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Farmers’ suicides are back in the limelight and have become a major political weapon for political parties. Since 2010, farmer’s suicides have been a perennial problem for the ruling parties. Even the biggest loan waver by UPA-2 in 2008 failed to prevent suicides by farmers.

In the mostly washed-out post-budget session of Parliament, a revealing reply was provided on the well-meant Asset Quality Review (AQR) initiative of the former RBI governor and celebrated economist Raghuram G Rajan on a query on the record write-off of non-performing loans (NPAs) by the public sector banks (PSBs) amounting to 81,683 crore of rupees in a single year in 2016-17, by far the biggest over the past five years.

The woes are piling up for the BJP. Meenakshi Lekhi, the party’s MP, listed them in the right order; although her purpose was to mock the Opposition for raising the issues, rather than to draw the government’s attention to them for taking corrective steps.

NEW DELHI: The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India expressed its shock and dismay over the verdict of an NIA court acquitting five main accused including Swami Aseemanand in the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad that killed eight persons and injured 58. The judge had clearly stated that “the prosecution could not prove its case” because “no evidence was presented to prove the conspiracy”.

Top of the food chain in the Congress Party Rahul Gandhi sat next to the United States Ambassador at a lunch hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2009 and in between bites allegedly told the American envoy, to a question on threat from the Laskar-e-Thoiba (LeT), that “homegrown terror from radicalized Hindus” was the bigger worry. The US ambassador dutifully telegraphed a gist of his chit-chat with Rahul to his masters in the US. Picked up by the infamous Wikileaks, the telegram, with “classified” written all over it, became global.

The allied attack on Syria was perceived to secure the political future of British Prime Minister Theresa May and boost nationalistic pride, but the results of the first opinion poll reveal that she was wrong to order strikes by the Royal Air Force Tornado without the consent of Parliament, while only 30 per cent backed her.

Since President Trump announced that he intended to bomb Syria, the stock values of some of the country’s top weapons manufacturers have soared, adding a collective $10 billion in market capitalization values over the course of just one week. With Trump delivering on his promise this weekend, the rally on Wall Street continues.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

In the last one week, the country has been rocked by the reports of two horrific rapes, one in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, and the other one in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, which indicate the considerable complicity of the State/politician machinery with the accused persons, and the impunity with which law is violated. In Kathua, Jammu, an eight year old girl, from the Bakarwal (nomadic) community was kidnapped, sedated, gangraped, tortured for over eight days in a temple and eventually killed. The crime was apparently masterminded by the Sanji Ram, a retired government employee, as part of a larger communal conspiracy to ‘terrorise’ the Bakarwal community to force them out of the area. The other accused includes four police officers, including Special Police Officers, Deepak Khajuria, and Surinder Kumar, and police officials, Anand Datta and Tilak Raj. Sanji Ram’s son and nephew who is juvenile are said to be involved in the perpetration of the crime. The macabreness of the crime is highlighted by the fact Deepak Khajuria was apparently assisting the police to find the missing victim, while he himself continued to rape the girl in the temple.

It doesn’t gel that analysts say if ‘elections are held today’, the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will win hands down, repeat its 2014 performance – “need not go out on a limb to predict that” as one fellow endowed by Carnegie put it – but that if elections are held 12 months hence, the BJP will face an insurmountable terrain. It doesn’t agree because the BJP looks more vulnerable today than at any other time in the four years of Modi-rule so far. But the BJP is on a Hindu-vote consolidation drive and give the party 12 more months and it will peak right on time!