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LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh is set to witness intense battle between ruling Samajwadi Party and the BJP in the forthcoming by-elections for 12 seats including one Lok Sabha on September 13. BSP and Congress are considered to be spoilers as they are not in the picture.

How does Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lofty slogan Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikaas (inclusion and development for all) square up with India’s social-political reality as vulnerable groups such as the religious minorities experience it? The honest answer is that these groups had the most to fear from a Bharatiya Janata Party election victory, and some of their fears are coming true. The BJP’s leaders, Mr Modi included, have done very little to allay them although it’s their duty to do so.

It has been quite some time now that the RSS chief hasn’t dwelt on his favourite theme of India as a Hindu nation. Nor has any minister in Goa called for a ban on the wearing of bikinis on beaches. Has their enthusiasm for provoking controversies dimmed or have they been told to pipe down by the powers that be ?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three legal setbacks within the space of two weeks and a stinging snub from the Congress High Command would have proved too much for any other Congress Chief Minister. But not for Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who heads a coalition government that has lurched from crisis to crisis during its more than three-year-old tenure. Obviously, he is made of sterner stuff, and clings to power like a limpet, fumes the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP, borrowing an expression from the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi himself!

KOLKATA: The Nagas of Manipur are at it again. Following a clash of the Nagas with the Manipur police at a village in the Naga-dominated Ukhrul district, in which two Nagas were killed and several injured, the United Naga Council (UNC) an umbrella organization of different Naga bodies of Manipur, started an indefinite economic blockade from September 4.

Several initiatives have been taken to increase the number of jails and barracks in India to reduce overcrowding. The Union Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs had launched a Non-Plan Scheme of Modernisations of Prisons at a total outlay of Rs.1800 crore on a cost-sharing basis in the ratio of 75:25 between the Central Government and State Governments respectively.

Civil nuclear energy deal is one that matters to an energy starved country like India. Though a deal of this nature could not be signed during the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardass Modi to Japan, a similar pact was waiting to be signed in the country on his return. An agreement for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear deal was signed during the visit of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Pakistan is haunted by a hydra-headed monster whose aim is to exterminate the process of democratic evolution and renewal in the country. The outer manifestation is the occupation-Wall-Street-style agitation by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), led by the former Pakistan team cricket captain and Lothario-turned conservative politician Imran Khan and a Canadian-Pakistani activist Sufi cleric Tahir ul-Qadri led Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) demanding resignation of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

What signal does appointment of the Chief Justice of India as Governor send? It is an unprecedented move as never before a CJI, after retirement, was chosen for a gubernatorial post. Appointment of justice Sathasivam, who retired four months back as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as the Governor of Kerala, has evoked sharp criticism in judicial as well as political circles. Most revealing criticism has come from eminent jurist, Fali Nariman. He says: “I do not appreciate or approve of the idea of a former CJI, or a judge of the Supreme Court, accepting sinecure appointment, like that of a Governor”.

Coal mining issues are getting murkier increasingly in the country. Like the previous Congress led-government, the incumbent NDA too seems groping into holed-up challenges and cannot find much light beyond the tunnel. The opportunity is unique this time in the NDA government as the main party BJP is now armed with the single largest mandate, enough to institute its bold decisions, albeit through a consensus for the sake of the country’s unchallenged efforts towards energy security.