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LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government seems to be set on a collision course with the UP Legislative Council on the issue of fake encounters. It so happened that Legislative Council chairman Ramesh Yadav directed the Yogi government to recommend a CBI probe into three alleged fake counters in Noida and Greater Noida.

What suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar is to Indians, former Pakistan ambassador Husain Haqqani is to Pakistanis – fierce opponents of their home countries and routinely branded ‘traitors’ and anti-nationals. But while Aiyar gets away with his diatribes against India from Pakistani soil, Haqqani cannot from American and Indian soil. The other day, Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against its former envoy to Trump’s America, who was last month in Mumbai shooting at Pakistan with some serious ‘Off the Cuff’ remarks.

The standing committee on health headed by Ram Gopal Yadav had called various stake holders to put forward their viewpoints on National Medical Commission (NMC). Since health is an issue of concern to all, such consultative process is a welcome step. The process to revamp medical regulation started after the Supreme Court took cognizance of malfunctioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and directed for a new system, which would redress the ills in the MCI with a view to streamlining the medical education and healthcare in the country. As a result the NITI Ayog drafted the NMC in its present form, which the government wanted to pass in parliament as such. It would have been better if the NITI Ayog had formed a multi stake holder committee to draft this bill. But it was only after strong protests by the medical organizations and a public statement by Jairam Ramesh, a prominent member of the standing committee on health, that the bill was referred to the standing committee for public consultations.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The murder of Youth Congress worker, Shuhaib, in the violence-prone Kannur district, allegedly by CPI(M) cadres, has put the party and the Government headed by it under severe pressure.

South Africa’s African National Congress has, in giving Jacob Zuma his marching orders on February 15 and replacing him with Cyril Ramaphosa, shown a capacity for decisive action that many feared beyond it. Ramaphosa’s narrow victory over Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for the ANC presidency, his supporters’ failure to win a clean sweep of the top six positions and the clear national executive committee knife-edge division into apparently pro and anti-Zuma camps, foretold confusion and indecision.

On the last day of the first tranche of the Budget session, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked members of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament to reach out people to discuss their difficulties and also to apprise them of initiatives taken by the government for welfare of the people. He has even suggested them to hold mock parliaments and discuss issues over the meals. His advice to his party men has naturally led to speculations over the possibility of early elections to the Lok Sabha, probably by the year end when three BJP ruled states go to polls for their assemblies.

The Communist Party of India(CPI), the second most important Left Party in the country after the CPI(M) has given a call for widest possible mobilization of all secular, political and mass organizations to counter the neo liberal and the fascistic offensive of the Modi government and the RSS. In a no holds barred approach to the BJP and the Modi Government, the CPI has taken the position that the BJP has to be defeated at all costs in the state assembly elections as also in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and this requires the formulat6ion of a flexible electoral tactics taking into account the respective political situation and strength of the respective secular parties in the states., which include the Congress.

The song ‘Manikya Malaraya Poovi’ of Oru Adaar Love, which went viral because Priya Prakash Varrier, the overnight Internet sensation, raised a couple of eyebrows with a wink, has landed in a police station in Hyderabad because it contains an ‘objectionable’ reference to Prophet Muhammad’s wife. In Mumbai, the Raza Academy wrote to the police commissioner, protesting against the song and its singular connotation. Railing to protect the image of dead human beings is a religious prerogative, and Muslims carry that privilege to extreme lengths.

Will the CPI-M be able to retain its twenty-five years of uninterrupted rule in Tripura or will the BJP upset all calculations and prove every electoral arithmetic wrong by dislodging Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and his party? The answer will be diametrically opposite depending on whether the person questioned is pro-red or pro-saffron. But one thing nobody will deny: Tripura has never seen so much money flowing during elections. Resource-wise, the CPI-M is no match for the BJP.

Asauddin Owaisi is delusional speaking with the Cosmos. The only Member of Parliament who likes to be called Barrister-at-Law is not loathe to step over laws he deems don’t help take forward his religious agenda, which again is more political.