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When a faithful retainer is asked to assess his masters, he has no option but to play safe. Moreover, his servile instincts make him blind to any flaws. The result is that he is unable to give an honest opinion. Instead, he tiptoes around a glaring defect and concentrates on the non-essentials.

This is the centenary year of Indian participation in the First World War. 100 years ago, over a million Indian soldiers set out overseas to defend the British Empire with the hope that after the end of the war their country will get self-rule under Dominion status. But despite the death of thousands of Indian soldiers and several being injured, the British colonial rulers regrettably failed to live up to their assurances.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is a classic case of confrontation between an idealist and the proponents of the so-called pragmatic politics.

A landmark achievement of the first budget session of the Narendra Modi government was passage of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill and related Constitution Amendment Bill to support it. A rare unanimity was seen in approval of the measure as the opposition, mainly the Congress, sided with the government in ensuring that NJAC bill was carried through. But for the Congress support, the government would have found it difficult to push the judges appointment bill which had been debated for 24 odd years. Government had, however, to concede to the Congress demand for sending the Insurance Bill to a Select Committee. The bill seeks to raise the ceiling on foreign direct investment in the sector to 49 per cent from the existing 26 per cent.

Diving into the fathomless depth of an ocean in search of a black box is important to ascertain the truth behind an air crash and is perfectly justified, but advancing the same logic to go round the world and dig into an uncertain depth of hostile legal marsh to unearth black money hordes by individuals and corporates would appear to be rather impractical. The latter proved to be a totally futile exercise in the case of the government’s bid to recover some Rs. 64 crore Bofors kickback, allegedly received by Indian politicians and army generals in 1987 against a purchase of field guns from the Swedish manufacturer, after a 25-year chase by the CBI, ED, ACB and other enforcement agencies and spending about Rs. 250 crore of tax-payers money in the process. For all practical purposes, the case is closed. The alleged kingpin, Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman, reportedly close to the family of the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, died in Milan, last year. The case allowed Indian official investigators and legal personnel travel through a good part of Europe, South East Asia and South America at the government expense to return empty handed or, maybe, with some small gifts for friends and family members at home.

August 9 this year marked the end of Vajpayee-Advani era and the beginning of a generational change in the BJP. The two had dominated the party for decades seeing highs and lows. The Modi-Amit Shah duo is in complete control after the party’s National council endorsed Amit Shah’s appointment as the BJP President. Shah, at 49 is the youngest of the BJP chiefs and has emerged from backroom boy to a front ranking leader. Modi is now in complete control of both the party and the government as Amit Shah is his chosen general. The Modi- Shah relationship goes as far back as 1985 when Modi first met him at an RSS camp and took a liking for him.

For once, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sounded convincing as she addressed a public meeting in a district she was visiting the other day.

BHOPAL: The four day conclave of RSS leaders in Bhopal last week was significant from many respects. The media was not allowed in the meeting and the senior leaders were told not to talk to press anything about the discussions so that the participants could present their views and also their differences with the approach of the Modi Government. However, this time RSS had to organize a press conference addressed by Mohan Vaidya since lot of speculative stories came in the newspapers and the RSS leadership was a bit rattled at that.

Former foreign minister Natwar Singh is no ordinary diplomat-turned-politician. A part of the Indian Establishment for half-a-century, he is well educated, widely travelled, a witness to or participant in major events, and capable of serious reflection. So when he published his memoir One Life is Not Enough, readers had reasons to expect much more from him than from the recent book on Dr Manmohan Singh by his former media adviser, Sanjaya Baru.

LUCKNOW: Should Uttar Pradesh also have Bihar type alliance of non-BJP parties to take on BJP in the forthcoming by-elections for 12 assembly and one Lok Sabha seats in few months time?