with comments on the fate the mainstream contesting parties have met.

It is good to know that the government is seriously examining if a new law is required or prevailing statutes could be amended to confiscate the properties of those who commit financial crimes in India and hide abroad. Recently, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this in Lok Sabha in response to Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy’s query as to what steps the government has taken to bring back “IPL man” (Lalit Modi) and “Kingfisher man” (Vijay Mallya). The finance minister, without taking names, said assets worth Rs 840 crore have already been attached by various enforcement agencies. Hi-profile Modi and Mallya, both alleged to be big economic offenders, may have been much in the news these days, but there are thousands of others, including Islamic preacher and foreign fund handler through his Mumbai-based NGO, Zakir Naik, meat exporter Moin Qureshi, and a number of Indian businessmen, who are regularly migrating from the country to live elsewhere after making huge wealth in India. It may be worth investigating into the reasons behind the recent exodus of Indian US$ millionaires to become NRIs overnight receiving legal protection from their host countries for their money and investments held there.

Massive victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh has created unprecedented ecstasy in the saffron brigade and it is being described as Modi’s March signaling emergence of a new politics. The claim of Modi’s march is yet to be scrutinized in proper prospective, but one thing is certain it is the precursor of new politics of coercion and thrusting the philosophy of Hindu Rashtra on the nation. No doubt some people claim that this has armed Modi with the authority and power to translate his reforms programmes into reality and hasten up the process for fiscal reforms.

Both the governors of Goa and Manipur have committed gross impropriety in inviting the BJP to form the government in two states. They ignored the basic provisions in the constitution, which lays down that first the single largest party be invited to form the government, asked it to prove the majority on the floor of the house within a specified period. If it fails, chance should be given to the second largest party. Both governors of Goa Mridula Sinha and Manipur governor Najma Hepttula flouted the constitutional provisions.

Pakistan’s firm stand in curbing terrorism inside Pakistan, imported from Afghanistan, was made known by the Pak Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz on the very first day of the one-to-one meeting with Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser, Hanif Atmar in London on March 15. Aziz made no bones of Islamabad’s hard line against Talibans and complained that Afghan-based militants continued to mount attacks inside Pakistan. The initiative in this dialogue was taken by Sir Mark Lyall Grant who became the first British national security adviser in 2015. He knows Pakistan well. Between 2003 and 2006 he was the British high commissioner to Pakistan. The proposal for dialogue was made by the current British High Commissioner to Afghanistan Karen Pierce CMG. The British diplomacy edged out the Americans on this issue proving the yawning hyphenation between Islamabad and Washington. Since the shut-down of border crossings with Afghanistan by Pakistan on February 17 last, just after suicide bombing at a Sufi Shrine in Sehwan of Sindh province on February 16 killing more than 80 people and injuring about 250 as the bomb ripped through when a Dhamal, a Sufi chorus was being sung . Hundreds of protesters came out- enraged and inconsolable. They demanded justice.

There is a sense of demoralization among the opposition parties and the secular forces in general after the resounding victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The massive victory in UP, the largest populated state of the country, has given the Prime Minister Narendra Modi an invincible stature which will continue for some time unless the opposition parties can really throw up a big challenge to the Prime Minister or Mr. Modi himself makes a major lapse.

With the spectre of an uncertain future staring in the eyes, the NATO while have been watching keenly the next move of the American President, Donald Trump who will be meeting leaders of NATO at a summit in late May, the allies are also exploring the mechanism to improve their relations with Russia.

BHOPAL: What will be the ultimate impact of the results of State Assemblies' election on the politics of Madhya Pradesh it is difficult to say at this stage but the BJP has already started thinking about the strategy it should adopt to ensure consecutive fourth victory in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections which are due in the year 2018. The BJP won majority in the 2003, 2008 and 2013. While 2003 elections were fought under the leadership of Uma Bharati, subsequent two elections were fought under the leadership of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Whether 2018 election will also be contested under Chouhan's leadership, is a big question mark.

The post-war free and fair trade institution built by well-meaning countries, both developed and developing countries, first in the form of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that later morphed into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 now is in its existential crisis. It is not that the Doha Development Round launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital was for all practical purposes suspended in 2011 that lies at the root of the problem but because of the patently protectionist and defiant attitude being displayed by the hegemonic United States under its new President Donald Trump. Trump has not only trumped all well-laid plans for ushering in a global fair and free trade regime but also triumphed in pushing his country return to unilateralist and brazenly mercantilist mindset.

After the recent round of Assembly elections, there is little doubt that the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal currently remains the strongest and most self-assured regional party in India.