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BJP IN BAD SHAPE IN WEST BENGAL

MAMATA WOOING CONGRESS AGAIN

By Ashis Biswas

For the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal, the theme song could well be akla chalo re: Ironically, as the weakest opposition party in West Bengal, the BJP alone is not contemplating any alliance, with only a few months left before the 2016 Assembly polls.

Among other parties, the usually derided, much weakened Congress has emerged as the prime choice as an alliance partner both for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the CPI(M). Interestingly, the Left camp remains divided over the question of political alignments. For instance, the CPI a firm ally of the Congress during the seventies, has put its foot down to any linkage with it, as have smaller parties like the SUCI or the CPI(M-L). The CPI’s logic: it points to its own remarkable decline over the years, which it sees as a consequence of its earlier reliance on

PRIME MINISTER MODI’S MAIDEN KERALA VISIT A MAHA FLOP

SNDP BOSS’S LOSS IS CHIEF MINISTER CHANDY’S GAIN

By P. Sreekumaran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no mistaking it. Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to Kerala as the Prime Minister was a damp squib though the State BJP unit would have us believe that it was a roaring success.

Despite the strenuous efforts of the BJP to put a positive spin on the controversy-marred Modi visit, the stark reality is that it has defeated the very purpose for which Modi undertook the much-hyped visit.

The main purpose of the Modi mission was to unveil at Kollam the statue of former Congress Chief Minister R Shankar with the avowed objective of appropriating the legacy of Shankar like the way the BJP tried to hijack Sardar Vallabbhai Patel.  However the effort came a cropper in a most resounding manner. The most visible sign of the failure of the visit was the snu

Zuma protests: Indian family in the eye of storm

As South Africans endure their deepest economic crisis since 2009, it’s not just President Jacob Zuma they blame. There’s a family whose name is increasingly the target of protest: the Guptas. As tens of thousands marched in October in South Africa’s biggest wave of nationwide anti-government protests since the African National Congress came to power, one poster, broadcast on the nation’s television channels, captured the public anger: […]

India, Pakistan delegates share experiences in Dubai dialogue

|By Arabian Post Staff| A dialogue of legislators and officials of India and Pakistan held in Dubai last week underscored the urgent need to improve conditions allowing for free dialogue and sharing of good practices among citizens of both countries. The Dubai event was the second in a series devoted to sharing of experiences on governance, democracy and the fight against corruption. Participants from both sides expressed […]

INDIA JAPAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION BEST FOR BOTH NATIONS

STRATEGICALLY TWO COUNTRIES NEED TO BE CLOSER

By Nantoo Banerjee

Trust is the key. Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe seems to have finally recognized that India could be fully trusted with technology transfer and large fund investments. It may have taken almost a quarter of a century since Osamo Suzuki chose India for small car production in equity collaboration with the government-owned Maruti Udyog for Japan to finally trust India to engage itself with the country for civil nuclear cooperation. But, Japan today is convinced that slow-and-steady-moving democratic India is probably the most trusted country for economic and technology cooperation outside the USA. The huge $12-billion Japanese long term soft credit commitment for a single project in India – the 550 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train service – along with proposal of technology transfer in defence production among 14 other ec

BJP, CONGRESS STANDOFF UNDEMOCRATIC

POLITICS HOLDS PARLIAMENT TO RANSOM

By Kalyani Shankar

After a cordial meeting between the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, it was expected that the Winter Session of Parliament might run smoothly and the reform bills might go through. Modi began with a conciliatory note not only in his speeches in Parliament but also made a rare gesture of inviting the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for tea to break the ice. The Congress too climbed down and showed signs of supporting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, which the Modi government desperately wants to push through this session. A week later, the Congress leaders are now talking of a “touch and go” scenario even though the government has responded positively to the Congress demands.

So what has happened to change this scena

BJP MAY BE SURELY AFTER POLITICAL RIVALS

BUT, CONGRESS CHIEF MUST EXPLAIN LAND GRAB CHARGES

By Nantoo Banerjee

One would expect a late Indira Gandhi’s daughter in law to show greater respect to her mother in law by respecting the democratic system and to judicial summons instead of loudly protesting against them in Parliament to stop its normal function. The massive land grab charges against the president and the vice-president of the party pending before the court need to be fought there legally and not in Parliament. Indira Gandhi fought her election perjury case in the Allahabad high court, which she lost in the end, instead of trying to stall Parliament proceedings using her party representatives. The Delhi high court has found substance in the massive land grab allegation against the Congress president, her son and associates. They were directed to appear before the trial court. Like good citizens, they should have

FTC Gets New Tech Chief in 2016

Growing concern over privacy has prompted the Federal Trade Commission to turn to academia for its new chief technologist. The commission announced this week that it has appointed Carnegie Mellon University professor Lorrie Cranor to assume that post effective in January. She will replace Ashkan Soltani, who has served as chief technologist since November 2014. Soltani was a privacy practitioner who worked with The Washington Post to […]

Review: Samsung's Gear VR Shows the Promise of VR

Samsung [made] history of a sort by launching the first major consumer-oriented virtual-reality headset. (It comes with an asterisk; prototypes and other not-quite-mass-market versions have been available for a while.) And its Gear VR headset is pretty impressive as first-generation devices go. The biggest surprise after using the new Gear VR for a few days: There’s a lot of stuff to watch and play in the virtual […]

Premonitions of a global financial crash

|By Matein Khalid| I was in a pensive-philosophic mood last week as I decompressed from a trip to a hauntingly beautiful post Soviet country in the Caucasus, the land that produced Koba from Gori and Prince Pyotr Bagration, the fallen hero of Tsar Alexander’s imperial guard at Borodino. Yet Georgia gave me time and perspective to think about the financial firestorms on Wall Street, Marounuchi, the Gulf […]

