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The reassuring remarks by the Union Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley on March 22 after addressing the central board of the apex bank as is customary following the presentation of the Union Budget that everything is honky-dory between the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), did imply that the mutual relationship remains taut. The denial of ‘disconnect’ said this in ample measure! Though the Governor of the central bank is chosen and appointed by the government with the precedents showing that by and large they seldom embarrassed their benefactor, there were occasions in the past when some had chosen not to go the whole hog with the government in following loose monetary policy when the authorities showed predilection for loose fiscal policy.

Tamil Nadu's disgruntled DMK led by Mr M Karunanidhi (91) hopefully looks to the poll battle in 2016, largely on a wishful premise of the soon-to-be delivered orders by the Special Court in Karnataka going adverse for the ruling AIADMK leader Ms. Jayalalithaa in the Disproportionate Assets case.

Babulal Marandi is in the peoples’ court seeking justice against the misdemeanours and strong arm tactics of the BJP which lured six of its legislators. The B JP and its government have targeted to finish Marandi politically. While the BJP is strictly following the RSS script on expansion in the Jharkhand, it has also been also assiduously working on the plan to decimate Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha. Within a month of its coming to power, the BJP struck ruthlessly against Marandi.

If the continuing high credit and deposit rates running for a period of almost five years at a stretch have little impact on India’s high inflation rates, the current inflationary trend is obviously outside the domain of the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy. RBI has done what it could do under the circumstances. The tight money policy has failed to curb inflation. High credit rates are not compressing the money supply with the system. Similarly, high deposit rates are not driving surplus money with the public into bank or institutional deposits. If the known inflation control system by the country’s central bank has failed for such a long period, there are several reasons, of which two seems to be most compelling. First one refers to massive black money circulation benefiting a big section of the population that does not respond to RBI’s money control measures. The other one is that a good number of profit making Indian companies are not seriously impacted by RBI credit rates for two reasons: these fund-flush firms don’t need to borrow much from the domestic banks at such high rates and others indulge in cheaper commercial borrowings thinking that domestic rates will not surge beyond a point impacting their repayment costs in rupee terms.

Has India’s mainstream media decided to pay mere lip service to the Constitution’s fundamental values of secularism and liberalism while ignoring daily attacks on them by the Sangh Parivar, an extremist organisation in which the Bharatiya Janata Party is deeply embedded? Going by the media’s silence on several recent developments, that does seem to be the case.

LUCKNOW: The Akhilesh Yadav government is heading for confrontation with opposition parties on the issue of proposed bill on curtailing the powers of mayors in the state.

Since he came to power after winning the presidential election of January 8, Maithripala Sirisena has been trying to correct the pronouncedly pro-Chinese tilt given to Sri Lanka’s foreign policy by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa and to strike a balance in the relations between his country and India and China. In pursuance of this policy, he visited India in mid-February and invited Prime Minister Modi to Sri Lanka.

CHANDIGARH: After the Modi government’s honeymoon period prematurely ended within six months of its assuming office on May 26, 2014, now signs of anti-incumbency have started emerging. Different sections of people are protesting against the government’s failure to fulfil its election promises. Thousands of farmers are holding demonstrations against the government’s land acquisition policy. The promised reforms are in a state of limbo. One can hear dissenting voices in the ruling NDA against centralisation of power by the Modi-Amit Shah duo.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The campaign within the Congress against Finance Minister and Kerala Congress(M) chief, K. M. Mani who is in the eye of the bar bribery scam storm, has gathered momentum with more and more Congress leaders joining the chorus of criticism against him.

How the world has changed for the BJP. Who would have thought that a BJP chief minister, Goa’s Laxmikant Parsekar, would speak out against the ban on beef in Maharashtra and Haryana because the meat was a part of the cuisine of minorities?