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The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 is potentially more harmful than it aims to protect. Obviously, the issues that might arise in the aftermath of its becoming an act are not well thought.

Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde created a storm with his obscurantist call to fellow countrymen to identify themselves by their religion and caste and not to fancy themselves as ‘secular’ because such people have no respectable parentage to claim. He even promised to amend the Constitution so that the word secular could be removed from it. Hegde’s conduct shocked everyone, including his ministerial colleagues, who took no time to distance themselves and the government from whatever he said and implied.

The year 2017 was an eventful year, perhaps more eventful than previous years. The year gone by saw a surge for the BJP: the saffron party, for the first time, has its president in Rashtrapathi (APJ Abdul Kalam was a consensus candidate and not a party man). Congress party’s Pranab Mukherjee completed his five-year term as president, ending a long and eventful career in politics. Entering Parliament at the age of 34, Pranab Babu to his friends and Pranab da to younger people, he had unparalleled experience in governance; having held various portfolios as minister of Defence, External Affairs, Commerce and Finance. Soon after joining down the highest office of the land, he published a three-volume autobiography: The Dramatic Decade; The Indira Gandhi years, The Turbulent Years and The Coalition Years.

BERLIN: Berlin and Germany offer plenty to write about, sometimes much of it unpleasant. As we approach the New Year, none of it is burningly new or urgent. Bargaining on forming a new government will last well into 2018, with little prospect thus far of change for the better, or of hope generally. So, with this a holiday season for so many, I decided to stray briefly from politics – if you will permit.

Since the cost of drugs comes to about 70 percent of the out of pocket expenditure on health, this becomes a cause of major concern. Because 80 percent of medical care in our country is in private sector and advanced tertiary care is mainly coming up in corporate sector, the cost concerns are increasing. As per the National Health Policy document 2017, every year 6.3 crore people are pushed below poverty line due to out of pocket expenditure on health. It is, therefore, very important that prices of drugs are streamlined and made affordable. Unlike consumer products, where the buyer has a choice and can decide on what to buy, medicine is something over which the patient has no choice and is dependent on medical advice. The disease is not by choice. Therefore, it is all the more essential that the cost of drugs is within the reach of every citizen. The government owes a responsibility to bring down the cost of medicines.

The Cabinet approved the FRDI Bill (Financial Resolution & Deposit Insurance Bill) and thereafter the Bill was introduced in the Parliament on the last day of the last Session and now the Bill has been referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee.

The CBI special court verdict exonerating all the accused in the 2G spectrum scam exposes the moral decline in the Indian polity during the last five years. The credibility of Indian politicians has always been suspect, but the manner in which it was shredded by the very votaries of the morality, public accountability, transparency and ethics has lowered India’s image in the international fraternity.

Country wide security situation is by and large under control, says the official sources in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). However, growing insecurity and fear among minorities and dalits following spate of targeted violence against them, their covert discriminatory treatment and deprivation under the veneer of ‘inclusive’ governance and development and consequential heightened social tension endangering the core values of India’s time tested civilisational strength of diversity, tolerance and co-existence are worrisome. If the current trends of divisive politics, hatred and splintering of people along communal and religious lines are not stemmed, increasing social tension has the potential to impact adversely internal security of the nation.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kannur-based Halal Faidah Cooperative Society’s (HFCS) plan to start a cooperative society based on Islamic principles of banking has fructified. But the euphoria over its inauguration has been tempered by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who sounded a note of abundant caution.

Avanti and Chetna Jadhav had no choice but to go to Pakistan. Their emotions were tied and nailed to the man in Pakistan. And the control was in the enemy’s hands. The last time the two saw and spoke to Kulbhushan Jadhav was 22 months ago. One was the mother and the other the wife of the man on death row in Pakistan. It was now or never.