View Articles

BHOPAL: There is sudden spurt in the factional feuds in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Madhya Pradesh. Several party leaders including all India General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya are openly raising such issues publicly which normally should be raised in appropriate party forums.

Both the Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chabdrababu Naidu have betrayed the people of Andhra Pradesh by their inaction in persuading the Narendra Modi government to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. After dangling this special status to the people of the Andhra Pradesh after division, both the BJP and the TDP leaderships are talking in different tunes after the central government made it clear that the PMO favoured only a special package for Andhra Pradesh and not the special status.

Is Rahul Gandhi finally going to become the Congress President soon or it is one more kite flying news? His supporters want him to take over immediately while the old guard wants Sonia Gandhi to continue. She has been the Congress President since 1998, creating a record in the Congress history. Unable to complete the organizational election process, the party extended her term by one year, which ends in December. There are some who feel that the dual power centres of mother and son have not worked well as the workers are confused. There will be added confusion if Priyanka Gandhi Vadra enters politics.

Paying respect to a freedom fighter is one of the most sacred public relations exercises when it comes to the Government of India. The list of Indian nationalist freedom fighters, as compiled by the Government of India, is an ever expanding pantheon. But very often, in such freedom fighter list expansion, when “forgotten heroes” don’t exist, it is necessary to manufacture them.

PATNA: It may sound bizarre, but the fact remains that Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has to beg to Lalu Prasad to restrain his disciple don Shahabuddin from hurling diatribe and denunciation against Kumar. No one would have imagined that the proxy boys of Nitish have to approach Lalu for buying peace.

One whom age has not withered, one who is always alive to the situation and is kicking, is the one and only highly accomplished super lawyer and politician Ram Jethmalani. There is everything extraordinaire about him, a good human being, a legal professional par excellence, a person with overflowing milk of human kindness, a politician out to uphold majesty of law and authority et al.

Steel glut in the world became a hot topic in 11th G-20 Summit at Hangzhou city in China, notwithstanding it was not the agenda of the summit. Over-capacity in steel was alleged the main culprit and was hurting the global health of the economy. In a veiled attack to China, when China raised voice against the protectionism in the summit as a chair-person, European Commissioner President Jean Claude Junker vehemently protested against the Chinese over capacity in steel, holding it responsible for the glut. He urged China to set up a mechanism to address its problem of over-capacity. Succumbed to pressure, China called for a global forum for steel excess capacity adjustment.

North-east India is usually referred to as the “Land of Seven Sisters”. It implies a cultural homogeneity and cohesiveness of the seven States of the region: Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Each State is different from the others in culture, language, population composition, social segmentation, political situation and in the degree of economic development. Even within the same State there are differences.

LUCKNOW: Interactive style of Rahul Gandhi and strategy of Prashant Kishor has boosted the morale of grassroot workers of Congress Party.

Anna Hazare is disappointed with his one-time disciple, Arvind Kejriwal. The hope with which “I was looking at Arvind Kejriwal is over”, the Gandhi-wannabe has said. He should have anticipated his disillusionment, for he had called Kejriwal “power hungry” even before he became the Delhi chief minister.