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It’s a telling comment on the state of the Indian National Congress that a four-member committee it appointed four months ago to devise a strategy to rejuvenate the party and fight the Modi government has turned out a non-starter.

A turnaround in the economy is visible. GDP growth, based on new series of 2011-12, was forecasted at 7.4 per cent in 2014-15, up from 6.9 per cent in 2013-14 and a spurt from 4.8 per cent in 2012-13. Paradoxically, China’s GDP, which was pitching for higher growth even after Lehman shock, is on downward swing. China’s GDP growth was 7.4 per cent in 2014, down from 7.8 per cent in 2013 and a deep plunge from 11 per cent in 2010. IMF has further trimmed Chinese GDP growth. It slashed Chinese GDP growth to 6.8 per cent in 2015 and 6.3 per cent in 2016. Days are not far when India’s growth will outsmart China, the economists believe.

LUCKNOW: Shocked by the party’s debacle in Delhi assembly polls, Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders feel that PM Narendra Modi and party national president Amit Shah would bring about change in their style of functioning to ensure better performance of party in 2017 assembly polls.

Does Prime Minister Modi’s last week’s comments on religious tolerance represent a turning point in the attitude he and his party have hitherto pursued towards minorities and also on the issue of using religion for political ends? A related question is: Will his changed stance stop the Hindutva hardliners from inciting communal sentiments like what they have been doing since Modi government’s assumption of office nine months ago?

For all the BJP’s earlier assertions of being a “party with a difference” – a claim which it no longer makes presumably because of the ridicule it will evoke – the party has long proved itself to be as bad, if not worse, than all the others.

The ongoing investigation in the recently surfaced corporate espionage matter in the economic Ministries of the Union Government as also in the now infamous Neera Radio tapes cases has revealed the questionable involvement of journalists of all hews in the nasty games of business and statecraft. This obviously puts journalists in the public spotlight. Their professional clout, personal connections with persons in powerful political, bureaucratic and corporate sector positions make them very resourceful, tempting the interested groups in trade, commerce, industry, government security set ups to tap them for intelligence gathering, lobbying for various benefits on quid pro quo basis and other favours. This also makes the media persons greedy bombs so much so that news reporting and their reviews and interpretations are coloured, in the process denying the people their inherent right to correct and fair information. Of course, there are exceptions that help maintain the nobility of journalistic profession, which outshines.

In the elections to 74 civic bodies across Assam held on February 9, the BJP emerged triumphant, capturing 23 municipalities and 20 town committees, leaving the Congress far behind. The BJP won 340 seats, while Congress won only 232. Regional parties like the AGP and the AIUDF were pushed to the margin while the Left drew blank.

The BJP-led government faces a big test in the monsoon session of Parliament as it needs to replace six ordinances with legislations that include the one on land acquisition and that has already created ripples in political circles. The government failed to get big ticket Insurance Bill and Coal Ordinances passed through the Rajya Sabha during the winter session due to strong opposition presence in the house. The fall out of the BJP’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Aam Admi Party in Delhi could also reverberate in the Budget Session.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Velikkakath Sankaran Achuthanandan cannot be denied for long. The CPI(M) veteran has proved, once again, that he cannot be shackled for good by dropping yet another bombshell, which has sent shockwaves through the party.

For the Modi Government, shell-shocked by the excruciating electoral results in the national capital in the second week of this month still rankling, the need to recapture its larger-than-life-size image is too important to be left to the tame preparation and presentation of the General Budget on Feb 28 in Parliament. No doubt, the Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley has a mind of his own and a virtual minefield of ideas in consonance with his pronounced pro-business and pro-market proclivities that he said time and again are neither incongruent nor inconsistent with pro-poor policies.