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LUCKNOW: BJP cadres in Uttar Pradesh as well as senior party leaders are unhappy at the way the state leadership is functioning. Despite the tall claim of success of membership drive, there is total lack of direction at the top level leading to an all-round confusion in the BJP ranks at the districts level. There is total lack of planning and the legislators are clueless about the way the seniors are operating.

The RSS might have accomplished its Mission Jharkhand of ensuring the victory of the BJP, polarising the people of the state on adivasi and non–adivasi lines and pushing the tribal people out from power circle, it is yet to consolidate its gains. Ever since the BJP government led by non-adivasi Raghubar Das was installed in the secretariat, the RSS has launched a multi-pronged strategy to propagate its ideas, with the help of the government. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has been paying special attention to the organisation’s activities in the state. On January 23, Bhagwat offered a special prayer and performed Jalabhishek at Vaidyanath Mandir in Deoghar. Sahasarakaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale was also present on the occasion.

More than a decade after the Gujarat riots when Atal Behari Vajpayee told Narendra Modi to follow the raj dharma of not discriminating between citizens, US president Barack Obama, too, tendered the same advice during his visit to India.

In this world of 'breaking news' and constant 'update', we sometimes need some distance in time to digest the full implications of an 'event' and its implications. A good example is the recent 'terror-boat' incident off the Porbandar coast of the Gujarat state of the Indian Union, where a boat caught fire (still unclear how) and sank without any known survivors. The incident revealed the state of our media and will go on to affect fishermen who earn their livelihood from those waters.

The growing dissidence against the leadership of the Trinamool Congress visible in the recent weeks, indicates the deep turmoil in the party over the progress of the CBI investigations into the Saradha chit fund scam involving senior leaders of the party. Trinamool supremo and the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s firm grip over the party has loosened and her setting up of a disciplinary committee to decide action against the erring members, has not had any positive impact so far.

If the contents of Jayanti Natarajan’s letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her subsequent media statements are to be believed, it is amply clear that the union environment and forest ministry was proxy-run by a very powerful nexus, involving some of the top Congress functionaries, businessmen and, even, some external entities that successfully blocked project clearance worth Rs 10 trillion during the second term of the UPA government. Jayanti Natarajan was not the only one responsible for holding back the mega core and infrastructure projects. Her predecessor, Jairam Ramesh, believed to be close to the Gandhi family as well as a very powerful business house with a long Congress link , too contributed to the block-up of some of those mega projects, first as the environment minister and then as rural development minister. Both Natarajan and Ramesh were great Gandhi family loyalists. Ramesh steered the 2013 Land Acquisition Act that made industrial acquisition of rural land even for mining and infrastructure projects really difficult, forcing the present government promulgate an ordinance to get development projects unlocked from the legal hurdle.

Before Kiran Bedi came to the scene, Arvind Kejriwal was way ahead in the chief ministerial race in the coming elections to the Delhi assembly. Sponsoring of Bedi as its CM candidate may not make the BJP a clear winner, but will certainly bring the saffron party on equal footing with the Aam Admi Party. Despite the close finish expected, pre-poll surveys predict, that AAP’s share is going up by nine percentage points from 29.4 in the 2013 assembly elections. While the surveys give 31-36 seats to both BJP and AAP, 43 per cent want Kejriwal to be Delhi CM, followed by Kiran Bedi (39 per cent). The Congress seems to get between seven and ten seats.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The beleaguered United Democratic Front (UDF) Government sank further into the mire with fresh revelations in the bar bribery scam in which Bar Owners Association (BOA) president, Raj Kumar Unni claims that they have bribed four Congress ministers, besides Finance Minister and Kerala Congress(M) president, K. M. Mani.

British novelist and journalist James Meek, in his recent commentary termed the victory of radical left alliance Syriza in the general elections in greece as a “hopeful moment for Europe”. While it is easy for a populist movement to mobilize people’s anger against the austerity programme, there is no denying that the Syriza leadership showed the very way of making use of popular distrust in a short span of time against the unholy alliance of corrupt bankers, international financial institutions and the discredited political establishment.

West Bengal may find it necessary to redefine its land acquisition policy to upgrade its road and highways network, a major component of rebuilding its inadequate infrastructure.