View Articles

Seeds of resentment against Indian National Congress were sown in South India much before Independence because of the so-called national party increasingly becoming a pro-cow belt party even though many leaders of national stature have emerged from South India. The pro-Hindi stance under the garb of nationalism in the BJP and periodically in the Congress had given birth to regionalism, which took roots first in South India.

Candidates allied with the left-wing government of President Nicolas Maduro won in 17 of Venezuela’s 23 states in regional elections on Sunday, October 15. Results in one state (Bolivar) have not been announced yet at writing. The turnout of eligible voters was 61.1 percent. The results indicate a recuperation of support for the government since its heavy loss in the legislative election of December 6, 2015.

Whether or not the death of an 11-year child because of hunger in Simdega district in Jharkhand has shaken the conscience of those at the helm of affairs is anybody's guess, but it has definitely reconfirmed the gravity of the situation of hunger in the country. That India has been pushed to the 100th rank in the Global Hunger Index 2017 released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is a cause of grave concern for our country. Our ranking is as low as Rwanda, a country which has been war stricken for several years leading to over a million deaths as a result of civil strife. We rank even below many of our neighbouring countries such as China at 29th rank, Nepal ranked at 72, Myanmar at 77, Sri Lank at 84 and Bangladesh at 88. According to IFPRI, India has “consistently fallen into the upper half of the serious hunger levels” category in the past few years. This situation needs urgent review because nutrition is directly related to the health status.

Certain changes are taking place in Nepal, both in its internal politics and in its external relations with China. For one thing, ever since the monarchy ended a decade ago in December 2007, Nepal has failed repeatedly to pass and implement a constitution. The latest constitution, adopted in September 2015, is still to be formally promulgated. Minister for Information and Communication Mohan Bahadur Basnet has gone on record saying the constitution will come into force only after the provincial and parliamentary elections to be held this November.

A series of unprecedented political and military developments are taking place in China contiguous to holding of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China which began on October 18. While the CPC is well set to mention President Xi Jinping as a mentor, an honour reserved so far for Communist stalwarts Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, this would be the first ever Congress which will have participation of military delegates on an unprecedented scale. Amazingly the former presidents, Jiang Zeming and Hu Jintao, who jointly ruled for two decades, have not been affirmed by name in the party constitution.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his Washington sojourn to attend the Fund-Bank annual jamboree maintained in his interactive session with business leaders that addressing the problem of non-performing assets (NPAs) or what is in plain parlance the unrecoverable debts the public sector banks (PSBs) had been saddled with for far too long remains “a very high priority”. Jaitley said this has two aspects. One is to recover what is recoverable. For this the government has created new laws, amended existing laws and have created a new machinery, which will probably take care of it, he said, obviously alluding to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) with its far-reaching beneficial implications to the stakeholders.

There was always an element of unreality in Narendra Modi’s “sab ka saath, sab ka vikas” slogan since the call for all-round development meant the inclusion of Muslims. Given the Sangh Parivar’s decades-old antipathy towards the Muslims and Christians, it was difficult to believe that there had been a change of heart in the saffron camp.

The Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti’s action of not notifying the poll dates for Gujarat while announcing the date for the Himachal Pradesh not only makes his action suspect but is also appalling and unacceptable. Joti is aware of the fundamentals of the logic that any action must have a rational reason. But in this case he refrained from mentioning the reason for not announcing the dates for Gujarat.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly found that the Islamic Republic of Iran has not contravened the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal agreed with Western powers. There is no indication from the U.S. State Department that Iran has not been in compliance with the deal. Donald Trump knows this but is prepared to go down the path of decertification in order to once again open up the prospect of conflict with Iran and reinforce the role of the United States in the Middle East.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The victory of Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) candidate, KNA Khader, in the Vengara by-election was a foregone conclusion. But even the most enthusiastic IUML and United Democratic Front(UDF) activists will concede that it has been a pyrrhic victory, which has grave implications for the party and the UDF, of which IUML is the second most powerful constituent.