View Articles

The long-awaited TAPI gas pipeline projects, which has had a checkered beginning as at last taken off nearly two decades after the project was conceived for the common economic good of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI). The much delayed project was formally launched this month with the ground breaking ceremony held in Mary in the southeastern part of Turkmenistan.

While Saudi Arabia announced that it is forming a 34-nation military coalition to confront Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) fighters on the ground, the NATO-installed junta in Ukraine has been supplying weapons to ISIS directly. It was revealed after a high-profile bust that was made in Kuwait.

Malevolent stars have sharpened their gaze on the Akali-BJP alliance. The trend is reflected by the deep downslide Punjab’s politics and governance has registered during the last nine years of the Akali-BJP rule. This has earned the once well-administered and prosperous state the stigma of being one of the most misgoverned and fiscally backward states.

The Union Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been making systematic efforts to counter threats from various sources including jihadist terror groups from our neighbourhood, cross border terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir, violence by Left Wing Extremists (LWE) and insurgency in the North East Region. According to official sources, the Government has been working relentlessly to deal firmly with such threats to country’s internal security. As a result, the internal security situation is under control. Besides, there has been steep decline in terror attacks in the hinterland and violence by LWE.

Arunachal Pradesh, the sensitive north-eastern State bordering China, is currently in the throes of a political crisis which was building up over the past few months. The Governor’s controversial role in handling – if not actually precipitating – the crisis has reached the Gauhati High Court.

There is little to draw comfort for India, the world’s fourth largest oil importer, from the continuing oil price fall. The world crude oil price has remained most volatile, though not entirely unpredictable, and has been changing almost every day. It has been the tradition since September 1960, when the Organisation of the Petroelum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the world’s largest commodity cartel, was formed. The price fell to $33 a barrel at the beginning of the week starting on December 21, 2015. No doubt, it's a massive fall from its 2008 peak at $147.02 a barrel on July 11. For India and its economy, whose growth is substantially impacted by global oil price, the current oil price trend may appear to be a good news for the time being, but it must recognize the fact that the current global oil price is engineered and indirectly determined by the United States according to its perception of global politics. The government may find itself in an extremely sticky wicket if its 2016-17 budget, infrastructure spend and import policy are allowed to be influenced by the current oil price trend.

The BJP maverick, Subramanian Swamy, who has made a career out of petitioning the courts, came off second best in his tussle with the Nehru-Gandhis last week.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal, the theme song could well be akla chalo re: Ironically, as the weakest opposition party in West Bengal, the BJP alone is not contemplating any alliance, with only a few months left before the 2016 Assembly polls.

The National Herald was a child of the freedom movement. It was started by Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru himself reported for the paper and Krishna Menon was its London correspondent. Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan in 1942: “The National Herald is an institution.” From 1938 to 1942, it lived dangerously from day to day, ready to publish anything about the freedom movement, paying the penalty of successive securities, forfeited at the pleasure of authorities. It was ordered to submit its editorials to censorship, which it refused, and not given headlines to war news which it defied with ingenuity.

As the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and opposition parties gear up for the next round of West Bengal Assembly elections, their campaign themes have been established.