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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.

August 9 this year marked the end of Vajpayee-Advani era and the beginning of a generational change in the BJP. The two had dominated the party for decades seeing highs and lows. The Modi-Amit Shah duo is in complete control after the party’s National council endorsed Amit Shah’s appointment as the BJP President. Shah, at 49 is the youngest of the BJP chiefs and has emerged from backroom boy to a front ranking leader. Modi is now in complete control of both the party and the government as Amit Shah is his chosen general. The Modi- Shah relationship goes as far back as 1985 when Modi first met him at an RSS camp and took a liking for him.

For once, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sounded convincing as she addressed a public meeting in a district she was visiting the other day.

BHOPAL: The four day conclave of RSS leaders in Bhopal last week was significant from many respects. The media was not allowed in the meeting and the senior leaders were told not to talk to press anything about the discussions so that the participants could present their views and also their differences with the approach of the Modi Government. However, this time RSS had to organize a press conference addressed by Mohan Vaidya since lot of speculative stories came in the newspapers and the RSS leadership was a bit rattled at that.

Former foreign minister Natwar Singh is no ordinary diplomat-turned-politician. A part of the Indian Establishment for half-a-century, he is well educated, widely travelled, a witness to or participant in major events, and capable of serious reflection. So when he published his memoir One Life is Not Enough, readers had reasons to expect much more from him than from the recent book on Dr Manmohan Singh by his former media adviser, Sanjaya Baru.

LUCKNOW: Should Uttar Pradesh also have Bihar type alliance of non-BJP parties to take on BJP in the forthcoming by-elections for 12 assembly and one Lok Sabha seats in few months time?

Like the removal of some of the governors appointed by the UPA and the bar on the appointment as private secretaries of those who had served under the previous regime, the choice of names for the possible recipients of the Bharat Ratna awards this year highlights the change of guard at the centre.

No longer a veteran street fighter but a new Chief Minister of Telengana, Mr K Chandrasekhar Rao has strangely embraced an aggressive style of promoting his state's interests, hurling challenges every day to his Seemandhra counterpart, over the many contentious issues triggered in the aftermath of UPA’s hasty pre-election bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Mr Rao neatly bypassed the Congress which lost the integrated Andhra Pradesh.

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Nepal (Aug. 5-6) was an overture that was long overdue on India’s part. He was the first Indian PM to visit the neighbouring country in seventeen years. Last month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Nepal and chaired a meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission, held in twenty-three years. It shows the extent of neglect that the Manmohan Singh Government had shown to this country.

China +1 strategy in FDI is gaining momentum in South East Asian countries. With the depletion of low cost regime in China and sagging export opportunities in the west, China is turning into an investment risk country for the foreign investors. Instead of closing down their operations in China, the foreign investors are contemplating to invest in other South East Asian countries for their expansion program. It ensures them that this investment will insulate their investment in China.