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BHOPAL: Bihar defeat and Petlavad explosion may influence the outcome of the Jhabua-Ratlam parliamentary seat by-election where voting is scheduled to take place on November 21, 2015. The Jhabua-Ratlam seat became vacant following the demise of Dilip Singh Bhuria who won the seat in 2014. Dilip Singh Bhuria contested the election as a BJP candidate. NirmalaBhuria daughter of late Dilip Singh Bhuria is contesting as BJP candidate.

Five States are scheduled to hold assembly elections next year: Kerala, Puducherry, Assam, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Except Assam, none of the other States holds much prospect for the BJP. It is only Assam, the party was setting store by. But several developments in the recent past, the latest being the party’s debacle in Bihar, seem to be putting paid to its hopes about Assam where elections will be held in May.

Can the resurgence of Sikh radicals who exploited the emotional upheaval among the Sikhs over the incidents of defiling of Guru Granth Sahib create the 1980s-like situation when Punjab was virtually taken over by the ISI-backed militants? Two, has the chain of recent events given impetus to the already escalating anti-incumbency against the Badals-led state’s Akali-BJP government? While answer of the first question is ‘NO’, that of the second is ‘YES’.

The 130-year-old Congress is behaving like 44-year-old, yet-to-grow-up Rahul Gandhi. The party’s churlish response to the Narendra Modi government’s decision to open up more sectors to foreign investment shows that it is far from shedding its cussed attitude which it displayed while scuppering the amendment to the land acquisition bill and threatening to do the same to the proposed legislation on goods and services.

India without the public sector SAIL, BHEL, GAIL, CIL, NPCL, PGCL, NTPC, ONGC, IOC, NHPC, NMDC, HAL and HSL among other 200-odd PSEs is worth almost nothing. They have literally built today’s India, supporting the growth of most other private enterprises barring a few world-class independent entrepreneur groups, companies and sectors such as the House of Tatas, Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla group, M&M, L&T, Hero MotoCorps, Bajaj Auto, Infosys and pharma biggies. Most of India’s PSEs contributed substantially to the grow of the Banking industry, which is also controlled by public sector banks with two principal exceptions – ICICI and HDFC Bank. The contribution of the country’s public sector enterprises and banks to the making of its $2-trillion GDP is enormous as also overwhelming. It may be time to reinvestment and rebuild the public sector and convert immovable assets of sick public sectors into modern and profitable PSEs. All major economies, barring the capitalist US, Japan and Germany and a few others, are propped up by their state-invested, though not always state controlled, enterprises. The poor growth of India’s industrial sector in recent years is linked with the growth constraints in its public sector.

Much is being talked about BJP’s debacle in the recent Bihar polls. Leaders are pointing accusing fingers to each other. Leave alone the attempts to question Amit Shah’s leadership of the party, Modi baiters are holding him responsible for his policies. Introspection is always necessary in politics. But the fact to ponder is can there be a better replacement of Modi as Prime Minister at this juncture? It was Modi-Amit Shah duo that was responsible for victory at the recent hustings in Haryana and Maharashtra after the record victory in 2014 Parliamentary elections. It was for the first time that both Haryana and Maharashtra had Chief Ministers from BJP. No one questioned Modi-Amit Shah leadership at that time.

The humiliating defeat of the BJP in the Bihar elections, after Delhi rout, has virtually shaken the party and seniors have sharply criticized the party leadership, Party veterans, sidelined by Narendra Modi, soon he assumed power, rose in revolt. L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, and Shanta Kumar raising a banner of revolt against the leadership of Modi in the wake of Bihar debacle, said that the party has been 'emasculated' in the last one year and was being 'forced to kow-tow to a handful'.

The Bihar State Legislative Assembly Elections 2015, results of which were out on November 8, 2015, have downed the public credibility of media, both print and electronic, rock bottom. The so-called big media houses proved beyond doubt that once again they were wrong in the over all coverage of the election campaign by political parties in fray including the pre-election surveys and exit polls. Entire media coverage came a cropper.

PATNA: If the Delhi mandate gave the first resounding rebuff to RSS and the Narendra Modi government, Bihar has now unfurled the banner of revolt. Describing the Bihar assembly results as a vote against divisive politics of communal hate and religious intolerance practiced by the BJP would indeed be a too simplistic evaluation of the mandate. A closer look at the nature of the verdict makes it explicit that it was a protest against the policy of hegemony of the upper caste and landed gentry.

For the beleaguered NDA government smarting under the bitter Bihar Assembly verdict, the need to put on a brave face by fast-tracking some doable economic reforms to reestablish its credentials of pro-development credo is at no time more urgent than now. With the excruciating winter session looming large where a motley number of Opposition parties have gathered their scattered wits to put the Treasury Benches on the mat, close on the heels of their historic win in Bihar, the task on hand for the feisty Finance Minister and the Man Friday of the Modi Government Arun Jaitley is clearly cut out.