Soon after former President of France Francois Hollande broke his silence over the Rafale deal, leaders of both India and France have been deeply embarrassed. Hollande’s statement has been such a blow to Indian government which had maintained that France decided all the terms and conditions of this deal. Modi government had recently said French company Dassault Aviation had chosen Anil Ambani’s company as their Indian partner and India had no role in this deal. In an interview, Hollande said Ambani’s company was suggested as partner by Indian government and they had no role in choosing an interlocutor. Even after this, the Indian government is attempting to say it is innocent in the matter, claiming there is no need to conduct any investigation in this regard.

The reason behind India remembering Nehru often is that the first PM of our country laid down a strong foreign policy for the nation. He took the mid path when two most powerful nations tried to drag an independent India, in their stride. 

It is imperative that we remember the sacrifices our soldiers made, even as we hail the accomplishments of modern day India. If the nation has been able to stand shoulder to shoulder with many other strong countries post-independence, the main reason for this is the most noble form of sacrifice made by our soldiers. One of the most significant achievements of modern India is that its army has never interfered with democracy. Both segments have maintained a good distance between each other.

The merging of banks is in news in the recent days. The government is calling it a reform of banking sector. This could be one of the many blunders that the government could be making in order to cover up for the many blunders to bail out the banks that have suffered many setbacks with economic burden of bad loans. Demonetisation was another massive blooper that way and the country is still paying for that mistake.

The prices of petrol and diesel are increasing since the last month and half. Rupee value has hit the rock bottom. As a result of these two incidences, prices of essential items have been skyrocketing. Congress and left parties staged a nationwide bandh against this. Finance minister Arun Jaitley does not have a straight answer for this uncontrolled hike in fuel prices. He speaks about economy, GDP and fiscal health of the country as a response to questions on this issue. He says the country is in a good space as far as economy is concerned and gives out data on that topic.

There have been many contradictions in Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s decisions and opinions. She speaks much vocally against the violence on animals. But then she maintains silence on issues pertaining to violence against people. She bats for animal rights, but is very irritated with human rights activists. In her ecological world, the poor or the labourer or the farmer finds no mention.

Various sections of media are covering PM Modi’s swachata or cleanliness programmes with great aplomb. On the other hand, the government is spending crores together on setting up gaushalas for cows. And at this time, two reports have been published that could mock the schemes listed above. One being, five people have died after getting into the sewer manhole in Chhattisgarh. Another news is that a there are no schools in 13,511 villages in the country. And Uttar Pradesh stands on top of the list of states without schools in the country. This information kind of mocks the whole interest Yogi Adityanath is showing in setting up cow shelters since the time he took over as CM.

The current congress is a fine example of attempts for early harvest without even giving the crop time to grow. The govt is a coalition of JD(S) and Congress. It came into existence under duress and as a result of anxiety that BJP and JD(S) may come together to claim their right over forming the govt. All this hurried coming together is showing its impact now. There were two main reasons for this hurried coming together. One was to keep BJP away from the seat of power. Second was to keep former CM Siddaramaiah away from the power centres of Congress. The latter reason was a lot more important to leaders within the congress since the party had become synonymous with his identity. The preparation for this had started even before the elections were announced. The failure of Siddaramaiah was more of a result of Congress conspiracy than the attempts made by leaders within the BJP.