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KOLKATA: Has the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aborted its relentless campaign to expose the financial irregularities and corruption among Mamata Banerjee’s family members? The question has arisen over the sudden silence on the part of the ruling party at the Centre, after it launched its strongest and most vitriolic media campaign against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) some days ago.

One of the BJP’s icons, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, had never been as famous in his life as he is now in the year of his birth centenary celebrations.

BHOPAL: There are major discrepancies between the claims made by the Madhya Pradesh government and Narmada Bachao Andolan relating to the rehabilitation of the oustees of the Sardar Sarovar project, a three-day tour of several villages in the submergence zone in the Dhar and Barwani districts of the state reveals.

Why is the NDA growing at the cost of the UPA? There was a time when the BJP as a political party was untouchable, but today it is opposite of what was seen in the early eighties. Political pundits believed that the country was moving towards a two-front politics in a coalition era. But this has changed in 2014 after the BJP emerged as the single largest party with a majority ending the 30 years of coalition politics. Since then, the UPA is getting weakened, though it showed its strength in the recent Presidential and Vice-Presidential polls, where 18 parties jointly put up their common candidate, knowing very well the numbers were with the BJP.

A running feud with the RSS ideologues and mandarins and his inability to evolve a blue print of economic policies that suited the temperament and political needs of his political patron Narendra Modi dearly cost the Vice Chairperson of the NITI Aayog Arvind Pangariya and forced him to resign and say good bye to his old saffron friends.

By announcing a special grant of Rs. 400 crore to improve the Brahmaputra’s water-holding capacity that will, in turn, help flood control in Assam, the prime minister has indirectly echoed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s concern that the current spate of flood is ‘man-made’ and that not enough is done to maintain the depth of rivers. Mamata was concerned mainly about West Bengal, where 14 of its agriculturally-rich districts were flood-ravaged this time, killing at least 50 people and making lakhs homeless. A good part of the latest flood havoc in Bengal was caused by massive water discharge by Damodar Valley Corporation, the earliest public sector undertaking set up soon after India’s independence.

Some senior lawmakers from Tory as well as Labour parties are seriously contemplating to initiate a move to undo the Brexit. Their move is based on the peoples’ perception that Brexit has failed to do good to Britain instead it has simply complicated the economic and employment scenario prevailing in the UK.

If the BJP and its ideologues think they can erase the names of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and others by rewriting India’s history from the public memory, they are sadly mistaken. A quiz book prepared by the BJP to be used as the basic text to judge the general awareness of nearly 15 lakh school children in Uttar Pradesh has expunged name of Mahatma Gandhi from the list of India’s great personalities. A chapter titled “India’s first” covers everything except the country’s first Prime Minister Nehru.

BHOPAL: The health of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, who is on an indefinite hunger strike, is deteriorating at a fast rate. One of her supporters said on phone from the fast venue in Badwani district that this morning her blood pressure was recorded at 100/60. She, along with 11 other activists, is on fast to press the NBA demand for proper and foolproof rehabilitation of people whose houses and fields are going to be submerged the moment the water in Sardar Sarovar Dam reservoir rises to its maximum height.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Yet another peace meeting has come and gone. But peace has eluded violence-torn Thiruvananthapuram district, which has witnessed clashes between the CPI(M) and the BJP.