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In the wake of the infamous Mumbai (then Bombay) blasts in 1993, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Sharad Pawar issued a statement which was deliberately false. In his press release, what Mr. Pawar did was to falsely include a ‘Muslim-dense’ area of Bombay as victim of the atrocity in order to paint a picture of indiscriminate targeting by the attackers. The city, like the rest of the nation, was still reeling from the aftermaths of Babri-mosque demolition and hence the ‘white-lie’ on part of Mr. Pawar was mostly acclaimed as necessary, if not indispensible, to avoid another devastating communal riot in a city where divisive politics had already spread its tentacles far and wide.

With a comfortable majority in the lower house of Parliament and being confident of improving the tally in the upper house before long, the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has embarked upon decentralization of power from the Centre to the States in a significant bid to promote true federalism. Although several governments in the past had mouthed the need to devolve power from the Centre to the States and from States to panchayati raj and urban local bodies, the reality was far different. One has always been led to take this with a shovel of salt so much so that the Centre developed a sort of vested interest in centralized control under the pretext of ironing out inequalities among people and among States over the years!

With the government and the Reserve Bank gearing up to enact a new bankruptcy law in India, certain sectors of industry and sections of entrepreneurs may have genuine reasons to cheer. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about ordinary corporate investors, creditors and bank depositors unless the government guarantees a strong deposit or investment insurance regime to protect them. For ordinary investors, the fear of probability of the law providing protection to a bankrupt business, bank or financial institution and individual has become more acute than ever in the light of the recent collapse of even several large corporations such as Kingfisher Airlines, Ispat Industries, etc. alongside some non-banking financial companies and chit funds and real estate firms putting creditors and investors in deep distress.

More than a month after Israel launched a murderous onslaught on the Gaza Strip, with over 2,000 casualties, there’s still no clarity about when “Operation Protective Edge” might end—despite the recent extension of a ceasefire. Israel has destroyed 10,000 homes, turned a quarter of Gaza’s population into refugees, and repeatedly targeted civilian installations, including schools, hospitals and United Nations-designated shelters—in flagrant violation of international law.

Almost on par with his glorious ascent to power, Mr Narendra Modi's first Independence Day address from Red Fort turned out to be a red letter day, not so much for its enthralling symbolism with a flowing red turban on his luminous head as for its substance in sketching out his larger vision of a New India. By and large, an impacting performance all over.

When a faithful retainer is asked to assess his masters, he has no option but to play safe. Moreover, his servile instincts make him blind to any flaws. The result is that he is unable to give an honest opinion. Instead, he tiptoes around a glaring defect and concentrates on the non-essentials.

This is the centenary year of Indian participation in the First World War. 100 years ago, over a million Indian soldiers set out overseas to defend the British Empire with the hope that after the end of the war their country will get self-rule under Dominion status. But despite the death of thousands of Indian soldiers and several being injured, the British colonial rulers regrettably failed to live up to their assurances.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is a classic case of confrontation between an idealist and the proponents of the so-called pragmatic politics.

A landmark achievement of the first budget session of the Narendra Modi government was passage of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill and related Constitution Amendment Bill to support it. A rare unanimity was seen in approval of the measure as the opposition, mainly the Congress, sided with the government in ensuring that NJAC bill was carried through. But for the Congress support, the government would have found it difficult to push the judges appointment bill which had been debated for 24 odd years. Government had, however, to concede to the Congress demand for sending the Insurance Bill to a Select Committee. The bill seeks to raise the ceiling on foreign direct investment in the sector to 49 per cent from the existing 26 per cent.

Diving into the fathomless depth of an ocean in search of a black box is important to ascertain the truth behind an air crash and is perfectly justified, but advancing the same logic to go round the world and dig into an uncertain depth of hostile legal marsh to unearth black money hordes by individuals and corporates would appear to be rather impractical. The latter proved to be a totally futile exercise in the case of the government’s bid to recover some Rs. 64 crore Bofors kickback, allegedly received by Indian politicians and army generals in 1987 against a purchase of field guns from the Swedish manufacturer, after a 25-year chase by the CBI, ED, ACB and other enforcement agencies and spending about Rs. 250 crore of tax-payers money in the process. For all practical purposes, the case is closed. The alleged kingpin, Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman, reportedly close to the family of the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, died in Milan, last year. The case allowed Indian official investigators and legal personnel travel through a good part of Europe, South East Asia and South America at the government expense to return empty handed or, maybe, with some small gifts for friends and family members at home.