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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF)’s oft-repeated assertions that there was no interference in the bar bribery probe have been proved to be what they really are: a humongous sham.

Recent issues with Nestle’s Maggi noodles and, now, the ITC group’s Sunfeast Yupee noodles are testimonies to how sloppy India’s healthcare quality assurance is. Even more glaring is the absence of awareness among the responsible agencies about the necessity of ensuring healthcare aspects in fast selling foods for the masses.

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah must be a worried person. On the mission to Bihar to accomplish the dream project International Yoga Day of his mentor Narendra Modi and to evolve the campaign strategy for October assembly elections, he had to witness the worst type of personality feud in the NDA. The alliance partners were not only squabbling over seats, instead they were engaged in the nasty war to assert their personal and caste identities.

There is nothing surprising about China’s blocking of the United Nations action against Pakistan for releasing Mumbai attacks mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi killing 166 innocent Indians although the UN action has received support from all other permanent members of the Security Council – namely, the United States, Russia, France and United Kingdom. Expectedly, China has parroted the Pakistani logic that India has not provided conclusive evidence on Lakhvi’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

Praful Bidwai, one of the leading political and social commentators in the Indian media, passed away on June 23, while attending a conference at Amsterdam. He was 63.

The debate over the June 9 raids by the Indian Army’s Special Forces unit against two Northeastern insurgent groups on Myanmarese territory has produced two main reactions. The first reaction, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diehard supporters, is triumphalist and holds that the retaliatory operation’s “great” success against National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) rebels must be trumpeted. The second reaction defends the present covert operation, but believes that publicising such operations is unwise, even self-defeating.

Major Russian companies started taking big interest in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make In India” programme. At the initiative of the Russian Government itself, the leading Russian companies are presently working on plans for collaboration with the Indian corporates belonging to both public and private sector for joint production in India on the lines of the ”Make In India” programme.

In the Indian Union, this is the season of Class 12 examination results. A few days ago, I was watching a TV program on a ‘national’ channel (basically, any TV channel with headquarters in Delhi area and beaming in English or Hindi), which had invited the ‘country’s’ toppers. They were all from the CBSE board (CBSE is the Central Board of Secondary Education, a central government funded institution in the Indian Union and like other boards, holds its own Class 12 examination. Such central boards are also called ‘Delhi’ boards as they are headquartered in Delhi and get their orders from Delhi). But the Indian Union has many, many other boards. CBSE is not even the top board in terms of number of Class 12 students. The number of students who appeared in the Class 12 exam through CBSE board is 10.4 lakhs this year. In just Maharashtra, 12.4 lakh students appeared Maharashtra State Board class 12. In short, Delhi/Central boards represent a miniscule percentage of Class 12 students in the Indian Union.

In West Bengal, what has been politically unthinkable all these years has just happened! The once hoity-toity CPI(M), which ruled the state for over 34 years heading a Left coalition, is considering an electoral alliance with its bête noire the Congress.

The BJP patriarch L.K. Advani’s clarification that his supposed fears about a return of Emergency rule were directed at the Congress must have been greeted with a sign of relief by the ruling party at the centre.