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KOLKATA: As feared by observers, Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina Wazed is in deep trouble over the non-signing of the Teesta water sharing accord with India.

It would be highly unfair to expect the country’s Prime Minister and his over worked cabinet colleagues busy in macro-managing the nation to know the retail market prices of brinjal or varieties of gourd, parwal, lady’s finger, coriander leaves, green chilli etc. Most likely even their hi-profile housewives may not know the prices of these vegetables alongside those of mutton, beef, pork, chicken, fish and eggs.

A week is said to be long in politics and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi must have realized by this time that five weeks is too long. When she left New Delhi in August she was ailing and when she got back this month she finds the Congress ailing in her absence. What happened in these past five weeks had established her credibility as an undisputed leader even among her critics. It has also brought out the gap in the leadership ranks.

Following the meeting of the Group of Seven developed countries in the quiet retreat of Marseilles south of France, no concrete steps were announced to fight the raging fire in their homeland. Instead, the leaders reaffirmed the faith in “inflexible” determination to honour their sovereign signature. Whatever those words meant, they did not really amount to at least fire-fighting in the emergency that the European economies are currently in. In fact, this also reflects the helplessness of these countries and their economy managers.

BHOPAL: Of late, a series of events of a serious nature seemed to have caused immense damage to the prestige of the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh.

Not many people except those belonging to Col Muammar el-Qadhafi’s inner circle will shed tears if he is captured (hopefully alive) or dead by Western-backed rebel forces, which are closing in on him near the Niger border. This may happen any day now. Qadhafi ruled Libya for 42 years, tyrannising his people and using the country’s great oil wealth to fund various misadventures, including the Lockerbie terrorist attack on an airliner, and attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Even before the Twelfth Plan envisaging a 9 per cent growth average for the five years (2012-17) is finalized, the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia concedes that the target may prove difficult, with the embedded inflation in the economy and an unfinished reform agenda. Near term prospects for progress on both fronts can be virtually ruled out and hence understandably, the target was not more ambitiously set at 10 per cent, as the Prime Minister would have desired.

L.K. Advani confirms the correctness of two beliefs. One is that hope springs eternal in the human breast and the other is that age cannot be measured in years since it is a state of the mind. Despite contrary noises from his party, few will doubt that his latest rath yatra – the sixth since his memorable debut in 1990 – is intended by him to pitchfork him into the frontline in the race for prime ministership.

The expected is happening in Himachal Pradesh. As the Assembly elections near, political and governance issues have started coming to the fore. Two such developments -one on political and the other on governance front- took place in the past few days.

About 18 months ago when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had a summit meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, China made sure that Bangladesh becomes its strategic partner. The two sides agreed to sign deals that would ensure a long-term Chinese involvement in Bangladesh’s economic and social development.