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With the third consecutive victory of Narendra Milosevic Modi in its state Assembly, Gujarat has taken a big step backwards and India has suffered a political setback. The result will raise Mr Modi’s ambition to play a major role in national politics, as he so clearly indicated by delivering his victory speech in Hindi. But it will also infuse more strife, tension and communal poison into Indian politics without removing the major obstacles that Mr Modi faces in his search to win the National Democratic Alliance’s nomination as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

What is India’s paramount task and its promise to the Next Generation? Ensure that India reaps the Demographic Dividend. The alternative is social and economic chaos, such as in the middle-eastern countries that have young, unemployed populations.

It is too early to say what will be the political fallout in the long run of the outpouring of grief and anger over the gang rape and death of a young woman who has been accepted by the nation as a daughter. But, at least a few sensitive individuals in the government may have realised how wide is the present rift and how deep the disconnect between the politicians and the urban middle class.

KOLKATA: It appears that Gorkhas are not as united over the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland as projected over the years by their community leaders.

“Freedom is in Peril, Defend it with All Your Might.” The words were carried on its masthead by the English daily National Herald (since defunct) established on September 9, 1938 in Lucknow by Jawahar Lal Nehru, who was also the paper’s first Editor. Today’s Punjab needs some rephrasing of the words: “Democracy and Constitutional Institutions in Punjab are in Peril, the People should Defend them with All Their Might”.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A controversy is raging in the state on the report of the Madhav Gadgil committee on protection to the Western Ghats.

Abhijit Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress MP from his father’s former Lok Sabha constituency Jangipur, did not even think that he would be the butt of India’s boom brigade when he was commenting derisively on the women demonstrators in Delhi. The utter inability to sense the impact of a statement shows Abhijit’s lack of maturity in communication.

With her known penchant for shooting herself in the foot, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee certainly needs no enemies.