Spurt in attack on scribes

The increasing murderous attack on scribes in different states of the country is a serious cause of concern. In recent days, the killing of two scribes-one in Uttar Pradesh and the other in Madhya Pradesh- have unsettled the common people. The way one social media journalist in UP was allegedly beaten first and then burnt to death by the police at the behest of a minister in UP is most shocking and an attempt to throttle the voice of the people. Though UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has assured the slain journalist's family members of giving Rs. 30 lakh and govt. job to the two of his sons and bringing all the accomplices to book, it means that the govt. thinks that the cost of a life is this much. No family member of any deceased would accept the govt. assistance heartily for the loss of life of its head and bread earner. The second incident of killing the journalist allegedly by mining and sand mafia is of MP. The freelance journalist was burnt alive because he had brought the illegal business and underhand dealing of mining and sand mafias to bright. The nexus of politician, mafia and the police is behind every murder wherever takes place in country. Because what they wanted to keep in concealment, the journalists bring it in full public view and force the govt. to act. According to a report, there have been more than 150 killing of media persons in the last two years. If this report is even true partially, it indicates of a deep nexus of politician-mafia-criminal- police, which has taken strong root in our society. Journalists are the voices of the people and they also serve the society as its watch dogs. They bring any sort of injustice done by any of govt. agencies to light. Journalists are considered to be the protectors of the common people’s rights in society. Wherever the govt. infringes on the right of the people, it is only the journalists who raise the voice against it. Though Narendra Modi -le NDA government talk tall on every issue, it must look into the increasing attack on scribes' lives. It is almost fifteen days since the news of the killing of the journalist appeared in news papers and the family members of the deceased journalist leveled allegation against CM Akhilesh Yadav's minister and local police, no action has been taken yet. Minister is at large without any fear of law. As far as the criminality and acts of murder of mining and sand mafia in Madhya Pradesh is concerned, there has been a flourishing business. The murder of anyone whether it is the common people, journalists , honest state govt. officials or who ever put hurdles in mining mafias' illegal business and acts, they are killed and the state govt. has always act as mute spectator. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must take the issue of increasing attack on scribes all over the country and direct the officials concerned in different states to take security measures to ensure the protection of their lives.

Team India's weakness exposed

Casual, careless, insincere and inconsistent approach by Team India to the game in One-Day series against Bangladesh on their home ground resulted in its humiliating defeat. Bangladesh defeated India very convincingly. Indian players' false belief in their might that they are superior to Bangladesh has also contributed to their defeat. Bangladesh outplayed Team India in every department of the game. Their, batting, bowling and fielding were superb. In comparison to them, Indian players appeared listless, tired, exhausted and completely unaware how to tackle the onslaught of young and promising Bangladeshi bowler Mustafir Hussain. He presented the superb piece of bowling before which all Indian batsmen starting from the top order to the tail ender appeared nervous and clueless. Team India ultimately surrendered before Bangladesh. Indian players should have also kept in mind while touring Bangladesh that they had defeated Pakistan on their home ground very badly, which reflects their strength. Team India may be burdened with tight schedules all over the year due to which their energy levels have come down to zero. In the face of exuberating, confident, fighting, energetic and aggressive Bangladeshi players, Team India could not do anything to save prestige and reputation. Team India’s experiment with two captains- one for One - Dayer and the other for Test match has also not been fruitful and beneficial. Rather it has created two power centres in the team, which has created ego problem and friction. There are many loopholes in it that requires to be plugged immediately. Over-tight scheduling of the players at home and abroad and their excessive involvement with advertising for different products to earn need to be looked into. Team India should not have taken Bangladesh very lightly and sincerely. The humiliating defeat will also have demoralizing impact on the Indian players. Not even a single player played up to their potential. It will be difficult for Team India to come out of the shocking defeat. BCCI must analysize the defeat of at the all hands of Bangladeshi team thread bare and take necessary measures to the recurrence of this type of humiliating defeat at the hands of the team, which was considered underdog.

