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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The election of Kanam Rajendran as the new secretary of the Kerala unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) is the best thing that has happened to the party, which is at a critical juncture in its political life.

Sometimes events of immediate relevance overshadow issues of potentially wider ramifications. One such event is the Akali Dal-BJP combine’s sweeping victory in the outgoing week’s municipal council and nagar panchayats polls and relatively less spectacular performance in the Municipal Corporations elections. The other event is the Centre’s enhancing the states share in central taxes from 32% to 42% in the wake of 14th Finance Commission recommendations.

Mr Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, smartly projected a visionary image for the first full-fled Union Budget of the Modi Government for 2015-16, which in overall terms is less assuring of the 'Achhe Din', promised by the Prime Minister, coming within sight in the foreseeable future. It holds out more attractions for business in the hope all that would help to revive investments and create jobs.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala continues to pay a heavy penalty for giving the BJP the cold shoulder in the Lok Sabha elections. That is the unmistakable message beamed by both the Railway and the Union Budgets presented by the Narendra Modi Government.

The first full budget of the Modi government is low on hype but high on content. The budget does not take ambitious new moves, but takes numerous small ones for long term impact. In the end, it is an intelligent document for achieving the principal goal of job creation through higher growth. This is how it tries to achieve that goal.

Intriguingly, both the Congress and the BJP are currently involved in internal skirmishes. Nor are they of a minor nature common to most parties which have to deal with factional squabbles.

This is undoubtedly a different budget, much different than anyone has seen or read since the independence. The poor, the downtrodden and the old may think they have the most – insurance, pension, health care and all that. The unemployed youth, aspiring small entrepreneurs may find the budget providing a basket of hopes. The salaried middle class carries more money into their pocket even without lower tax levies. The states are treated most ravishingly ever. Eastern states, including West Bengal and Bihar, and newly created Andhra Pradesh have more. The give-away list goes on and on. There is little to grumble about the budget. The only fears are the remote possibility of an international oil price surge beyond $75 per barrel and a real drought.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An aggressive assertion of its separate identity and a forceful articulation of the paramount need for strengthening the left marked the start of the five-day state conference of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Kerala in Kottayam.

Where is Rahul Gandhi? None in the Congress Party knows his whereabouts. First reports revealed he was seen boarding a flight to Greece and then someone said he might have gone to Bangkok. The latest reports say that he was sighted in Uttarakhand, but according to a Congress leader, he may be in Himachal Pradesh. The stock answer to repeated queries was Rahul has gone on sabbatical to introspect on a series of Congress defeats in elections; first debacle in Lok Sabha elections in May 2014, followed by rout in Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls and finally in Delhi where the mighty Congress Party, which ruled the state for 15 long years and set the pace for development, was reduced to a zero.

A medium-term massive investment plan of the order of Rs 8.56 lakh crore for the next five years with no hike in passenger fares but a 10 per cent increase in the freight structure for the base class-100 with a few exemptions for essential items such as salt for human consumption and bulk goods like cement, coal and coke, iron and steel, pig iron, iron ores and petroleum products as also rationalization of distance slabs in the next fiscal are the highlights of the 2015-16 Rail Budget presented in Parliament by the Railway Minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu on February 26.