View Articles

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The simmering pot of Janata Dal(U) in the State is all set to boil over.

Introspection induces realism. It is time both security and civil forces handling the Pathankot airbase attack case undertake the exercise. This would help in the search for the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The exercise, however, cannot be undertaken without drawing a balance sheet of the past and the latest happenings. This would necessitate a scrutiny of the role played by the major actors in these happenings.

BHOPAL: Strange things are happening in Madhya Pradesh ruled by the BJP. Can it be imagined that two members of a Ministry can oppose each other for the posts of non-party organisation. But such a situation has arisen in Madhya Pradesh. Elections for the posts of chief commissioner, president and vice-president of Bharat Scouts are to be held shortly. Strangely enough both Paras Jain, School Education Cabinet Minister and Deepak Joshi, Minister of State for School Education have filed nomination for the post of Chief Commissioner. All efforts by the state leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party to perusals one of them to withdraw from the contest has failed so far. Only School Minister of State used to occupy the post of Chief Commissioner of Bharat Scouts earlier.

The virtually unknown “historian”, Y. Sudarshan Rao, who cannot claim to have made any significant contribution to the subject, has left the post of the chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) unsung and unlamented.

Few can dispute the fact that the eastern states such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Assam are among the country’s most mineral rich parts. Yet, they have been among the most neglected states in independent India thanks to the policies of the national government since the days of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was the author of the first major national economic policy that made the prices of steel, the mother metal, and coal, the country’s primary energy, produced mostly by eastern states, equal all over the country through a railway freight equalization scheme.

The coming two years—2016 and 2017—are crucial both for the Congress and the BJP and regional parties like BSP, Mulayam Singh-led SP, AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and CPI-M (particularly in West Bengal and Kerala). In 2016 elections are scheduled in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. The year 2017 will see Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa going to poll.

The new year is expected to augur well for India’s aviation industry with the union government getting ready to come out with a new civil aviation policy soon. The aim is to give a much needed push to the sector languishing for over a decade.

Desperate to erase his image of wrongdoer, perpetrator of Jungle Raj, from the minds of the common Bihari and project himself as a politician with development vision, the RJD chief Lalu Yadav is on the mission to chasten up the bureaucracy and perk up governance. While he has already advised Nitish Kumar to chisel bureaucracy by taking action against the lunj-punj (an incompetent and lethargic guy) officers, if needed throw them out, he has committed to sue Prime Minister Narendra Modi for committing a breach of trust by refusing to hand over the special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore to the state.

The two recent simultaneous terror attacks on vital Indian assets at the beginning of the year – one at air base at Pathankot in India and the other at Indian consulate office in Mazer-e-Sharif in Afghanistan – have raised questions on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “innovative” and “risky” diplomacy with Pakistan.

Slowly, the long pending regional economic bonding is beginning to take shape in South Asia, as agreements between India and its neighbours are being finally implemented. After prolonged dialogues between the leaders of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, it is time to report some concrete progress already made, raising new hopes for the future even in the short term.