No excuse to help economic offender is tenable

Union Minister Sushma Swaraj may put forward humanitarian ground for help money laundering and forex violation accused former IPL boss and Cricket tycoon Lalit Modi acquire travel documents in UK, but it is completely untenable. The question arises here is that was she un-ware of his absconding from the law? Lalit Modi is a serious economic offender so he should be treated as such. Any help to him by the person who occupies constitutional post must be treated as his accomplice. She must resign pending investigation to uphold probity in public life. It is also appears that Sushma helped Lalit Modi and in return he also obliged by getting her relative admitted in Sussex Law college in Britain and engaged her daughter in his legal team in India , which is fighting the cancellation of his passport. Her husband has been Modi's advocate for the last 20 years. And all this reflects how close she is to him. It also appears that she had family attachment with him. Here it also clearly appears that she is involved in Quid Pro Quo. Another report that surfaced yesterday says that Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Vasundhra Raje Scindhia had backed his immigration paper under the condition of secrecy in UK in 2011 as witness when she was opposition leader in the state. Lalit Modi is also considered to be very close to the entire BJP establishment. His photo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also appeared on different news channels, which reflect the proximity between the two also. The question here is that where the buck stops. Congress Party allegation holds water that as there is one man rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi govt., it appears odd that his minister would have helped Lalit Modi without taking his consent. So, buck finally stops at PMO is not altogether out of place. The way all BJP ranks and files defended Sushma Swaraj shows that entire establishment sympathetic to Lalit Modi. Now the BJP government and the Prime Minister himself can not run away from the fact they are also treating the corruption charges in the same as the previous UPA govt. did. Though UPA already paid its price of propriety in the last Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi must realize that yardstick of law is the same for Congress and BJP. So his taking moral high ground on the issue of corruption would fall flat if he failed to seek resignation of his External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and BJP CM of Rajasthan any more. The resignation demand of Sushma Swaraj and Raje is getting shriller and shriller. PM should also realize that his moralistic speeches are not meant for only others but also for himself. External Affairs Minister Sushma and Raj CM Vashundhra must listen to their conscience to resign to save Narendra Modi-led NDA govt. from further embarrassment.

JD(U)-RJD-Cong alliance a challenge to BJP

It was the demand on the ground politically to form JD (U)-RJD- Congress alliance to fight BJP-led NDA in the coming Bihar assembly elections. The alliance of the three parties may have been formed out of compulsion and they have not come together by heart, but to give a tough fight to the rising BJP in Bihar. Although Nitish-Lalu-Congress pair has already shown its strength in the by elections for some assembly seats last year in Bihar where it had defeated BJP-led NDA convincingly, they have to repeat their performance in the whole state. It is also the ground reality that no single party JD(U), RJD or Congress can stop the victory chariot of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar assembly elections alone. But when they fight together, they have the strength to defeat BJP. As far as the state leadership is concerned, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of JD(U) is the most popular face in the state. BJP can not match JD(U)-RJD-Congress leadership of Nitish Kumar. So it is most probably going to project PM Modi as its face in assembly elections, though his popularity graph has undoubtedly fallen down after one year in power. It is also the fact that the people on the ground have not felt any change for better on any count in the last one year of Narendra Modi regime. As far as the seat distribution among JD(U)-RJD-Congress is concerned, they can settle it amicably. Congress has played a pivotal role in forming the alliance with Nitish Kumar as its candidate for chief ministership with the sole motive to stop the victory spree of BJP in Bihar after Delhi. RJD boss Lalu was initially opposed to the declaration of CM candidate before election but the Congress mounted pressure on him to toe the line otherwise he would be left alone in the state as it had already announced of no reservation in fighting elections under Nitish Kumar as CM candidate. Lalu read the writing on the wall and agreed to the leadership of Nitish Kumar. Nitish- Lalu-Congress coming together has also taken seriously the caste factor, which is the single most important factor in Bihar elections. Caste-wise both RJD and JD(U) have very strong grip on their vote banks. While JD(U) has votes among Yadavs, Kurmis, OBCs, Mahadalits and others, RJD has very support of Yadavs and Muslims. Though Congress has no strong vote base in the state, it has an important role in tilting the balance. With BJP-led NDA on upswing after the Lok Sabha history victory, the fight with JD(U)-RJD and Congress is going to be very close. Bihar being an important state politically, BJP-led NDA would also put every thing into it to come out victorious in the coming assembly elections. But the performance of JD(U)-RJD-Congress fighting together in assembly by polls last year is anything to go by, Bihar will prove to be a very tough task for PM Modi to record victory in the coming assembly.

APP is sacrosanct

The ruling Aam Admi Party and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are sacrosanct. So, media must not make any commentary on their wrongful action. Kejriwal’s law minister Jitendra Singh Tomar has not submitted his forged law degree because he has given explanation in a letter to him that no wrong has been committed in acquiring the law degree. Now it is final. This is Kejriwal’s quality that whenever any charge is leveled against his minister or government, he makes the guilty his own judge to pronounce judgement. Now it is for the people to believe how much truth is in it. It is nothing but his farce. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal became satisfied with Tomer’s explanation and took no time in blaming media for raising the controversy out of proportion. He says that it reflects that media has taken supari to finish off AAP. If he has his way, the death of farmer Gajendra Singh at APP rally at Jantar Mantar in Delhi also was not because of inciting by his party workers and leaders but of some other causes. If he is to believe, APP leaders were delivering speeches from the dais at that time and they were completely oblivious of what was going on the tree on which the farmer Gajendra had climbed for committing suicide. So he thinks that media must not raise and give coverage widely only because the incident had taken place at APP rally. If media had done his way, it would have been praised by him. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wants media to write only those things which please him. When he along with his party leaders was agitating and getting wide media coverage and he had become its darling, he had all praise for it. But when he came to power and media started to make critical commentary on the functioning of his government, it has become his eye-sore. Delhi CM Kejriwal must know that it is media that made him leader of the stature of what he is today. Media is the fourth-estate. It is not dependent on the government and its prime duty is to become the eye and ear of the people. It is only exposing Delhi AAP government’s malfunctioning before the Delhiites as well as the nation. If ruling AAP continued to function as authoritatively as it is doing, it will finish off itself and media need not take supari to do it. It is Kejriwal desperation that he has charged a large section of media to conspire to finish AAP off. Kejriwal has been of the approach of his way or my way. Whatever he says is correct and whatever is said against him is incorrect. His attitude is like British monarch about whom it is told that king can do no wrong. So according to him, he can do no wrong. Media will continue to make positive commentary on the functioning of the government in Delhi. Whenever the government does well, the media highlights it. What does Kejriwal want media to do? Should it not expose his government to public scrutiny by presenting the facts before them? If media report is wrong about the forged law degree of law minister, why does Kejriwal government not set up an enquiry committee to look into it? Kejriwal’s blame on media for conspiring to finish off APP has born out of his desperation.

Rahul in combative mode

Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi has now become politically combative over the farmers' issue. Back from 59 days of leave for sabbatical, he has swung into action politically and attacked the Modi government on the plight of farmers and its Land Acquisition ordinance, which his party terms as anti-farmer and pro-corporate. The ruling BJP may say that his sympathy for farmers is a mere political ploy, but he has succeeded in infusing confidence and courage in party leaders and workers to rise all over country. Rahul has rightly chosen the issue of farmers and labourers to attack the government to send the message out that Congress party always stood for the poorer section of society. The way he is taking up the issue of farmers and attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cornered the government. He is hitting the government where pinches it most. The main thing for Rahul Gandhi is to be constantly raising the issues of people's concerns before the government so that a message could go out among them that they have also alternative in him. He must not adopt hit and run method, which he has been doing so far. Apart from farmers' issue, there are several others on which the Modi government has been below expectation in terms delivering promises to the people after being in office for 11 months. Disillusion among the people has started developing with the Modi government. It is because that the government has not done anything spectacular that the people could feel. As far as the price rise and employment issue is concerned, it has not shown any improvement on these two vital concerns of the people. Farmers' suicide is going on as usual and it has become bitterer when Haryana minister states that the farmers who commit suicide are cowards. It reflects how lightly the ruling BJP takes up the issue of farmers suicide. Rahul Gandhi has started acting for the party when it needed him most. He has the strength of putting in hard labour that she showed by trekking 20-25 kilometres to Kedarnath to dispel the fear among the people to visit there in the wake of last year's massive damage to lives and property due to unprecedented floods and sliding of hills and cloudburst. He has rightly sarcastically attacked PM for his foreign visits with pomp and show, but he has no time to visit the farmers who are in dire need. PM should also visit them to see personally the loss to farmers by unseasonal rains and hailstorms. By drumming the bringing down from 50 to 33 percent loss of criteria to be eligible for relief can not serve the purpose. He must take account of what is going on the ground. Congress President Rahul Gandhi unleashed a scathing attack on prime minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government in Lok Sabha over the farmers issue prompting the ruling party to make a counter attack that triggered ruckus in the house. Rahul has rightly questioned PM’s 'Make in India' campaign by asking whether the farmers don't 'make in India'.The ruling BJP-led NDA needs to give answers. What is government is doing for them. Farmers are the first example of “Make in India” concept because they feed the entire nation by cultivating the land. Rahul had travelled to grain markets in Punjab's Sirhind, Khanna and Mandi Gobindgarh towns on Tuesday in the second class general compartment of a train to interact with them about the problems they are facing with procurement and lifting of wheat stocks.

Strengthen Indo-Afghan relation

Afghanistan has been our traditional friend and it assumes significance from strategic, security, business, cultural and other points of mutual interest. After the death and destruction of lives, property,important cultural and historic structures of importance by the of outlawed Taliban, India is playing vital role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Maintaining friendship with Afghanistan even in its trying times of Russian intervention and outlawed regime of Taliban, India has always been with it. It never supported Russian intervention in Afghanistan despite enjoying time -tested friendship with it. Afghanistan has also respected India's interest in the region’s geo-politics by not allowing the dominance of Pakistan there even because of being very near to it from the distance point of view . If Pakistan had become able to establish its dominance in Afghanistan, it would naturally pose security risk for India. Once it set its foot, its nursery of terrorism would also start functioning from there with single motto of disintegrating and destabilizing India through sponsorship of terrorism by being behind the scene. Afghanistan never allowed this type of situation to develop. On this front, it never allowed Pakistan any space to inflict harm on India. It is because of Afghanistan's friendly approach towards India all the time that it undertook massive relief and reconstruction task there after the overthrow outlawed regime of Taliban. India is still engaged in the reconstruction of Afghanistan with men and materials on the largest possible scale despite losing lives in terror attacks there. The visiting Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has rightly called for more Indian investment, especially from private sectors. Indians and Afghans are not only friends but also very close with each other from the culture and civilization point of view. Both share each other culturally. That is why President Ghani talked of Tigore and the Kabuliwala brand during his interaction with the media persons in Delhi. It is good that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is the strong exponent of strengthening relationship with all the Saarc members in general but Afghanistan in particular. Afghanistan President has called for more Indian investment in the country. He has rightly said that Afghanistan is pivotal for the growth of Asia. Afghan President spelt out what Afghanisatn would like from India and how India could help in development of the country. India has invested over US$2 billion in infrastructure projects and the social sector in the country in recent years but has stayed away from engaging militarily in the 13-year-long war. This is Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani his first official visit to India.