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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Raids by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) against an IAS officer causes no more than a ripple in the normal course hardly hogging the headlines. But, PWD secretary, T O Sooraj against whom the VACB conducted raids the other day is no ordinary bureaucrat. And the action is the staple these days of all the major newspapers and TV channels in the State.

Forty eight hours after meeting Mr. L.K. Advani, and Union Ministers Mr, Arun Jaitley and Mr, Rajnath Singh in Delhi, Trinamool Congress supremo (TMC) Mamata Banerjee declared war against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in Kolkata.

Haryana often makes headlines. The latest is the last week’s Rampal episode. It has brought into focus important issues: activities of the self-styled godmen, babas, sants and their ashrams as also of the deras spread over Punjab and Haryana; the nexus between these ‘holy’ souls and politicians; and, the governance capabilities of the BJP’s Haryana government and the Modi government’s role in the Rampal controversy.

Parliament's winter session, starting on November 24, may prove tougher and more tricky for the Modi Government, not as smooth-sailing as the budget session, with the country still left, without a sense of economic growth pick-up and social developmental directions, beyond the promised 'maximum governance' and a plethora of catchwords for disaggregated 'yojanas'.

The occasion was Jawaharlal Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary. To celebrate the event the Congress leadership had invited a wide range of secular parties and their leaders. Among them were ebullient Mamata Banerjee and her bête noir Left Party leaders. The Left and Trinamool Congress have been life-long adversaries. Also among thnvitees were Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar; they sent their representatives instead of attending the conclave personally. The JDU leader, Sharad Yadav, besides spokesman of the NCP were also present.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An unfortunate upshot of the ongoing bar bribery scam battering the ruling United Democratic Front Government has been the war of words which raged for a while between the CPI and the CPI(M).

War is not all about attack. History has shown that tactical retreat as a war strategy had succeeded in winning more wars by entrapping advancing enemy than the show of blind belligerence by a brigade. Unfortunately, the use of tact is not a very strong point of this last Lok Sabha poll defeated Sonia-Rahul led Congress party. Its leaders are speaking in babel of tongues when they should hold them and judge every side-effect carefully before making their tongue movements in public. The latest outburst by some loose-tongued Congress satraps to publicly badmouthing the rousing rockstar-like reception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by persons of Indian origin (PIO) and Indian immigrants in Australia at Sydney, these leaders have only exposed their pettiness and political jealously putting their party in a very poor light before the general public both at home and abroad. The Congress leaders saw in such receptions – first, in New York, last month, and now in Sydney – nothing positive. Instead, they smelt a PMO spin and money-making venture by the reception organisers. They are obviously out of their senses and totally tactless.

Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooing the Indian Diaspora? While Modi’s critics say that he is building up the brand Modi abroad, Modi is clear that with their support he could build a better image for himself. There are about 100 million Indians living abroad and he obviously feels that their power should be harnessed for the growth of India and for his own image.

While prospects for improving Indo-Bangladesh relations have brightened following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's discussion with his Bangladeshi counterpart Ms Hasina Wazed on pending issues, working out the Teesta river water sharing arrangement may take some time.

If South Asia plans to consolidate and further integrate itself, it needs to learn much from the experiences of South-East Asian countries that are moving towards an ASEAN Economic Community hopefully by 2015. About 80 per cent of the spadework have been done for the process of integration, only 20 per cent of the efforts are needed. The ASEAN group was of course formed much earlier on August 8, 1967, while the South Asian group, SAARC, was formed on December 8, 1985. The European nations after years of efforts finally came together in the form of European Union on November 1, 1993.