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THIRUVANTHAPURAM: Deft handling by the Left Democratic front (LDF) Government of Kerala has prevented a sensitive issue from snowballing into a major controversy. The Government did this by deferring a decision on whether the Government should leave appointments in State-funded educational institutions to the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC). In the process, the Government has outsmarted the Opposition which would otherwise have cottoned on to the issue to put the Government on the mat.

Twists in Bihar politics has now become perceivable with re-emergence of caste based clamoring among leaders of both national and regional political parties. The complexities and contrasts in the three decades of politics, beginning around 1889 with the well known Mandal vs Kamandal issue, now seems set to undergo a new churning.

A two-day international river conference was organized in Guwahati, Assam, on May 27-28 by a Shillong-based think tank Asian Confluence. It was the third edition of the Natural Allies in Development and Interdependence (NADI) conference. Organized in partnership with the Union External Affairs Ministry, Act East Policy Affairs Department of the Assam government, North Eastern Council, and other partners, the annual event was an attempt to deliberate and develop a “collective vision of cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and the Southeast Asian region.”

Assembly of around 5 thousand clerics, Imams and Islamic scholars from all over the country in Deoband of Uttar Pradesh to deliberate on issues related to demolition of mosques and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) during a two-day session organised by Ulema-i-Hind on May 28, was shocked to see with tears rolling down the eyes chief of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Maulana Mehmood Madani lamenting that the Modi government was treating the Muslims with disdain and has turned blind eye to the hardships Muslims were facing in the country during his regime.

These days spanning a month are an essay of our times. That said, it took less than 75 years for India to start unravelling. Some will set the date closer by decades; like eight years to date—from May 26, 2014 on, from the time the BJP won a majority in the Lok Sabha and installed a government under Narendra Modi, till then undisputed king of Gujarat, now unrivalled leader of the world’s largest democracy.

Narendra Modi government’s calling off disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and the statement issued in relating to it thereafter is indicative of a disturbing undercurrent in the Indian Economy that should be a matter of great concern since what we are seeing might be only the tip of an iceberg because it is the third strategic disinvestment proposal to be called off in the current fiscal.

China’s fast growing strategic and economic ties with Russia are becoming a major concern for India. Facing the heat of increasing Western financial sanctions on the country apart from large supplies of military and monetary aid from the US-led NATO countries to Ukraine, Russia is fast getting closer to China, the world’s second largest economy and a major defence power. The China-Russia joint military drill, first since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, sending bombers near Japan at a time when the heads of the US, Japan, India and Australia together were busy holding the Tokyo summit of QUAD (quadrilateral security dialogue) served a clear warning by the two military powers to the QUAD participants without hiding their intentions. The joint China-Russia military exercise, showing off Russian TU-95 strategic bombers along with China’s Xian H-6 jets, lasted 13 hours. Russia needs China to thwart NATO’s expansion to the east. China needs military superpower Russia to support its hegemonistic expansion in the Asia-Pacific region and strategic containment of India, which is billed to be the world’s second largest economy overtaking the US by 2050.

Admitting that it has lost total connect with the people of India that led to party’s repeated humiliating electoral drubbing, the Congress has resolved to bring changes in the 30-year old neo-liberal economic policy of the country that the party had initiated in 1991 finding it as only way out to regain faith among down-trodden and marginalized section of the country.

The Government, worried about the inflation rapidly inching up month after month, has finally become pro-active. The steps announced are designed to lower the prices of basics like diesel, steel, cement and plastics. Wholesale Price Index (‘WPI’) has risen at more than ten per cent for more than a year, and in April 2022, it was at 15.08 per cent – a level not seen in more than a decade. Consumer Price Index (‘CPI’) has risen 7.8 per cent, well above the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’)’s target of four per cent plus minus two per cent for the fourth consecutive month.

Actually, it shouldn’t have been breaking news. The clean chit to Aryan Khan was on expected lines. Nothing on earth could have overturned the outcome. The only two questions remaining were ‘Who in his sound mind chose to slam-dunk Aryan Khan s/o Shahrukh Khan with a narcotics charge?