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Government takes pride in saying that India has one of the largest irrigation networks in the world. Yet vagaries of weather play havoc to Indian agriculture as vast majority of farmers are still dependent on the rains for their livelihood. There may no longer be starvation deaths in the country but the plight of farmers even after nearly 70 years of independence is pathetic as agriculture is one area where successive governments have provided symptomatic solutions to problems. One is not belittling the achievements so far but it is regrettable that a holistic approach has not been adopted on a sustained basis resulting in periodical suffering of farmers. Share of agriculture has come down to 15-16 per cent in India’s GDP with progress but nearly 60 per cent of population still dependent on agriculture putting huge pressure on land, which is increasingly becoming scarce.

When it comes to sheer hypocrisy and double standards, it’s hard to beat the Sangh Parivar. It strenuously claimed the legacy of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a principal author of India’s Constitution, and a Dalit, on his 124th birth anniversary. This was motivated by nothing nobler than the coming election in Bihar, where a Dalit (former stopgap Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manzhi) has emerged as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s potential ally against Messrs Nitish Kumar and Laloo Prasad.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What does the elevation of Sitaram Yechury as the CPI(M) General Secretary signify for the Kerala CPI(M), the most powerful unit of the party in the country?

As Parliament reopened on April 20 for voting the budget of fiscal 2016 and bracing itself for tough legislative battles, the first year record of the all-powerful Modi Government throws up a mixed picture of reform initiatives with as yet uncertain outcomes while its tax and growth policies are still to gain credibility abroad. The economy's slowdown has meanwhile dragged on.

It is not the 1975-77-like Emergency in India. But actions of some of the Modi government’s ministers and Sangh Parivar and its allies’ leaders are reminiscent of the Emergency period’s mindset — perhaps even worse.

The nearly two months of holiday seem to have left Rahul Gandhi pretty much where he was – trapped in the closed space of fixed ideas devoid of any nuances.

Talking to the media on Sunday afternoon soon after his election as the new general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was announced at the 21st Party Congress in Visakhapatnam. Sitaram Yechury said ”We are at the lowest ebb of the party’s history, both in terms of our parliamentary presence and organizational strength. This has to be reversed. It is only on our internal strength that we can be effective in national politics”. This is a very candid admission and Sita has set the right chord by recognizing the reality on the ground. The 21st CPI(M) Party Congress might have been explicit in identifying many weaknesses in the operations of the party’s tactics and strategy in the last ten years and it is good that the top leadership has owned the responsibility for the failures, but the road map charted out at the Vizag congress is still full of confusions and many grey areas remain which the new general secretary Sitaram Yechury has the responsibility to clarify.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is expected to visit India later this month at the invitation of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Modi who has given big focus on improving relations with the neighbouring countries, is giving special importance to this visit and the Prime Minister’s Office is working on a detailed programme for further assistance to Afghanistan with the objective of pepping up the Afghan economy.

Merger of six political parties, having faith in socialist ideology, is an important development which may upstage the BJP in Bihar assembly elections due later this year. Banking on their socialist outlook, the merged parties pose a serious challenge to the BJP, which is striving hard to win in Bihar after Delhi debacle. The Congress too is tacitly backing the new combine. Already, the BJP juggernaut is slowing down nationally. With an eye on Bihar poll, the announced merger of six parties—SP, JD(U), RJD, JD(S). INLD and SPJ—into one political entity may in the time to come, have impact in other states too. Samajwadi Party Chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, will be leader of the Janata Party combine but the issues such as the name, flag, election symbol of the party will be finalized by a six-member committee.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The efforts of the CPI(M) to strengthen the unity of Left forces suffered an early setback with the Revolutionary Socialist Party(RSP) ruling out its return to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala.