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No one, except those public insensitive Congress satraps, believed that Congress will fare well in this month’s state elections even in states such as Delhi and Rajasthan where the party had been in power. Even Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit failed to fix it in her own constituency, where she was mauled and swept away by new comer Aam Aadmi party promoter Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘broom’ sticks.

The major victory that Commerce Minister Anand Sharma claimed and celebrated at Bali, after almost single-handedly forcing WTO to compromise on the issue of food security, would undoubtedly cause jubilation for UPA Government, which gets ready for the 2014 battle in a somber mood.

The Congress faces a grim situation following its rout in the four northern states. With its humiliating defeats in Delhi and Rajasthan and the BJP retaining Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, the Congress has been routed in entire north India except tiny Haryana. This has indeed been a convincing three time win for Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh. In Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party stopped the saffron surge, making a stunning debut, winning 28 seats. Ruled uninterrupted by Sheila Dikshit for 15 years, the poll verdict has thrown a hung assembly and Delhi is heading for a spell of centre’s rule and re-elections.

This year’s midnight of December 6/7 will be remembered as an historic day of India’s success in trade diplomacy. Also the world leaders have paid the best tribute to the leader of the anti-apartheid movement and the former South African President Nelson Mandela who passed away on December 6 by reaching an accord at the 9th WTO Ministerial in Bali allowing developing countries to continue with food security programmes for the poor.

India has finally won. It has shown the way how trade diplomacy can work to its final conclusion. After five days of hectic parleys, running beyond the original schedule, the trade negotiators could eventually come out with the historic Bali Package defending the inalienable rights of the developing countries to food security and related public stockholding of food.

New Delhi : Shortly after the two day India-US Homeland Security dialogue, the Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh is slated to visit US on a 4-day trip beginning from Sunday as part of Foreign Office Consultations.

‘Mainstream India’ has typically been those parts of the Union where the Indian Army is not actively deployed at present. Naturally, the contour of this ‘mainstream’ has been changing. Places where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is in action, there are sweeping powers that the Armed Forces have over the life and liberty of people.

Rising Buddhist-Muslim tensions originating in Myanmar are causing political repercussions at the regional level, raising India’s security concerns.

The Awami National Party, the worst-affected political entity due to politics of annihilation by the Talibans in Pakistan in the main, is in a new crisis with the announcement of Begum Nasim Wali Khan, the widow of Pakhtun nationalist leader and one of the founders of the National Awami Party, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, that she will beef up the ANP by sidelining the present top brass comprising her stepson Asfandyar Wali Khan, Azam Khan Hoti and Ameer Haider Hoti and put her grandson Lawangeen Wali Khan at the helm.

Who is worried about the death of thousands of people of all ages in the country’s public and private hospitals, health centres, nursing homes and clinics due to medical negligence, staff cruelty and exploitation? Not our lawmakers, for certain. The government, very often, treats the cases of such deaths as casually as those in road or rail accidents. Even the judiciary’s hands are generally tied in the absence of strong legal deterrent to hand down exemplary punishments to offenders be they health administrators, doctors, surgeons, anesthetists, nurses or government inspectors.