Russia Strikes in ISIS Territory in Syria but Ignores Western Demands

MOSCOW — Russia widened its bombings in Syria on Friday, striking Islamic State territory for the first time, but showed no hint of heeding Western demands to avoid attacks on fighters pushing to oust Syria’s weakened, Kremlin-backed president. The Defense Ministry said its warplanes had bombed seven targets in overnight raids including a command post and training camp near Raqqa, the northeast Syrian city that the Islamic […]

At the U.N., Obama States His Case for Fighting ISIS With Ideas

UNITED NATIONS — President Obama called upon a conclave of world leaders on Tuesday to fight violent extremism with not only weapons, but also ideas, jobs and good governance, a strategy he has long advocated. There are few signs that it is succeeding. Military pressure, Mr. Obama said at a United Nations summit meeting, will be insufficient to vanquish groups like the Islamic State, also known as […]

The Gulf: Not all that's gold glitters

INTERNATIONAL. Gleaming glass skyscrapers, state-of-the-art technology, and wealthy merchant families have replaced the Gulf’s muddy towns and villages populated by traders and pearl fishers that once lacked electricity, running water or modern communications. The region’s modern day projection of a visionary cutting- edge, 21st  century urban environment masks however the fact that some things have not changed. Gulf states continue to be ruled by the same families, […]

Senate Democrats Clear Way for Iran Nuclear Deal

President Obama at a meeting to discuss the Iran nuclear accord at the White House on Thursday. By JENNIFER STEINHAUER September 10, 2015 WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats delivered a major victory to President Obama on Thursday when they blocked a Republican resolution to reject a six-nation nuclear accord with Iran, ensuring that the landmark deal will take effect without a veto showdown between Congress and the White House. A […]

Hillary Clinton Backs Iran Nuclear Deal, With Caveats

Video The Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton backed the Iran deal in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Wednesday. By DAVID E. SANGER and AMY CHOZICK September 9, 2015 WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday embraced the Iran nuclear deal that she paved the way for as secretary of state, but said it would work only “as part of a larger strategy toward Iran” that contained the […]

Republican Revolt Stalls House Debate on Iran Nuclear Deal

Middle East By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN September 9, 2015 WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders on Wednesday postponed debate on President Obama’s landmark nuclear accord with Iran amid a revolt by some Republicans who claimed the White House had not disclosed secret side agreements on the deal. The delay of the historic debate because of Republican infighting opened a new twist in the White House’s effort to move forward with the […]

3 More Senators Back Iran Deal, Giving White House Added Cushion

WASHINGTON — Three Democratic senators announced on Tuesday that they would back President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, bringing to 41 the total number of Senate supporters as critics in Congress prepared to open a historic debate on the accord. With the support of the three senators — Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Gary Peters of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon — the White House gained additional […]

Dick Cheney Denounces Nuclear Deal With Iran as ‘Madness’

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday rallied Republican opposition to President Obama’s agreement with Iran, denouncing it as a “shameful deal” that would risk a new Holocaust and possibly lead to the first nuclear attack since Nagasaki. In a full-throated speech to supporters at the American Enterprise Institute here, Mr. Cheney argued that Mr. Obama and his team had abandoned their own criteria for […]

Film Examines Israel’s Political Climate at Time of Yitzhak Rabin’s Assassination

JERUSALEM — In one scene, a group of Jews wrapped in prayer shawls begin reciting a mystical death curse known as the Pulsa Dinura. A man in a suit who has urged them to invoke the angels of destruction promises that their prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, “will be dead within a month.” In another scene, an actor plays an Israeli amateur photographer who captured the assassination of […]

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Head of D.N.C., Backs Iran Nuclear Deal

WASHINGTON — Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, announced on Sunday that she will support the nuclear agreement with Iran that has roiled many in her Florida district. “I’ll be casting my vote to support the deal and if necessary sustain the president’s veto,” she told Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on CNN. While she called it a “gut wrenching” […]

Obama and Saudi King Sidestep Dispute Over Iran Nuclear Deal

Middle East Video The president and King Salman of Saudi Arabia met at the White House to discuss topics including the Iran nuclear deal and the conflict in Syria. By PETER BAKER September 4, 2015 WASHINGTON — President Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia met at the White House on Friday in hopes of moving past their differences four months after the king refused the president’s invitation to […]

Iranian State Media Reports Arrest of Reformist Politician

Middle East By THOMAS ERDBRINK August 31, 2015 TEHRAN — Iranian security forces arrested a prominent reformist politician on Monday, hours after he held a news conference thanking President Hassan Rouhani for a more open political atmosphere, several Iranian news agencies reported. The arrest of the politician, Ali Shakorirad, put a damper on the hopes of Iran’s reformists. Just last week they launched the Islamic Iranian National Union Party, […]

The Saturday Profile: U.S. Citizen, Once Held in Egypt’s Crackdown, Becomes Voice for Inmates

The Saturday Profile By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK CAIRO — Mohamed Soltan knew he had one thing going for him when the Egyptian police came to his door: He was a United States citizen, raised primarily in Ohio. It did not mean much in the moment. The police had come looking for his father, Salah Soltan, an outspoken member of the Muslim Brotherhood. But when they found only […]

NO LET-UP IN GOVT-ELECTION COMMISSION CONFRONTATION

UDF AGAIN CAVES IN TO IUML PRESSURE TACTICS   By P. Sreekumaran   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government again…