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Karnataka State Legislative Assembly’s unanimous decision of June 20, 2017, based on a privilege committee report, sentencing two editors of Kannada tabloids to one year jail and a fine of 10,000 and in the event fine is not paid additional jail term of six months, is nothing short of riding roughshod against media.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tension between the CPI(M) and CPI, its principal ally in the Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government, has flared up once again, causing fresh concern in LDF circles.

Whether the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to America and his talks with US President Donald Trump are an important page in the history of collaboration and cooperation between the two countries is not yet clear and lies in the womb of the future, but one thing is explicit that India has committed itself to protect US interests and become an active partner of the US global strategy.

Even before Ram Nath Kovind, the BJP’s choice for the new president, had moved into Rashtrapati Bhavan, the saffron politicians and ministers gave a broad hint of the changes in the offing by staying away from President Pranab Mukherjee’s Iftar party.

While the European Union is creating pressure on the UK to fulfill its commitment before leaving the EU, intriguingly at the same time the EU leadership is adopting a flexible approach with some of them even expressing the view that UK can continue to remain an EU member. No doubt the interest of the UK will be hurt once Brexit is formally approved and implemented, but the major loser will be the EU, as Brexit officially heralds the beginning of the deglobalisation.

One reason why the bruising political deadlock persists in Darjeeling and north Bengal hill districts is that both adversaries — the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) — indulge in unbridled political opportunism.

It is almost certain that the low-profile NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will be the next tenant of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The incumbent Pranab Mukherjee retires on July 25 and the polls will take place on July 17. The election of Kovind will be historic if he wins, as it will be the first time an RSS man will be presiding over the Raisina Hills. Bihar governor Kovind, a low-profile Dalit leader, was a surprise candidate chosen by the BJP. However, the opposition has fielded the former Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar, another Dalit, as its presidential nominee, making it a Dalit versus Dalit contest and whoever wins India will have a Dalit President.

The June 2016 Brexit of the UK from the European Union (EU) and the ascension of a maverick Republican Donald Trump to U.S. Presidency early this year with the implied message of insularity and growing protectionism among leading Western nations are broadly construed as a broadside on the advocates of globalisation. Lest the international community should risk forgetting the lessons of the past and taking for granted the uncounted gains of globalisation, the Basle-based central bankers’ central bank, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has made a fervent case on persisting with globalization, laying out how deeper trade and financial links had fostered hand in hand by this process to benefit many a country.

Dalit vs Dalit. The battle line has finally been drawn. While the Opposition’s pick Meira Kumar will challenge the NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind with the motto to strengthen and uphold secular values, on his part Kovind will facilitate Sangh to reinvent itself and usher the country into a new polity with a distinct Hindutva super-structure.

Union Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley’s open invitation to Russian firms, last week, to set up joint ventures with Indian companies to manufacture advanced military platforms through technology transfers couldn’t have at a more appropriate time as India gears up to overhaul its decades-old slow-moving defence production programme. India is the world’s largest defence and security gears importer. The gross annual armament and parts import bill, covering all the three services, para-military forces and other connected agencies, is close to US$10 billion. The BJP-led government’s path-breaking initiatives for defence production in India have been received enthusiastically by the country’s leading private industrial groups such as the Tatas, Reliance, Mahindra & Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro. Defence manufacturers from both sides of the North Atlantic has made positive responses to the government’s ‘make in India’ initiative.