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Concealing COVID-19 deaths is anti-people. It saves the exchequer some money that would have been otherwise given as compensation, and the government saves itself from the burden of fixing accountability for the deaths which may necessitate the guilty to put into jails. The greatest beneficiary of this are the rulers, since it veils their failures giving room for them to boastfully air false claims of their good governance which in turn boosts their political prospects.

It has been a hop from crisis to crisis, each more disruptive and destructive than the other. The pain and sufferings endured by people to change their demonetised notes in the wake of Modi’s midnight demonetisation were unprecedented. Another midnight move, the introduction of half-baked GST regime took the steam out of the economy as the disruption forced a large number of small and medium units to cease business.

Middle Eastern states see their ability narrow to walk a fine line in the Ukraine conflict. Israel is a case in point as tensions with Iran in Syria and Palestinians in Jerusalem flare, and both Russia and the United States signal impatience with its attempts to straddle the fence.

From a boy who ran away from home to become Hindustani classical music’s gold standard, Pt Bhimsen Joshi, who would have turned 100 this year, had he been living, had an extraordinary journey. Sometime in the early1960s, at a music concert in Calcutta’s Dixon Lane, in Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh’s living room, a bright and upcoming musician, Bhimsen Joshi, then in his early 40s, took his audience by surprise with his breath control during Taans, immaculate hold over ragas, and near breath iterations of phrases. All this while his grip remained strong on the distinct imprint of Kirana gharana, known for its impassioned rendering in the higher octaves. And yet, his was a different style, with shades from other gharanas infused as well. It was unheard of until then.

Elon Musk made everyone sit up and take notice of what he is talking about – buying Twitter for $43 billion, all in cash! With a net worth of approximately $225 billion, Musk is the richest person on the planet. The price he is ready to pay in cash for Twitter is enough to pay up 80% of Sri Lanka’s debt and can bring it back to peace, if not prosperity. But Musk is not interested in the 65,000 sq-km islands in the Indian Ocean inhabiting 22 million people. He is interested in a virtual social media platform consisting of about 500 million users.

The main Opposition party in the northeastern state of Assam, the Congress, is going through a crisis. Many party leaders see no hope in the grand old party, which was once the dominant party in the state. They are now looking for greener pastures in other parties. The exit of Ripun Bora, the former state Congress president, from the Congress to join the Trinamool Congress, almost a non-existential player in the state, is just an outcome of the churning going on inside the grand old party.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The most disturbing feature of the latest political killings in Kerala – two murders within 24 hours in Palakkad district – is that the violence seems to be acquiring a communal colour.

It was a setback to the narrow-minded right-wing, and victory for the liberal left, to the opposition parties, and to the anti-Modi of whom there are legions. But when the Supreme Court’s order took its own time reaching the respondents in this age of instant information, it turned out to be the defeat of the highest court, the Supreme Court of India!

Noida: Noida’s Amardeep Malik and Gurugram’s Manu Gandas shot identical seven-under 65 to emerge joint leaders after round one of the Delhi-NCR Open at the Noida Golf Course on Tuesday.

The observation by Russian communists that Ukraine is now the scene of a proxy war between Russia and Nato is accurate — though the idea that this somehow justifies Russia’s invasion of its neighbour does not follow.