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The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the Russian President Vladimir Putin holding their annual bilateral Russian-Indian summit on October 15-16, preponing the December meet, in Goa, coinciding with the BRICS Summit has not at all come as a surprise, what indeed has been intriguing is willingness of India to enter into a major defence deal with Russia. This is the third annual summit of Modi with Putin.

Last week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may have set a truly rare example by returning hundreds of acres of illegally acquired agricultural land in Singur by the previous Left Front government for Tata Motors to the farmers in a quickest possible move within days of the Supreme Court judgement, but not many states have acted in a similar fashion to right the wrong despite judicial orders. In fact, several states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh have been rampantly allowing conversion of farmland and small holdings of poor people for residential and industrial uses showing little respect for law or concern for poor farmers for the benefit of business houses and highly politically-connected individuals. In fact, Mamata Banerjee’s matured political action not only made the once forced land-losers of Singur extremely jubilant, but even the Tatas accepted the court verdict with grace, probably thanking the providence for the early legal settlement of issue, saving the country’s largest industrial house from more embarrassment and losses.

The Supreme Court’s commutation of the death sentence, awarded by a fast-track court in Thrissur and later upheld by the Kerala High Court, in the sensational Soumya rape and murder case constitutes a major legal setback for the Pinarayi Vijayab-led Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government in the State.

KOLKATA: Confusion among Left parties in West Bengal has been further confounded, as feared, by the recent Supreme Court verdict on the Singur land Acquisition dispute. The apex Court declared that the Left Front Government’s acquisition of nearly 1000 acres of land for the proposed Tata Nano car project had violated provisions of the 1894 Land acquisition Act.

With assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh knocking at the door, Samajwadi party has destroyed whatever image it has in the people. In a volte face, SP supremo Mulayam Singh, reversed decisions taken by his son and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. It means Shivpal Yadav gets back the portfolios he was divested. Also other sacked ministers too will get back the portfolios they had been deprived of. Shivpal will, however, continue as President of UP unit of SP. This post was given to him by Mulayam Singh after replacing Akhilesh who was state unit’s president.

Highly frustrated that it was not past the winning post in the 2016 Assembly election, the DMK veteran Mr Karunanidhi (93) and son Mr M K Stalin, the heir apparent, have determined to make life as uncomfortable as possible for the Jayalalithaa Government.

The article of CPI (M) polit bureau member Prakash Karat recently published in a English daily is very important as it tries to analyse the character of the present BJP government at the Centre.

The end of the epic 16 year fast by Irom Sharmila Chanu should make the Indian Union government heave a sigh of relief. Her repeated arrests through the long years should have embarrassed any government with an iota of shame. But clearly the government has no shame. The relief is elsewhere. The epic fast by Irom Sharmila used to continuously put focus on many of the dark secrets of the brutal practices of the Indian state. Now, though the practices will continue, the focus will end.

BHOPAL: There is sudden spurt in the factional feuds in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh. Several party leaders including all India General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya are openly raising such issues publicly which normally should be raised in appropriate party forums.

Both the Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chabdrababu Naidu have betrayed the people of Andhra Pradesh by their inaction in persuading the Narendra Modi government to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. After dangling this special status to the people of the Andhra Pradesh after division, both the BJP and the TDP leaderships are talking in different tunes after the central government made it clear that the PMO favoured only a special package for Andhra Pradesh and not the special status.