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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is one of the delicious ironies of Kerala CPI(M) politics. The more the State CPI(M) leadership tries to marginalize VS, the more he bounces back with greater force!

LUCKNOW: BSP supremo Mayawati is making preparations for Mission 2017 to capture power in Uttar Pradesh.

Has a secular anti-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance at last been sealed in Bihar, following Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad’s declaration that he would consume “poison” by fighting the coming Assembly elections jointly with the Janata Dal (United) and the Congress, and proposing Nitish Kumar as its Chief Ministerial candidate in the presence of JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav?

China's dynamic thrusts to enlarge its global presence, with its abundant reserves and breath-taking intra-regional 'Belt and Road' initiatives, are pushing to the fore the long-sought reform of the international economic order to reflect growing weight of emerging market and other developing countries. China makes no secret of its economic super-power status in a world which it sees as no longer unipolar.

Till five days back the Janata Parivar appeared to be a confederation of losers. But now the coalition, even despised as the coalition of desperation by the BJP leadership has emerged as the potential force to upset the strategies of the saffron outfit and its Chanakya Amit Shah to wrest the power from Nitish Kumar.

Karl Marx had once said: “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” In the dying decades of the twentieth century, religion became the breeding ground of extremism and terrorism which, over the years, spread its tentacles to various parts of the world. India was one of its major victims.

If the Narendra Modi government directed towards economic reforms half of the energy which it spends on persecuting NGOs, stopping the CBI from pursuing the accused in fake encounter cases, appointing seemingly unworthy saffronites to institutional posts, thrusting yoga down the throats of unwilling citizens and so on, then the ruling party at the centre might not have been too concerned about its political future in Bihar and elsewhere.

China witnessed a 5 year fall in consumer price inflation in January 2015. At 0.8 per cent in consumer price inflation on January 5, 2015, China is apprehended to be on the brink of deflation. Between 2011 and November 2014, producers’ prices fell by 10 per cent. The production capacity utilization in major sectors fell to 70-72 per cent in 2013, such as in steel, plate glass, construction materials, chemicals and fertilizers, aluminum , shipbuilding, turbine manufactures and solar panels. Concerns are looming large for the prices to dip further with the excess capacity widening. In between November 2014 and May 2015, People’s Bank of China cut interest rates thrice. But, it failed to jack up the demand.

At long last, arch rivals till the other day—Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar—have come together. It was a political necessity and both, though belatedly, understood this. For Lalu to project Nitish Kumar as the JD(U), RJD and Congress alliance’s Chief Ministerial candidate, was not an easy decision and, as he puts it; “It is as good as drinking ‘vish’ (poison).” Politically shrewd, as he is, Lalu was quick to recognize writing on the wall. With the Congress, having opted for Nitish, Lalu could be isolated and this might split his Muslim-Yadav base, which enabled him to retain 21 per cent vote share even last year. And, he would run the risk of some Yadav votes gravitating to BJP, as they did last year, if they sensed power eluding them, while Muslms would get divided in a three-way fight.

Why is Pakistan seeing red over India’s anti-terrorist offensive in Myanmar? In fact, Pakistan, which always washes its hands off frequent strikes on India by terrorist groups groomed inside Pakistan and patronized by its military, should be happy that India is finally ready to strike back to weed out terrorism from the sub-continent on its own terms. India’s success in this onerous task will, in many ways, benefit Pakistan where home-grown terrorism with international link is killing more innocent Pakistanis along not only areas bordering Afghanistan and Iran, but also in its major cities such as Karachi and Lahore. The terrorist hub in Pakistan will be considerably weakened if Pakistan partners India to flush out terror groups from its soil.