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At long last, arch rivals till the other day—Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar—have come together. It was a political necessity and both, though belatedly, understood this. For Lalu to project Nitish Kumar as the JD(U), RJD and Congress alliance’s Chief Ministerial candidate, was not an easy decision and, as he puts it; “It is as good as drinking ‘vish’ (poison).” Politically shrewd, as he is, Lalu was quick to recognize writing on the wall. With the Congress, having opted for Nitish, Lalu could be isolated and this might split his Muslim-Yadav base, which enabled him to retain 21 per cent vote share even last year. And, he would run the risk of some Yadav votes gravitating to BJP, as they did last year, if they sensed power eluding them, while Muslms would get divided in a three-way fight.

Why is Pakistan seeing red over India’s anti-terrorist offensive in Myanmar? In fact, Pakistan, which always washes its hands off frequent strikes on India by terrorist groups groomed inside Pakistan and patronized by its military, should be happy that India is finally ready to strike back to weed out terrorism from the sub-continent on its own terms. India’s success in this onerous task will, in many ways, benefit Pakistan where home-grown terrorism with international link is killing more innocent Pakistanis along not only areas bordering Afghanistan and Iran, but also in its major cities such as Karachi and Lahore. The terrorist hub in Pakistan will be considerably weakened if Pakistan partners India to flush out terror groups from its soil.

India, which had a global share of 2.4 per cent in trade at the time of independence dropped to a mere 0.7 per cent in 1991 because of inward looking policy of self-reliance and exporting only the surplus. The balance of payment crisis in 1991 rightly brought about a change in India’s economic philosophy. This change resulted in opening up the economy and a new foreign trade policy that resulted in India’s two way trade in both merchandise and services reach nearly $ one trillion annually from a mere $70-80 billion in 1991.

The G-7 summit in the first week end of this month gave some respite to the heads of the rich nations to be away in the pleasant weather at the foot of the mountains in Germany, but the discussions that took place gave no indication that the global financial system and the climate would be a bit better in the coming period following the decisions taken at the conclave. The seven leaders, especially the US President Barack Obama and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel went all out to condemn the Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine issue and went for more sanctions but ironically, the venue of the summit witnessed massive demonstrations against G-7 and even many of the demonstrators gave slogans against sanctions against Russia on Ukraine.

It is often said that there are no permanent enemies or permanent friends in politics. Political leaders have often proved it. Look at what happened last week when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee showed off their newfound bonhomie in a foreign soil- Bangladesh. It was common knowledge that their chemistry was not good till recently.

BHOPAL: There is no end to scams in Madhya Pradesh. After VYAPAM scam yet another scam has been exposed. This scam is known as DMAT. DMAT means Dental Medical Admission Test. This test is held to decide admissions in private Medical Colleges. It is alleged that the tests were manipulated to give admissions to sons and daughters of influential people including present and former ministers, MPs, MLAs and senior officials. Disclosure to this effect was made by Yogesh Uprit, former Director of Professional Examination Board.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Is the UDF Government trying to scuttle the vigilance probe into the bar bribery allegations despite the Kerala High Court’s orders not to do so?

The met office has brought some great news for corporate ground water guzzlers for whom summer is big business. Big summer means even bigger business. Scores of water plants set up across the country by companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsico and Parle are working in shifts to pump out as much ground water as possible to meet growing demands for their products and brands – from bottled water to fizzy drinks. Beer manufacturers are not far too behind. Some of the manufacturers have found the current drought-like situation a great opportunity to sharply raise the prices of their products. For instance, Coca-Cola, the largest beverage company, has raised the price of 20-litre Kinley water jar for domestic consumption by almost 20 per cent. Millions of gallons of ground water are being ruthlessly pumped out by the beverage industry to convert them into hard cash. Few are concerned if this further dries up land surface. The Tamil Nadu government has already stopped permission to start a giant water plant by a multinational beverage firm.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh is in for communal tensions in the coming days with VHP and Hindu fundamentalists in BJP raising the issue of construction of Ram temple. On the other, All India Muslims Personal Law Board is bent on opposing education of yoga in government schools.

India and Bangladesh signed twenty-two bilateral agreements during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day trip to Dhaka last week. Strategically the most important of these is the agreement that will permit Indian ships to use the Chittagong and Mongla sea ports. From China’s point of view, the Chittagong port is an important ‘pearl’ in its ‘string of pearls` with which it seeks to encircle India. For precisely the same reason, the Chittagong port is of immense strategic importance to India, apart from its commercial value for the Indian cargo ships.