View Articles

Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee must be the most abrasive and volatile personality in Indian politics today. She takes offence at the drop of a hat, and goes hysterical at the slightest sign of dissidence. But she probably surpassed her own standards with the tantrum she threw when confronted by a protest in Delhi by Communist Party of India (Marxist) and CPM-affiliated activists against her trivialisation of the custodial death of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) leader Sudipta Gupta as a “petty” matter.

In its latest review of the Indian economy released today (April 23), the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council headed by Dr. C. Rangarajan has pointed out two main structural aspects of the Indian economy and has asked for corrective actions.

When being sent to jail to serve a 28-year term, the former BJP minister in Gujarat, Maya Kodnani, tearfully said that she was a victim of politics. She did not clarify what she meant. Was she blaming the communal brand of politics which her party is said to follow? Or was she alleging that she had become entangled in self-serving politics where her mentors had abandoned her?

It’s the night of April 19th as I write. As per information received till now, one of the two suspects of the Boston marathon bombings has died. The other suspect is wounded and been taken into custody. There were gunfights leading up to it. Through the day I have heard helicopter sounds above and police-car sirens.

Hypocrisy thy name is politics. The reference is to those some of whom had advocated strong action against terrorists in the eighties, but are today trying to save the convicted extremists by stopping the law, what politicians rhetorically repeat, ‘from taking its own course’. The latest example of their turnaround is the campaign to seek clemency for the 1993 Delhi blast convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Front that is uniformly disunited. That is what the United Democratic Front (UDF) has become with factionalism running rampant not only in the Congress but also in the allies.

A sudden meltdown of the chit fund business and investment activities that have flourished in West Bengal, has landed the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in deep trouble ahead of the panchayat polls.

LUCKNOW: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is making serious efforts to increase its tally in Lok Sabha to make former chief minister Mayawati prime minister should country vote for a hung house in 2014 polls.

The NDA appears to have been disintegrating before assembly elections later this year. There will also be no NDA in 2014 general elections and the BJP may have to go alone in the electoral battle. In other words, the main opposition party will be ally-less, reminiscent of the days when the saffron party was treated as untouchable.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was busy in his talks in Germany last week, there was orchestrated pressure from various European quarters to quickly conclude the India-EU free trade agreement. European wine and Scottish whisky producers, German car makers and pan European financial service providers all demanded that India EU FTA should be concluded on a fast track. All want duty free entry of their products into India. In return, they ask for stricter intellectual property rights, opening of farm imports and no rights or freer movement of Indians in EU to provide service (mainly IT).